# How is V.C. Andrews still around? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701 "2005-02-06T21:57:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/1 "2005-02-06T21:57:42Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/2 "2005-02-06T22:04:03Z")
She’s a zombie. With a typewriter. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/3 "2005-02-06T22:11:57Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/4 "2005-02-06T22:12:00Z")
Doesn’t another family member, (daughter or something) still write the books? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/5 "2005-02-06T22:16:22Z")
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. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/6 "2005-02-06T22:19:52Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/7 "2005-02-06T22:25:57Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > 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… ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/8 "2005-02-06T22:30:02Z")
> [@Mac Guffin](#): > > Doesn’t another family member, (daughter or something) still write the books? 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. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/9 "2005-02-06T22:36:55Z")
The truth about who or what VC Andrews is will probably never be known. The best guess (a good unofficial summary [here](http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/851186)) 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](http://www.completevca.com/art_ghostwriter.htm). ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/10 "2005-02-06T23:45:54Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/11 "2005-02-07T00:24:04Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > The truth about who or what VC Andrews is will probably never be known. The best guess (a good unofficial summary [here](http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/851186)) 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](http://www.completevca.com/art_ghostwriter.htm). 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. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/12 "2005-02-07T01:10:08Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/13 "2005-02-07T01:37:42Z")
Correction. The author isn’t VC Andrews. It’s VC Andrews®. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/14 "2005-02-07T02:01:20Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Surely the name isn’t enough reason? 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: > [@](#): > > Following the death of Virgina Andrews, the Andrews family worked with a carefully selected writer to organize and complete Virginia Andrews’ stories and to create additional novels, of which this is one, inspired by her storytelling genius. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/15 "2005-02-07T20:26:34Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/16 "2005-02-07T21:53:15Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/17 "2005-02-07T23:36:01Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > The truth about who or what VC Andrews is will probably never be known. The best guess (a good unofficial summary [here](http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/851186)) is that wrote Flowers in the Attic just before she died in 1979. Actually, she died in 1986, not '79. She even had a cameo as a maid in the movie version of FITA. ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/18 "2005-02-08T00:51:32Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/19 "2005-02-08T05:33:46Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701/20 "2005-02-08T07:31:51Z")
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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-v-c-andrews-still-around/288701.md?page=2)