{"id":25621,"date":"2021-07-29T13:09:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T20:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000021409"},"modified":"2021-07-29T13:10:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T20:10:11","slug":"elise-bryant-new-book-deal-one-true-loves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/elise-bryant-new-book-deal-one-true-loves","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach author Elise Bryant has gone from writing for fun to signing her second book deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Long Beach author Elise Bryant thrilled young adult readers across the country with her debut, &#8220;Happily Ever Afters,&#8221; which came out in January to <a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/long-beach-author-elise-bryant-readies-for-major-literary-debut\">rave reviews<\/a>. Bryant\u2019s first novel is set in Long Beach and local readers will be happy to learn that her second book, &#8220;One True Loves&#8221;\u2014due out in January from HarperCollins\u2014also begins in the city before moving onto a cruise ship.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The even better news for Bryant and her fans here and across the nation is that there are more books coming. Bryant recently signed a second book deal with HarperCollins\u2019 Balzer + Bray imprint, with her third novel set to release in winter 2023 and a fourth book included as part of the contract as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So\u2026I\u2019ve got news!!! \ud83e\udd17<\/p>\n<p>I have TWO more YA books coming your way from Balzer+Bray! <\/p>\n<p>First up: a dual POV romcom called REGGIE AND DELILAH\u2019S YEAR OF FALLING<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\uddd3\u2728\ud83c\udfa4\ud83c\udfb8\ud83d\ude99\ud83d\udc09\ud83c\udfb2\ud83d\udc69\ud83c\udffd\u200d\ud83e\uddb1\ud83e\uddd1\ud83c\udffe\u200d\ud83e\uddb1\u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kVaog5vWSw\">pic.twitter.com\/kVaog5vWSw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elise Bryant (updates only) (@elisembryant) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elisembryant\/status\/1415787826050863105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 15, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">If you happened to run into Bryant around town, you might have heard about the second book deal prior to it being announced in the trades.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWell, I\u2019m terrible at keeping secrets, so I told everyone I saw in person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The fact that both of her contracts were two-book deals, and the fact that she signed a second two-book deal with just one book on the shelf is a byproduct of the strong sales for &#8220;Happily Ever Afters,&#8221; and a sign that Bryant is a rising star in the YA fiction world. The change in status has changed her approach as well. When she wrote her debut novel, she did it for fun\u2014without a book deal. Her second book, coming in January, was written between signing her first deal and the release of her debut.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">That means the book she\u2019s now in the process of writing, her third, is the first she\u2019s written as a published author.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt was very overwhelming,\u201d she said. \u201cWriting was such a private thing for me before, something I did for fun, for myself. This is the first time I\u2019m writing something from scratch knowing 100% that people are going to read it and knowing a lot about those readers. I have all these voices in my head. I want to create a book that makes readers happy and makes them feel seen. But ultimately in order to sit down and write 80,000 words I have to enjoy it myself. That\u2019s the ultimate driving force.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000049124\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000049124\" style=\"width: 825px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/29125849\/Bryant-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10000049124\" src=\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/29125849\/Bryant-2-1110x1378.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"825\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000049124\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Author Elise Bryant with daughters Coretta and Tallulah. Photo courtesy of Elise Bryant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Bryant\u2019s books feature Black teenagers in love, the kind of positive stories about Black kids that she wanted to read growing up but couldn\u2019t find. She said the best part of having her first book out in the world is hearing from the readers it\u2019s connected with.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI\u2019ve gotten so many messages and emails from readers saying they\u2019re seeing themselves for the first time in this book,\u201d she said. \u201cSo many Black girls saying they always wanted to see someone like themselves at the center of a love story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s been a wild year for Bryant, who has seen so many of her dreams come to fruition while the world was largely shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She wrote her second book while at home last school year with her daughters, whose schools were closed. She also didn\u2019t get to go on a book tour or do any of the book festivals she had dreamed about.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe highlight has been seeing it in Target when I\u2019m buying groceries,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery time I was there, I\u2019d walk past the book section just to see it. Having the excitement of the city has been really cool. My 5-year-old thinks I\u2019m famous because every time we go out, someone stops me and mentions the <a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/long-beach-author-elise-bryant-readies-for-major-literary-debut\">LB Post article<\/a> or the book. That\u2019s been very cool. I didn\u2019t get a book tour or signings or any of that, so the community response has been what made it feel real to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">With this second book deal, there will be plenty of time for that to sink in, of course.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe first deal felt like this dream,\u201d she said. \u201cBut now, with two more books to write, it\u2019s also a career. It was hard to think of it that way before because nothing in this industry is guaranteed. I have to re-apply with every book. But it\u2019s nice to have some stability\u2014at least until 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/long-beach-author-elise-bryant-readies-for-major-literary-debut<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bryant\u2019s books feature Black teenagers in love, the kind of positive stories about Black kids that she wanted to read growing up but couldn\u2019t find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":71657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1063],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[22230],"class_list":["post-25621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-books","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25621"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=25621"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=25621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}