“The Atlas Six” Author Olivie Blake Credits BookTok for Her Novel's Success: 'It Didn't Feel Conventional'

Blake spoke on a panel with authors M.L. Rio and Margaret Killjoy at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sept. 29

Olivie Blake’s fantastical dark academia novel, The Atlas Six, is a chart-topping bestseller, and a growing favorite within the genre. But the book, its author says, might never have been published if she went the traditional route.

On Sept. 29, Blake, which is a pen name of the author Alexene Farol Follmuth, spoke on a panel during the Brooklyn Book Festival, alongside authors M.L. Rio (Graveyard Shift), Margaret Killjoy (The Sapling Cage) and moderator Christopher John Farley. Blake spoke about the origins of The Atlas Six, which was originally self-published in 2020 before it was picked up by Tor Books.

“I never queried The Atlas Six,” Blake said. “At that point, [the novel] had died on the querying floor, and so I got the feeling that I couldn't pitch The Atlas Six in a way that an agent would be interested in.”

“You could pitch it a bunch of very familiar ways, but to me, what was interesting to me was the six underlying narrators,” Blake added. “The way that there is no objective story. There is no objective truth.”

The Atlas Six follows a group of magicians who are competing against each other to earn a place in the prestigious, secret, Alexandrian Society.

“It was my ninth self-published book, so at that point, I was like, ‘You know what? Publishing is maybe not interested in what I have to say. Maybe what I'm doing with characters is not relatable enough. I'm having trouble getting through the gatekeepers,’” Blake said.

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However, the book grew in popularity online, and particularly on BookTok, which Blake credits as helping her as well.

“BookTok, generally, is just word of mouth,” Blake said, adding that, "Sometimes, I feel that publishing as an industry doesn't realize ... how diverse the market actually is. "

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“Publishing, the machine, doesn't understand that yet, and BookTok pushed it there to some extent,” Blake said. “I don't think it's 100% a perfect system, but certainly I benefited a lot from the analytics. People respond to it because of the type of storytelling it was. It didn't feel conventional, and I appreciate that.”

Blake has written two more books in the Atlas Six trilogy, including 2022’s The Atlas Paradox and 2024’s The Atlas Complex. The author also spoke about the writing process, and navigating her six core characters as well.

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“The way that I structured the series, it would not have worked if I had a favorite character, because each character has to be equally interesting,” Blake said. “And so, this is an exercise too. It was like, if I finished a chapter … I would stop myself and ask, ‘Well, who is the next most interesting person? What would be the most exciting for me to work on next?’”

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“I will say that certain characters are easier or harder to write,” Blake said. “I was actually just telling someone this earlier, that likable characters are so hard to write. It's a craft exercise to constantly ask myself ‘Is this logical? Would she do this?’ It's so boring … Callum Nova is probably the easiest character in the world to write because he didn't have any rules.”

And as for which of her characters’ magical powers Blake would love to have?

“Telepathy, for sure,” Blake said. “I definitely don't want anyone else's emotions. That feels very stressful to me, but I do have a little bit of voyeurism. I'm interested in what other people think.”

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