For Atlas trilogy author, viral success was result of years that looked like failure
Olivie Blake’s life changed overnight, in more ways than one. After years of writing fan fiction that she didn’t expect to make any money — she says she thought of her readers as “these couple hundred best friends of mine” — a bunch of videos touting her self-published novel “The Atlas Six” went madly viral on TikTok. The same day friends began noting praise for her book seemingly everywhere, Blake herself was in labor with her son.
“I’ll just focus on being a new mother,” she remembers thinking. “I just thought, [novels are] my little side project.”
Her son is two and a half now, and this week Blake’s “The Atlas Complex,” the final novel in a trilogy that has vaulted its author from the cozy world of fan fiction onto the bestseller lists, will be released by a traditional publishing company with all the glitz and glamor of a major publicity campaign.
Blake, who also publishes young adult fiction under her real name, Alexene Farol Follmuth, still considers herself a part of the fan fiction community.
“It was a way to reach an audience without any gatekeepers, it was a way to write stories purely for the sake of creating,” she says. Far from rejecting her as a sellout, she adds, “people were more uncomplicatedly happy for me than I expected. I sold out a little bit, but I did want to eat!”
Finding success as a writer has been a long road for Blake, whose family expected her to make a career in the law. “I was ticking all these boxes,” she says, before “realizing that this path that I’m on is not going to bring me joy.”
The years of writing for herself while working odd jobs to make ends meet were a struggle. “In any career as an artist, you look like you’re failing for such a long
time,” she adds, “until suddenly you succeed.”
Blake will be joined in conversation by R. F. Kuang on Saturday, Jan. 13, in an event hosted by Harvard Bookstore at First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge.
Kate Tuttle is a freelance writer and editor.