We’re already pumped for Zoella’s next book
Last month, Zoe Sugg — aka Zoella, the 25-year-old YouTube star turned record-breaking YA author — officially announced the sequel to last year’s wildly successful Girl Online.And now, in a vlog for her spin-off channel, MoreZoella, Sugg has divulged some details about the writing process behind the new book.
For those less familiar, Girl Online is the story of Penny, a teenage girl who blogs about life, love, and high school under the alias “GirlOnline.” The book broke the all-time record for first-week sales of a debut author in the UK by selling 78,109 copies its first week — beating out best-selling authors like J.K. Rowling and causing some major buzz (because what could possibly beat Harry Potter?!). The success was in part due to her immense social media following: at the time of publication, Sugg had well over eight million subscribers on her YouTube channels. To date, Girl Online has sold just shy of 345,000 copies in the UK — obviously a huge feat.
According to her new video, the as-yet-untitled sequel (referred to as “Girl Online 2“) will be written with the help of Amy Alward, Sugg’s editor at Penguin.
“Amy’s been coming to my house every week for the past four months . . . we essentially spend the day bashing heads and writing the book together,” Sugg said in the video. They have weekly picnics together in Sugg’s office, while she does the bulk of typing (she’s on Chapter 11 at the moment). Alward then helps her edit things down.
“With Girl Online, I also had an editorial consultant who helped me get everything down on the page,” she continued, “and as it was my first novel it was all very daunting and very scary, but I feel as though I’m learning as I go along. So now it’s just me and Amy for book two.”
The highly-anticipated sequel is a part of a two book deal with Penguin, and will pick up where the last book left off — which means we’ll finally get to find out what becomes of Penny, Noah and Elliot (along with a slew of new characters). It’s bound to be a ton of fun, and we can’t wait to read it. Sugg even promised to reveal more details soon, so we’ll be on the lookout for those, too.
Girl Online 2 is out November 22, but you can pre-order it here — and watch Zoella’s vlog for yourself below.