Chronicle Books Signs First-Time Author from The Great Tumblr Book Search

San Francisco, CA [April 2, 2013] – Today Chronicle Books announced that it will publish Paul Laudiero, a first-time author and the grand-prize winner of The Great Tumblr Book Search. Additionally Chronicle and Tumblr are pleased to announce that the contest will be an annual partnership.

The Great Tumblr Book Search kicked off in January and Chronicle received 175 entries in just 45 days. For the past month, editors at both Chronicle and Tumblr read through the proposals. And it was Laudiero’s book idea that caught their eye.

Laudiero submitted a proposal for his popular Tumblr, Sh*t Rough Drafts. He is a 22- year-old from Virginia, a Creative Writing major at George Mason University, and a writer and comedian who performs regularly at Washington Improv Theater in D.C. Last summer Laudiero interned at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York.

Sh*t Rough Drafts imagines early drafts of famous literary works and screenplays, including the Bible, Harry Potter, and Braveheart. Laudiero started his Tumblr in February and it immediately gained a following, thanks to coverage on Huffington Post Books. The book will combine new entries with the best of the blog entries and is slated for publication in Spring 2014.

The Great Tumblr Book Search yielded three runners-up: Twitter the Comic by Mike Rosenthal; The Awkward Phase by Tyler Gillespie and Claire Meyer; and Activitorium by The Tangential edited by Becky Lang and designed by Caroline Royce. Additionally Chronicle honored a short list of other finalists on their announcement post on Tumblr, including the creators of Young Monsters, Bad Ass Civil War Beards, Bunny Ears Over the Years, Mister Book, and I Work at a Public Library.

Chronicle has published several books from Tumblrs, most recently Dads Are the Original Hipsters and F*ck! I’m in My Twenties. Seeing the value of Tumblr as a place to discover new authors, Chronicle proposed the contest idea to the social network.