Photo: Media punch inc/Rex USA.To their credit, Kendall and Kylie Jenner have been fairly upfront about their use of a ghostwriter for their YA debut, Rebels: City of Indra. "We obviously can't write a sci-fi novel on our own," Kendall admitted during a recent interview with Good Morning America.
Instead, the girls enlisted the help of ghostwriter Maya Sloan, an author with two writing MFAs and a keen understanding of Jenner-speak.
"We just wanted to do something different — not something everyone would have expected from us, like a fashion, high school kind of story," model Kendall explained of the decision to write a dystopian novel.
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The teens created a two-page outline for the story with their creative director Elizabeth Killmond-Roman (yes, they have a creative director). Sloan then got to work with the writing, meeting with the girls over Skype and in person during New York Fashion Week to nail their voice.
"Maya wanted to understand our lingo," said Kylie. "She's super-smart and just kind of adapted to us — remembering what we said and the way we talked."
Sloan, whose next project is co-authoring the book version of Rich Kids Of Instagram, is careful to clarify that the Jenners had a lot of input into the book.
"People are trying to take this away from the girls," she said. "But, most art is collaborative. It was never, like, 'Maya — go off and write 10 chapters and send them back to us.'"
"These are teenage girls," she added. "They're wealthy and they have a famous name, but I didn't want to look at them — or their book — as a product."
Ultimately, she said, she's simply happy to have a book out on shelves, even if it means working on someone else's vision.
"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," Sloan explained. "I'm writing for a living, and it's a gift to be a working writer."
Did someone say sequel? (ONTD)
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