YouTuber Oli White to pen YA novels for Hodder

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired two young adult novels from YouTuber Oli White, best known for his "quirky" entertainment channel OliWhiteTV.

Commissioning editor Emily Kitchin bought world rights from Sophie Gildersleeve at James Grant Group and Rory Scarfe at Furniss Lawton.

White's debut novel, Generation Next, is a YA title about a 17-year-old teenager who creates a media platform along with a group of school friends, which takes off globally when it catches the eye of the media. In the whirlwind which follows, he must cope with his new-found celebrity along with juggling school, family, and his secret feelings for his best friend.

White will be collaborating with author Terry Ronald throughout the writing process. The novel is pitched as "a coming-of-age story about love, life, family and the highs and lows of fame and success".

White started making videos in 2012 and OliWhiteTV, along with a "vlogging" channel and a gaming channel, now command a total audience of over 2.9 million subscribers, with over 200 million video views to date. His video content varies from celebrity interviews to collaborations with other successful YouTubers. He also has over 1.2 million Instagram followers and over 600,000 Twitter followers.

Hodder is embarking on a "big pre-order campaign", with an interactive "innovative and creative" publication campaign to follow, making the most of White's fan-base.

Kitchin said: "We are over the moon to have acquired two novels from Oli. He’s a tremendously exciting YouTube talent and his warm, funny and entertaining videos have won him an ever-growing legion of loyal fans. Oli has blown us away with his passion, energy and creativity – he has an incredible ability to capture the teenage voice and, in drawing on his own experience of the real-life issues many of his fans face every day, he has created a novel which is as emotionally affecting and honest as it is page-turning. Oli has brought his infectious enthusiasm to the project in spades and I know I speak for everyone here at Hodder when I say how excited we are to be working with him."

White said: "I’m so pleased to be working with Hodder to bring my idea for Generation Next to life. It’s been such a great experience working with Emily, Terry and the team and I can’t wait for everyone to read it. A huge thanks to Hodder and James Grant Group."

Hodder will publish Generation Next in hardcover and e-book in May 2016.