Jenna Miscavige Hill

Many writers have specialties: mystery, romance, true crime, even vampires. But Lisa Pulitzer has developed a curious subgenre that she has nearly all to herself: the escape story.

Ms. Pulitzer specializes in writing books with women who have abandoned groups that include, from left, a polygamous sect, a vehemently anti-homosexual Baptist church and the Church of Scientology.

Ms. Pulitzer helps young women who have fled religious sects or cultlike organizations give their accounts in compelling, often best-selling prose. “I’m now the official cult gal,” she said.

William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, today announced plans to publish Jenna Miscavige Hill’s headline-making memoir about her life inside the Church of Scientology. The book, entitled Beyond Belief: My Secret Life inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, will be published on February 1, 2013. In her memoir, Jenna--the niece of the church’s leader, David Miscavige--tells the dramatic and bizarre true story of growing up in Scientology and how she ultimately was able to break away from the church