Sarah J. Maas
| Name: | Sarah Janet Maas |
| Also Known As: | S.J.Maas (on FictionPress) |
| Occupation: | Author |
| Medium: | Literature |
| Works: | A Court of Thorns and Roses, Throne of Glass |
| Official Website(s): | Official website, World of Sarah J. Maas, LiveJournal, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, FictionPress |
| Fan Website(s): | |
| On Fanlore: | Related pages |
Sarah J. Maas is the author of the best-selling Throne of Glass series and the A Court of Thorns and Roses series; both of which has gained significant fan-followings on Tumblr and in young adult literature communities.
During her youth, Maas wrote Sailor Moon fanfiction[1] and at age sixteen began writing the first draft of Throne of Glass.[2]
She uploaded the first chapters to FictionPress, a sister site to the famous Fanfiction.net, and it later became one of the most popular stories on the site with a small fanbase of its own. She continuously expanded on the story throughout the next years until she removed the story in December 2008 with plans to get the story published.[3]
Relationship with fandom
Sarah J. Maas is generally supportive of fan activities and has spoken of her appreciation for fanart within her monthly e-newsletter. Special editions of Sarah's book are also known to include fanart, such as the Target edition of A Court of Wings and Ruin which included work from Charlie Bowater and merwild.
Sarah is also supportive of fanfiction for her series. When asked by a fan if she would approve of the creation of a fanfic archive for Throne of Glass on Fanfiction.net, her exact response was:
OMFG. Of course I’m okay with that! How WONDERFUL! As someone who obsessively wrote/read FF when I was younger, it is so, so surreal to even be ASKED this question! Eee! :) Thank you SO much for being so supportive of TOG! You are AWESOME. <3 [4]
And then her response to the first fanfiction uploaded to Fanfiction.Net (Shattered Barriers and Shattered Hearts by horsegirl275):
THRONE OF GLASS fanfic!? Life = Made. Wahh! SO surreal.[5]
However, Maas has not appeared on social media as frequently, specifically Twitter, since December 7, 2016. While her Instagram is more regularly updated, she has become noticeably more reclusive online. This may be because she is expecting her first child in May. Other fans speculate this is due to her friendship troubles with other YA authors, specifically Susan Dennard and Alexandra Bracken.
Criticism
Maas and her ACOTAR series has a significant anti-fandom. A common criticism of her books is the focus on or nature of the portrayal of sex, with some fans disapproving of the details within the books; other fans object to the large presence of sex in general in her books and argue that there that they should be considered adult fiction or erotica rather than YA. Some of it may also be directed to criticizing Maas' personal life or fandom presence.
Examples:
- I don’t think people understand that the act of sex being there in sjm’s books isn’t what bothers me., Archived version, meta by asthe, 2017
- Throne of No, Archived version a tumblr blog devoted to negative criticism of Throne of Glass
Relationship with other YA authors
Some controversy has occurred regarding Maas's relationships with other YA authors, notably Susan Dennard and Alexandra Bracken. During the early stages of Maas's career, she was good friends with fellow author Susan Dennard. Multiple of Maas's books were dedicated to Susan, and both have spoken of their admiration for each other in various interviews and blog posts. They even together wrote a piece of online original fiction titled The Starkillers Cycle. However, in late January 2017, a reddit user started a thread in /r/YAlit asking whether the pair were still friends.[6] The thread gained 31 comments and contained much internet sleuthing and discussion.
One user claimed to be a member of the industry, and confirmed some of the points raised in the thread:
So, I can confirm this. Keeping myself anonymous because I work in the industry and don't need this getting back to me, but the reasons are so awful I feel like they need to be shared. It's made me reconsider my opinion of SJM, whom I adored, and now am wary off. She's super nice to her fans (anyone who's met her will agree), but behind the scenes?Like some people have said, SJM is catty, and has big ego. Every couple years or so, she picks an unknown/unpublished author to be BFFs with. Until they achieve a big level of success, which is when she starts getting jealous. She and Susan were friends for years, and stayed friends until Susan became a NYTimes bestseller. Which was when Sarah started becoming really toxic, because she doesn't like to share the spotlight. There are a number of other authors she's done this to, like the ones mentioned above. I was actually sad to learn this is how she acts behind the scenes, because her books were among my favorites. Really depressing to find out one of your favorites is terrible behind the scenes.[7]
References
- ^ tumblr@sjmaas: "Didn't you used to write Sailor Moon fanfiction?", Archived version
- ^ Sarah J. Maas' official website bio, Archived version
- ^ Let the Words Flow blog post: "Hey Everyone!", Archived version
- ^ tumblr@sjmaas: ask response to fanfiction archive, Archived version
- ^ Tweet by SJMaas, posted on January 29, 2013
- ^ "Reddit post". Archived from the original on 2017-10-29.
- ^ "Comment". Archived from the original on 2017-10-29. on Reddit, posted on May 9, 2017 by editor6678