In celebration of National Novel Writing Month, HHS Creative Writing Club students welcomed author Sandy Hall, an HHS alum, on Wednesday, November 12. Hall is the author of the young adult novel A Little Something Different, published in August.

A Little Something Different is the first book to be published by Swoon Reads, a new young-adult imprint of Macmillan Publishing, that lets fans vote on manuscripts to choose which ones are published. According to an article in The New York Times about Hall: “About 9,000 readers sampled her story online, and it drew the highest possible rating of five hearts. Her publisher is so bullish about the book that it is planning a hefty first print run of 100,000 copies in the United States and simultaneous releases by its sister imprints in Britain and Australia.” This process of publishing is dramatically changing the traditional discovery process by using crowdsourcing to select all its titles. Jon Yaged, president and publisher of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group told The Times:“This is like ‘X Factor’ or ‘American Idol’ meets publishing.”

The novel, which takes place on a college campus, chronicles a budding romance between two students whose affection for each other is obvious to everyone but them. The narrative jumps between the perspective of a barista, a Chinese-food deliveryman, a professor, a bus driver, a squirrel and other observers rooting for the pair to get together. Hall told the Creative Writing Club members that the first draft had 23 perspectives, but during the editing process, she whittled it down to 14 points of view.

The after-school event gave the students a unique insider’s view of the new direction of book publishing as well as a peek at a real writer’s lifestyle. Attendees enjoyed a lively discussion covering topics from Hall’s daily “tea and Tumblr” time to her method of “breadcrumb plotting” and M&M rewards system. The talk was followed by a book signing. A donated, autographed copy is now available in the school’s library.