Kylie and Kendall Jenner’s YA book, “Rebels: City of Indra: The Story of Lex and Livia,” came out a few weeks ago, so it’s high time we meet the woman who put fingers to keyboard to pen the tome: Maya Sloan, author and teacher — and Jenner ghostwriter.
As we’ve reported before — when we premiered an exclusive excerpt from the dystopian book — the Jenner sisters employed Sloan when they decided to make their entrance into the young adult fiction genre. In a recent story in the Los Angeles Times, however, it was revealed just how much writing the girls did. The answer? When it comes to physical writing –writing — well, none.
According to the publication, Sloan wrote the book, but the Jenners’ creative director, Elizabeth Killmond-Roman, points out that the girls and the writer had many meetings via Skype and Face-Time to discuss.
“Maya wanted to understand our lingo,” Kylie told the Times. “She’s super smart and just kind of adapted to us — remembering what we said and the way we talked.” The Jenners also provided notes and edits.
“People are trying to take this away from the girls,” Killmond-Roman said. “But most art is collaborative. It was never, like, ‘Maya — go off and write 10 chapters and send them back to us.’”
The girls also helped conceptualize the plot. “We just wanted to do something different — not something everyone would have expected from us, like a fashion, high school kind of story,” Kendall said.
Sloan — who also penned her own novel, “High Before Homeroom” — has faced some blow-back from her involvement in the project, to which she replied, “I’ve learned to check my ego. … Ego will get you a teaching job in Iowa grading freshman comp papers, or a 9-to-5 editing promotional material where you want to slit your wrists. I’m writing for a living, and it’s a gift to be a working writer.”
Sloan is also the co-writer of the upcoming blog-to-book, “Rich Kids Of Instagram,” and is currently living in Florida as the writer-in-residence at Jack Kerouac’s former house in Orlando, Florida.
Brenna Ehrlich
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