The Book Chooses You with Soman Chainani

Soman Chainani’s debut series, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD & EVIL, has sold over 4.5 million copies, been translated into 35 languages across six continents, and has been adapted into a major motion picture from Netflix that debuted at #1 in over 80 countries. His book of retold fairytales, BEASTS & BEAUTY, also debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List and is slated to be a limited television series from Sony 3000. In 2026, Soman unveils a brand new universe with YOUNG WORLD, a global political thriller. 

In his career, Soman has visited more than 800 schools around the world, where he continues to share his secret with students of all ages: that reading is the path to a better life.

When Soman wrote The School for Good and Evil, he kept it under wraps, so when completed and on the shelf, it was as if the book was dropped by magic. But in these times of AI, and process being manufactured so quickly and easily, he realized it's important to show the process of how books come to be; an artisanal stamp of how it was created. Soman now tries to open the doors of writing, just like Willy Wonka did with the Chocoalate factory, so people can see behind the door. To see how the book is created. 

This has become his mantra. To pull back the curtain. Soman has a substack, Diary of a Novel, tracking the week by week making of his latest book. He also has a podcast called Plot Twist- revealing everything!

"This has become my entire ethos," he says. "I'm all about showing you how the thing came to be."

The book chooses you. 

This is how writing started for Soman. Out of college, he joined his father's business, but he was always found working on his book in the corner, and in fact, work realize he'd been working on his little fairy tale project all day long. That little fariy tale was The School for Good and Evil. 

Fast forward to when the book was finished and on submission, 16 of 17 editors said no. Just one said YES. A good reminder that it only takes one yes! 

Soman walks us through the next books that also chose him. He found that when books organically came out of him, that's when the good stuff happened.

 However, after his many books, he found himself pigeonholed in fairy tales, and that chance for an instant sale pushed him into writing books that were not choosing him. He chose to let go of a sure thing, and let his brain start working on something very different. He had an idea: What happens if teenagers interrupt a presidential election between two old zombies? That book is called Young World and it's coming out this May (cover reveal coming in September).

But after turning in pages of this new book, his agent was honest with him. The concept was great, but the writing was not that good. Soman couldn't write this book like he did the middle grade fairy tales. So he threw out everything and started over. This time he started in diary form. 

Soman leaves us with this great wisdom, perhaps giving us all a mantra to walk away with:  "The book chooses you every single time...the more you trust yourself and what your body and your voice is telling you to create, and you have the right people along the way who support you and don't push you towards money and easy answers, the more you'll get what's meant to be your career."

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