The saga after, of which the American novelist Anna Todd wrote the first lines on her smartphone almost ten years ago, is a worldwide literary phenomenon. It has become a textbook case in the category of “young adult” books, these stories of love, even eroticism, which appeal to adolescents and young adults, from the age of 13, at the age when we rush on social networks, even if certain sexy romances are not recommended for those under 16 – because they are different from the rosy romance novels à la Barbara Cartland of the last century .
Exceeding 12 million copies in around thirty countries in 2019, including more than 5 million in France (five volumes at Hugo & Cie), the bestseller after has become a multimedia work. The fourth film adapted from this love romance (the first of which was released in theaters in 2019) is scheduled for late August-early September and awaited by millions of fans. In the United States, the saga can be seen from the age of 13, but with the consent of the parents all the same. Before arriving in dark rooms, it was Paramount, the parent company of Simon & Schuster, which had acquired the adaptation rights for the cinema in 2014, but it sold them three years later to CalMaple Media and Offspring. Entertainment.
A self-publication that has become a saga
The paper edition is also available in other forms: the first volume of the graphic version ofafter has been available since May, notably in France at Hugo & Cie, where seven volumes are planned. after, which recounts the passionate idyll between the ambitious Tessa and the bad boy Hardin, joined the flagship works of the sentimental literature of adolescents such as Fifty Shades of Grey, by El JamesWhere Bridget Jones Diary, by Helen Fielding.
“When I started writing, it was strictly a hobby and an outlet. In fact, I never thought it could be a success; I now have about 2 billion reads. I often think back to when I was lost professionally and how my love of reading turned into writing, which turned into a career I couldn’t have dreamed of. »still surprised Anna Todd.
Born thirty-three years ago in Ohio, she first self-published on the social network Wattpad (under the nickname Imaginator1D), where nearly 100 million users can read and/or edit novels, stories, poems or fanfiction (extensions of works written by fans). after became the most read title of this Canadian platform based in Toronto, but whose parent company is the South Korean group Naver, which bought it in January 2021. From self-publishing, after was quickly published in book form by Gallery Publishing (a division of Simon & Schuster). The saga has a fifth volume: Before. Anna Todd has created her own company – Frayed Pages Media – to publish her next works and those of other authors. The novelist returned to Wattpad at the end of 2021 to publish her next series online to read in the form of webtoons, these digital comics to scroll through on smartphones.