How One Artist Turned His Viral Reddit Post Into a Book Deal

 

It all started last November when artist Austin Light uploaded an album of illustrations he had made based on ‘movie title typos’.

The concept was simple: remove one letter from a movie title, and write a brief synopsis of what the new movie was about.

The original thread became a popular post on reddit and Light decided to turn the best submissions into illustrated movie posters as a kind of ‘draw one thing a day’ project.

 

 

A few hours later, Austin’s submission reached the top of reddit’s front page not once, but twice!

 

 

 

It was only a matter of time before publications began to pick up the trending story. TwistedSifter did a post and it was one of our most popular posts of 2014!

 

 

 

 

Television shows followed with coverage shortly thereafter…

 

 

 

Even celebrities started to share Austin’s illustrations! (ps. check out the link Molly Ringwald shared, it’s the Sifter post!)

 

 

 

This next step was CRITICAL. Austin was riding a wave of popularity that artists can only dream of. BUT instead of just enjoying the ride, he SEIZED the moment and used the attention as an opportunity to try to fulfil a lifelong dream.
 
He sent an email to the open submissions page on the Chronicle Books website. Something to the effect of: “Hey look how popular this thing I made is. It would make for a great book!”

 

 

 

Chronicle Books agreed and now Austin had to turn his sketchbook drawings into a book that would bear his name. So he started to draw…

 

 

and draw…

 

 

and draw…

 

 

and draw some more…

 

 

and more…

 

 

Until finally

 

 

His wife uploaded the touching photo below with the following caption:

I’ve known this man almost longer than I haven’t. I’ve seen him have every range of emotion possible but this moment will stand out. This moment is pride. This is “I did it”. All of you experienced a part of the excitement of #movietitletypos but few saw the years of work leading up to it. Austin, on his 31st birthday, got to hold his first published book and it was as wonderful as I always imagined. #proudwife

 

 

#boom #bucketlist