Successful author Anna Todd probably never thought that writing a story on her cell phone would lead to a bestselling series and six-figure book deal. Now, the grounded author couldn’t be more excited to see her books selling out in bookstores around the world. Anna Todd’s journey from Wattpad writer to bestseller is astonishing and her work ethic is one to be admired. With the recent release of her latest novel, The Brightest Stars, we wanted to dive deeper into the life of the esteemed writer. Keep reading to learn more about the woman behind the book and her humble beginnings.

From Instagram Captions to Wattpad

Being an avid One Direction fan, Anna Todd started her first novel as a fanfiction story and it quickly grew into a million-word series that would go on to be read over a billion times on Wattpad. When asked about how she started writing in an interview with Recode, Todd explained how it all began:

“I was going to college just to go to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do...  I was an avid reader, and started I reading fan fiction, One Direction fan fiction specifically, on Instagram.

“Yeah, it’s insane, it’s a fandom thing. You post a caption under the picture and it’s a really mini tiny little chapter. So then Wattpad kind of took over that, and everyone I was reading on Instagram started posting on Wattpad, which was amazing since it’s so much easier to read. So I made a Wattpad account, and I was reading five months silently [and not participating], and I was between stories and got impatient waiting for updates. I thought I’d just write something to entertain myself. So I wrote it and posted it and had no idea what I was getting myself into.”

Writing Her Books on an iPhone

At the beginning of her writing career, Anna Todd was exclusively writing her stories on her iPhone,  warning readers about possible typos. Now, after her big book deal and a movie deal based on her books, the writer continues to use her iPhone for her writing. During an interview with Recode, the young writer dove into why she began writing this way:

“For me, I don’t know how to write any other way. I was a reader turned writer. It’s on my phone when I’m in the grocery store, those times when you’re bored walking around. It didn’t really matter at the time that it had typos, because it was just a creative outlet. I had no intention of publishing it, I didn’t know that was even an option. You can interact and comment on your phone on Wattpad, so it just made sense to me.” 

Making the Decision to Work with A Publisher

Todd found herself at a crossroads with her writing as the number of people reading her story grew every day. When Recode asked about when she knew it was the right time to work with a publisher, she had this to say:

“Right before I started writing I was in school and I thought I wanted to work for the government, so I was going to job interviews. My husband thought I was crazy because I was like, “I literally can’t work, this is taking up all of my time.” It takes a lot of time writing and being on social media for hours every day. Wattpad approached me about taking it to the next level and I wanted to see where I could take it."

On Turning Her Story Into A Printed Novel

When publishing her book with Simon & Schuster, Todd was afraid that the editors could change the story too much, making her characters and plot something entirely new. When discussing the editing and printing process for her first book, she told Recode a little bit about the process:

“We just had lots of typos and things to work on. With serialized writing, you’re just writing a continuous story, and with a published book you have to have structure. And I’m not the same writer that I was a year and a half ago. Reading the first book I was cringing. I was like, did I forget what a comma was? So we tore it apart and put it back together.”