She’s dead! So how come they keep publishing books under her name? And don’t give me this crap about a trunkful of unfinished manuscrips. I read Flowers in the Attic et al when I was in junior high. They were suitably creepy and shocking enough, but “her” other books are boring and formulaic. Surely the name isn’t enough reason? Or could such claptrap only be published because her name gives marquee value?
She’s a zombie.
With a typewriter.
It was my understanding that the executors of her estate allowed the publisher to ghostwrite stuff “in the V.C. Andrews style and tradition,” and sell it with her name on it.
Precisely how this is satisfying to her readers or profitable in any way is unclear… but they’ve been doing it since she died.
Doesn’t another family member, (daughter or something) still write the books?
This was big news in publishing circles in the early nineties.
Basically, when she died, her contract with her publisher stipulated that she was to produce X number of books in a given time, and that the books could be ghostwritten if necessary. At her death, in the interest of making back money that they had advanced on unpublished works, her publisher decided that they were “owed” a certain number of V.C Andrews books, and secured a ghostwriter to finish out her contract. Her estate tried to block this, but changed their mind when the ghostwritten books proved to be quite profitable.
It was determined in court that the V.C. Andrews name was a commodity, and it has since effectively become a franchise venture. The whole machine trucks along quite nicely without the old bird – her publishers get paid, her heirs get paid, some nameless hack(s) get paid, and people with very little in the way of discerning literary tastes get a bit of diversion.
Similarly, L. Ron Hubbard is still revising Dianetics every couple of years. 
So it’s like the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy series?
Still, how can anyone read this crap? FITA was eerie enough for a teenaged ivylass, but I got so sick of the doormat, put upon heroines and one-note villians of some of the other books.
Well, I thought kinda the same thing about Dianetics, but it still seems to be popular enough to move in bookstores…
Nope-she had no children, she was never married-she was actually in a wheelchair for most of her life.
The ghostwriter is Andrew Niederman.
The truth about who or what VC Andrews is will probably never be known. The best guess (a good unofficial summary here) is that wrote Flowers in the Attic just before she died in 1979. She left a huge doorstop of a book (rejected for publication in 1973). This was then split up and bacame the next six novels. Then the ghost writer stepped in. He published a bunch of stuff between 1986 and 1990. That was the point at which the family officially announced Ms Andrews death (officially 1986). Following a run in with the IRS, the Andrews estate and the ghost writer continue to produce book today. The official version of events is here.
Fascinating read, Tapioca. My only question is, if The Obsessed was one huge book, how the hell did My Sweet Audrina fit into it? If I’m understanding it right, her monster novel was broken up into several, including the four FITA books and MSA. But MSA is a completely different story, with different characters and plot. How did she weave that into the Dollenganger saga?
And Andrews had, at the very least, an unhealthy obsession with child rape and incest.
I agree with the one website suggesting that her life was worthy of one of her books. How can there not be a death certificate out there for her confirming the date of her death? I’m a little surprised no one has ever completed an expose.
I remember reading the FITA books when they came out, being exactly the demographic they appealed to. They’d lost me by My Sweet Audrina.
Interesting though about Andrew Neiderman. I read one of his books back in the mid-80s published by Harlequin. I wasn’t very impressed, and have never read anything of his since. And, as it turns out, neither under his own name, nor V.C. Andrews.
There are whole branches of people out there who read three books a year, and because they are also so narrowly read they cannot discern good writing from bad. They find something that is suitable for their tastes, and then stick with it.
Correction. The author isn’t VC Andrews. It’s VC Andrews®.
Surely the name alone is enough reason. Bestsellers are a genre, a literal genre within publishing. The rule of this particular genre is that names sell. Nothing more is necessary.
Looking inside the book on Amazon, I found this statement:
Storytelling genius. So there.
Elliot Roosevelt never wrote one of his mysteries featuring his mother, Eleanor Roosevelt, as the detective. And then he went and died in 1990. For years after that, the blurb mentioned that proverbial pile of “already-completed” manuscripts. I think it’s just with the last couple of books that the title-page credit finally goes to William Harrington.
Robert Ludlum has been a very prolific dead guy. So has the previously mentioned L. Ron Hubbard. Without mentioning Diuretics, I think 9 of the 10 Mission Earth books were published after his death. They were pretty thick books too. Hard to believe they were all written before his death.
Lawrence Sanders has churned out a couple more Archy McNally novels since he kicked off, too.
I have a sneaking suspicion that when Tom Clancy dies his overbearing wife is going to discover a veritable treasure trove of ‘unpublished material’ to keep the legacy alive for years and years.
Actually, she died in 1986, not '79. She even had a cameo as a maid in the movie version of FITA.
Well, I’ve just spent some time perusing the Social Security Death Index, and I can’t seem to find any likely candidates who died in 1986.
There were five people named “Virginia Andrews” (any middle name) who died in 1986. None of them had a “Last Residence” in the state of Virginia and only one of them had been issued their Social Security card in Virginia. That person was born on June 1, 1911 and had a last residence in Warren, Michigan. That seeems too old and in the wrong state to fit with what else we know about VC Andrews.
On the other hand, in November of 1979, a Virginia Andrews that was born on October 16, 1923 died. Her Social Security card was issued in Virginia and the location of her last benefit was Norfolk, Virginia. It also seems worth noting that this Virginia Andrews was only 56 when she died but it looks like she had been receiving Social Security Benefits because there is a location specified for the “Last Benefit”. This is too young for normal retirement benefits, but might be consistent with a paraplegic receiving SSI benefits.
I also looked for anybody named “Cleo Andrews” or “Cleopatra Andrews” in the SSDI, but got no hits in either 1979 or 1986.
It’s certainly possibly that the person who originally published under the name “VC Andrews” died in 1986, but without knowing that person’s Social Security Number, it’s going to be hard to really verify it. And, personally, I’m not entirely convinced by that entry in the IMDB. She wasn’t given a credit in the film and I’m not sure where the IMDB got that information.
It would have been kind of hard for her to have died prior to 1986, and still appear in the FITA movie now wouldn’t it?
Well, I think the issue is whether or not that’s really her in the movie. If she was indeed confined to a wheelchair, it seems like her portrayal of a housemaid wouldn’t be all that convincing. And since that cameo apparently wasn’t cited in the film credits, it seems to be anybody’s guess who that was.