Tag: journaling

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what's lit

Michelle Obama to Continue ‘Becoming’ Success With Journal

A week after top young adult authors announced their intentions to release journals to partner with their books, former First Lady Michelle Obama also has the same plans for her best-selling 2018 memoir, Becoming.

Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice will have over 150 inspiring questions and quotes that resonate with her memoir to help readers reflect on “their personal and family history, their goals, challenges, and dreams, what moves them and brings them hope, and what future they imagine for themselves and their community,” according to the Monday press release from publisher Penguin Random House.

The book will be published on its imprint Clarkson Potter, which unveiled part of the introduction:

“I hope you’ll use this journal to write down your experiences, thoughts, and feelings, in all their imperfections, and without judgment…. We don’t have to remember everything. But everything we remember has value.”

Coming out Nov. 19, it will make a perfect fall holiday book gift, like her memoir last year that sold 11.5 million units in print, digital, and audio formats so far, with 7.5 million of those units being sold in the U.S. and Canada alone. It’s been published in 45 languages.

Starting off with 500,000 copies, the journal will be on sale first in the U.S. and Canada with a Spanish language edition, then expand to more than 20 countries.

Becoming was the last book on Oprah’s Book Club list before its Apple revamp.

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what's lit

Best-selling Young Adult Authors to Release Journals

The authors of The Hate U Give and The Poet X recently have announced they will be releasing journals as extensions of their best-selling young adult novels.

With her literary landscape-changing The Hate U Give and On the Come Up still charting on the New York Times best-sellers list, Angie Thomas told her 100,000 Instagram followers last week that Find Your Voice: A Guided Journal for Writing Your Truth will be a guide for aspiring writers. From the first look at Epic Reads, the journal has questions in colorfully graphic lettering to help readers jot down intentions for their characters, the characters’ voices, and the structure of the story. The journal will be released in March 2020.

Another award-winning YA novelist, Elizabeth Acevedo, also recently told her 43,000 Instagram followers that Write Yourself a Lantern: A Journal Inspired by The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo will come out in April 2020. Her sophomore novel, With the Fire On High, made a splash over the summer due to the impact of her 2017 debut, The Poet X. Fulfilling a similar purpose as Angie’s journal, Elizabeth’s journal will guide readers into creating their poetry with bold words decorating the pages along with empty lines to fill.

Releasing journals to complement top-selling books is growing in popularity with, for example, clean queen Marie Kondo famously coming out with Life-Changing Magic: A Journal to accompany her “spark joy” empire. Though her genre of self-help seems to be the most appropriate place for companion journals, they may also thrive in the YA space to give teens a palette to drive their creativity.

Both journals are with HarperCollins Publishers and geared toward the YA audience.

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what's lit

Marketing Maven Arian Simone Shares How Barnes & Noble Picked Up Her Self-Published Book

Arian Simone recently announced the inspirational book she self-published earlier this year earned a spot on Barnes & Noble bookshelves, producing a book tour and an author event later this year.

The media and marketing entrepreneur is known for her Hollywood public relations game with coordinating events for musicians Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and Ne-Yo, but she became an author first in 2015 with the self-published My Fabulous & Fearless Journey: From Homeless to Hollywood. She released another self-help book, Fearless Faith + Hustle: 21 Day Devotional Journey, in January. This book, according to Arian Simone’s Instagram, had Barnes & Noble knocking on her door via an email through her website.

In 2016, Barnes & Noble started a self-service program supporting self-published authors with Nook Press that enables them to create hardcover and paperback books for purchase at stores and online. Some authors even qualify to participate at in-store events like book-signings and discussions based on print and e-book sales.

But Arian Simone didn’t go that route, so it’s rare—in comparison to the number of self-published authors with books on the market—to hear of an author being contacted by a major bookseller. She said Barnes & Noble reached out to her after noticing her book sales.

Arian Simone completed her Barnes & Noble book tour in late June with hitting six cities after headlining a public speaking workshop at the Girlboss Rally in Los Angeles. She’s planning an Oct. 19 event for authors in Atlanta under her Fearless brand to showcase their work, which she said will be free to the public.