“Would you like to read a book about a cursed island that only resurfaces once every hundred years to host a competition that offers the six rulers of the kingdom the chance to break the evil spell they fall victim to?” It was with this hook that Alex Aster, then 25 years old, drew attention to the TikTok network in March 2021, reports the British daily. The Guardian.
A year later, the curse turned into a fairy tale for the American. His video on TikTok, viewed to date 1.8 million times, earned him “a six-figure publishing deal” with American children’s publisher Amulet Books, notes The Guardian. The novel, first of a series, should be released in bookstores on August 23 under the title Lightlark (“The Fire Lark”). Even if Amulet Books is a subsidiary of the French group La Martinière, no French release is announced for the moment.
Published in thirty countries
mingling fantasy and romance, the novel owes as much to Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) only to A palace of thorns and roses (Sarah J. Maas), add The Guardian. It promises to be one of the successes of the English literary season.
“The book will be published in more than thirty countries”, announcement The Hollywood Reporter, also revealing that Universal has bought the rights to adapt the saga. This new cheque, the amount of which is not specified, is undoubtedly generous: it counts “more zeros than I had ever seen in my life”, confided Alex Aster to the Guardian.
A sibylline bio
That being said, it is difficult to find a lot of information in the English-language press to shed light on the journey of the novelist. In the course of an article by Forbes, we learn that Alex Aster is the pen name of Alex (for Alexandra) Pierson and that she has a twin sister, Daniella Pierson, a successful entrepreneur.
Their mother “grew up in poverty in Colombia before becoming a dental surgeon” and their father, originally from New York, “has car dealerships in Jacksonville, Florida,” where the twins grew up, still relates the American magazine. Alex Aster studied at the University of Pennsylvania, from which she graduated “with highest praise”.
Nothing from a beginner
The Guardian also writes that Alex Aster was not unknown on TikTok: “She wrote [et interprété] the song Divine, that went viral […] during confinement”. She now has nearly a million subscribers on the platform.
In literature either, the American is not a novice, she who “started looking for a publisher from the age of 12”, continues the London daily. His sixth manuscript, Curse of the Night Witch (“The Curse of the Night Witch”) had ended up finding a buyer, but without meeting with success in bookstores, and her agent had let her go.
The #BookTok effect
It was during this period that Alex Aster, desperate to find a readership, published her message on TikTok, she confides to the specialized magazine Publishers Weekly. “My career was at a low point. I no longer had an agent. My book was released during the pandemic. Sales weren’t great. I thought no one would want to publish me. And then the video [sur TikTok] changed everything.”
In any case, Alex Aster’s fairy tale confirms, if necessary, that the hashtag #BookTok does indeed sell paper and that social networks have become essential players in any literary season. The interested party, meanwhile, hopes to live up to expectations, as she explains to Publishers Weekly :
“Everyone has accompanied me on this adventure, and it’s everyone’s support that has allowed me to get where I am. The least I can do is write a good book that they like.”