Demonstrating considerable faith in novice writer and college sophomore Kaitlyn Evans, publishing company Simon & Schuster offered Evans a $670 million book deal after Evans debuted her first Odyssey Online article on Monday.
Evans’ article, titled “An Open Letter to my Brother’s Girlfriend’s Sister’s Boyfriend,” first hit the Web early Monday morning on popular blogging website The Odyssey Online. By 3 p.m., Evans’ article had been shared over three times on Facebook and had been liked by Evans’ father, her former teacher and her friend, Kylie.
The article, which expressed Evans’ hope that her brother’s girlfriend’s sister’s boyfriend would treat her brother’s girlfriend’s sister with the utmost respect, was roughly 1500 words in length and received upwards of 25 page views.
When reached by reporters, a spokesman for Simon & Schuster expressed the company’s excitement at the addition of a new, dynamic writer.
“We’ve spent years searching high and low for the next great American author. After reading Kaitlyn’s article, we were confident we had found the one,” said the spokesman. “My brother’s girlfriend’s sister, too, once had a boyfriend, and I remember feeling exactly the same way about him treating her well. Although it was only one article, Evans displayed a unique ability to speak to the human condition, and that’s not something you stumble upon very often.”
Evans, in a Facebook post, conveyed her gratitude to Simon & Schuster for offering her such an opportunity.
“While I always felt like I had natural talent as a writer, I never could have imagined landing a $670 million book deal after only one article,” read the post. “Looks like the professor who gave me a C in English 150 last year owes me an apology!”
Evans’ professor, who requested to remain unnamed, admitted that she was shocked at Evans’ immediate success.
“Kaitlyn turned in that exact article in my class last year for an assignment that was supposed to be a narrative essay,” said the professor. “She seemed to lack a basic understanding of spelling, grammar, and other essential writing strategies. I remember fixing a number of her mistakes; after reading the article online, it’s clear she took none of my advice.”
While Evans did not disclose what the subject of her first book would be, she hinted that she thought it would be a unique idea to, maybe, write tips for high school seniors or something.