From Fan Fiction to Book Contract for Peabody High Junior

When Ashley Royer was 13, a friend introduced her to Wattpad, an online writing platform that lets readers from all over the world discover and share new stories.

And boy, did Ashley connect with a lot of readers. So many, with so much positive feedback, that four years later the Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Junior will see the publication of her debut novel next spring.

Ashley’s writing received recognition the world over from readers who supported the young author’s engaging storylines, catapulting her to win a 2014 Watty (Wattpad’s award program) for her work.

The numbers on Wattpad are impressive. Her writing has 14 million reads, 383,000 likes, and 291,000 comments.

The young adult imprint Blink also took notice of the teen’s writing and popularity, acquiring Royer as a new author. In fact, at 17, Royer is the youngest author on the Blink roster.

Remember to Forget will be published by Blink on April 5 and is available now for pre-order on Amazon.com and other online book retailers.

“Ashley has a fresh and exciting voice, and really understands her audience,” said Annette Bourland, Senior Vice President and Publisher for Blink. “Ashley’s story has deeply connected with readers on Wattpad, and we’re thrilled to share her Remember to Forget.”

The story of how Ashley got a book deal sounds like it deserves its own book.

“I wrote on Wattpad without telling my family and only a few of my friends,” said Ashley.

But given the amount of followers Ashley had on Twitter and for her YouTube channel, her mom, Cathy, was able to piece together the online breadcrumbs and found her daughter’s Wattpad writings and its hundreds of thousands of fans at two in the morning.

“She went right out and hired an agent and an attorney for me,” said Ashley.

While Ashley makes it sound like her mother had an agent on speed dial at 2:01 a.m., Cathy said it wasn’t quite that fast.

“When I first found out about it, I didn’t know what to do,” said Cathy. “But anyone we talked to said we needed to go forward with this.”

Go forward they did, securing the book deal from Blink for Remember to Forget.

The novel is an extension of what Ashley wrote on Wattpad with some extra chapters and one major change.

“Online, I wrote under the category of fan fiction, using celebrity characters,” Ashley said. “In my book, I used the names of the band 5 Seconds of Summer. For copyright reasons, I had to change the names.”

Otherwise, the novel is very consistent with the themes and plot that her followers have grown to love and expect.

Remember to Forget focuses on Levi, who must cope with the changes he faces after moving in with his dad—a new town, a new home, and a new therapist. Following the tragic death of his girlfriend, Delia, Levi has refused to speak and can’t seem to come out of his depression or hindering self-doubt. Desperate to make some positive change in his life, Levi’s mother sends Levi to live with his father in Maine. Though the idea of moving from Australia to America seems completely daunting, Levi accepts his fate, but faces struggles as he and his dad battle through resentment and misunderstanding. And then Levi meets Delilah, a girl who eerily reminds him of someone he lost.

The publicity machine for Remember to Forget is just starting to get rolling, so a lot of Ashley’s fellow students just recently discovered that there is a soon-to-be published author in their midst.

“Everyone thinks it is pretty cool,” Ashley said. “(The other day), my whole English class was talking about it.”

As Ashley moves through high school and toward college, she said she wants to continue to keep writing as a part of her life.

Currently, she is working on a sequel to Remember to Forget on Wattpad. She said the sequel will continue many of the themes of her previous work of finding happiness when confronted with sadness.

To find out more about Ashley or her writing, check out her website at www.ashleyroyer.com.