The Legacy of V.C. Andrews

At this time, between 1979 and 2009 there have been sixty-three novels (includes announced upcoming publications, but does not include internet releases) written by V.C. Andrews. The city of Norfolk Virginia named her the "Professional Woman of the Year" in 1984. In 1986, the year of her death, V.C. Andrews was named the "Number One Best Selling Author" of popular horror and occult paperbacks by the American Bookseller's Association. Every year, millions of copies of the V.C. Andrews books are sold. It may come as a surprise to some that V.C. Andrews only wrote eight of those novels, and two of those were finished by a ghost writer in the employ of the estate shortly after her death, a "complete" biography can be found at Completevca.com found here.

Some people may actually have noticed a slight change in writing styles as they continued to read the V.C. Andrews novels after 1986. Most early fans likely did not suspect a change in writers occurred until the V.C. Andrews estate had the publisher insert a notice into some of the books that informed the readers of her untimely death and that a ghost writer had been enlisted to carry on her work.

Before her death, V.C. Andrews had revealed that she had written synopses for sixty-three other stories, not including those that had already been published at the time. Since then, the ghost writer, who has been revealed as the horror writer Andrew Neiderman as stated here in Wikipedia, has written all of the novels.

Over the years, the V.C. Andrews name has become synonymous with stories of young women caught up in family upheavals that they have no control over. Often, the young women become embroiled in familial relationships that devolve into incest. This simple and common plot device that runs throughout all of the stories has proven to be a winning recipe for almost 30 yrs and shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, in spite of some attempts to save money in printing costs by changing the paperback formats slightly, the stories seem to be picking up more steam in the form of film adaptations found listed at the Completevca.com website here. A reworking of the Flowers in the Attic film is currently being considered by MGM. Rain, a story by the ghost writer of the V.C. Andrews estate was recently given the film treatment and can be picked purchased online at Amazon.com here. Finally, The Landry, also from the ghost writer, is intended to be a miniseries for Lifetime. Love it or hate it, the V.C. Andrews name continues to prove profitable after all these years.