Viral TikTok Author Alex Aster on New Book Nightbane: ‘People Might Be a Little Bit Upset at Me’ (Exclusive) https://t.co/lZyp9iaNou
— People (@people) November 7, 2023
After facing countless rejections for her young adult fantasy novel Lightlark, Alex Aster became a #1 bestselling author after turning to an unlikely medium: TikTok.
“I posted the video to social media basically pitching my book to the world, because I truly felt at that point I had nothing to lose,” she tells PEOPLE. “I almost deleted it because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m proving these publishers right. No one wants to read my book.’ But I luckily left it on, and then the next day it went viral.”
Aster, 28, didn’t expect Lightlark’s success when she shared that initial TikTok, which detailed the book’s premise. Soon after, she received a publishing contract and movie deal from Universal Studios and the producers of Twilight. Upon its release, the book, which tells the story of a deadly competition in the vein of The Hunger Games, became a #1 New York Times bestseller.
Aster grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. Her parents co-own the Jacksonville, Fla., car dealership Keith Pierson Toyota, and her twin sister, Daniela, co-founded the mental fitness platform Wondermind with Selena Gomez. Aster, however, has always known that writing was her passion. She began querying agents at age 12, and skipped her college graduation to sign with an agent. Though Aster was already a published author, having released her middle grade Emblem Island series through Sourcebooks Young Read
If you wanna know more about this weirdo, watch this:
Are you happy that this book is getting a film adaptation? Did you like it?
