Geek Girl

“My name is Harriet Manners, and I am a geek.”

Harriet Manners knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a “jiffy” lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. She knows that bats always turn left when exiting a cave and that peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

But she doesn’t know why nobody at school seems to like her.

So when Harriet is spotted by a top model agent, she grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her best friend's dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of impossibly handsome model Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.

Veering from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, Harriet begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn't seem to like her any more than the real world did.

As her old life starts to fall apart, will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

Holly Smale is a debut author. Clumsy, a bit geeky and somewhat shy, she spent the majority of her teenage years hiding in the changing room toilets. She was unexpectedly spotted by a top London modelling agency at the age of fifteen and spent the following two years falling over on catwalks, going bright red and breaking things she couldn’t afford to replace. By the time Holly had graduated from Bristol University with a BA in English Literature and an MA in Shakespeare she had given up modelling and set herself on the path to becoming a writer. Holly is now a fully fledged author and blogger and is currently writing the sequel to Geek Girl

Sales and Marketing highlights

•Huge industry buzz, this is THE major teen launch on 2013 – Geek Girl has already been snapped up by 8 major foreign territories in the 2 months since Bologna 2012.

•Holly Smale is fresh and funny, smart and sassy, a brilliant debut author.

•Holly Smale was a teen model herself – get exclusive access into the truly closed world of fashion and modelling.

•This is THE major new launch into the teen girl market for HarperCollins. We will be building huge hype with a major pre-awareness campaign across all channels, through bloggers, influencers, booksellers and the press.

• Early market research conducted with the core demographic has been overwhelmingly positive. 10/10!

•Using carefully chosen brand partnerships to reach our key girls, and bring the concept to life, e.g. New Look, Benefit and Soap & Glory.

• Innovative media campaign both on and offline with highly targeted print and digital brands such as Shout, Mizz and Sugarscape.