Friday Feature: Interview with Twist Literary

Having really enjoyed Alibi, the new series from Twist Literary, I was keen to find out more about the publisher. They stopped by to answer a few questions...

1. Can you tell us a bit about the idea behind Twist Literary in general, and debut series ALIBI in particular?

Sure! We are long-time lovers of YA and have watched it grow from a category nobody paid attention to into an unstoppable force of nature. With the dawn of the digital publishing era, we felt that there was an opportunity to play with the storytelling construct in a way that traditional books just don't allow. That was the initial spark of the idea for Twist Literary - to produce YA e-books with a twist. In the case of our debut series ALIBI, that twist is having the larger story unfold within the separate mini-stories of four different characters. Some of the scenes overlap so you see select interactions from two different perspectives, which is really fun. Some of the scenes are completely unique to the character, or are continuations of "what happened after" another character left. As the reader you get to see things you normally wouldn't be able to and the result is really fun!


2. In addition to ALIBI, are there other series in the pipeline we can look forward to? If so, could you tell us a bit about them?

Rubs hands together. Yes! We actually have two new series in the pipeline. One is about the backstage drama at a TV talent competition and the other is about an elite secret society at a boarding school where everyone has something to hide. We have lots of surprises in store and can't wait to share them with our readers.


3. Your website states that your authors are 'up-and-coming voices in YA fiction'. It's great to see some new authors get the chance for something like this. How did you pick the authors you have on board?

We've been a part of the YA writing community for a while, and along the way you get to meet some pretty great authors who are just waiting for their "big break." For our debut series we reached out to people we thought were particularly talented, and a good potential fit for our characters, and asked them to audition by writing a scene between two of our characters. We screened a lot of writers and the four that you're reading here were the ones who really blew us away - they embodied the characters we created on every level, bringing them to life in a way that the story on the page could never do on its own.


4. Was it difficult coordinating the story of ALIBI, given that it's written by 4 different authors?

Oh Jim, you have no idea - this was plotting in maximum overdrive! As the characters revealed themselves to us and our authors, we had to be really mindful of the consequences of every action on the other characters in the story. It took a lot of white boards, spreadsheets, careful editing, and moxy to make it all come together. But we are so thrilled with the result!


5. What kind of readers are you hoping Twist Literary will appeal to? More than anything, we hope it will appeal to discriminating teen readers. While we often draw comparisons between other popular teen series (which we love!), we also hope the quality and sophistication of the stories and writing will draw in lovers of all well-written YA. We'd love to see fans of authors like Courtney Summers, E. Lockhart, and Siobhan Vivian embrace Twist's collection.


6. I love the Twitter teasers for ALIBI, introducing the characters! Can we expect to see more social media used for future books by Twist Literary?

Absolutely! We want our readers to be able to engage with our stories and characters on multiple levels, and social media is a big part of that. Along those lines we have a few tricks up our sleeve - more "twists" to engage our readers will be coming soon, so stay tuned.

I certainly will - I can't wait to see what comes next! Thanks for stopping by.

Remember, if you'd like to read Alibi, please stop by my giveaway!