Latest / Beyond Fulfillment Podcast / From Hollywood Dropout to Global Phenomenon: How Soman Chainani Bet Everything on Originality & Won

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From Hollywood Dropout to Global Phenomenon: How Soman Chainani Bet Everything on Originality & Won · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:00
  Most creators spend their careers chasing what the market wants.
• 0:04
  Saman Chainani did the opposite.
• 0:07
  He walked away from Hollywood, wrote the book he wanted to write, and built a 13 year publishing phenomenon that sold millions of copies worldwide and landed on Netflix.
• 0:18
  In this episode, Saman breaks down the creative philosophy that made it all possible.
• 0:23
  Why protecting your vision matters more than chasing trends, how staying financially independent kept his writing fearless, and what his newest novel, Young World, reveals about trusting your instincts over everything else.
• 0:36
  If originality is something you've been told to dial back, this conversation will make you think twice.
• 0:43
  As always, if you found value from this content, please like and subscribe.
• 0:48
  All right, Soman Chenani, welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
• 0:52
  Thank you for having me.
• 0:53
  Yes.
• 0:54
  So excited that you could be here.
• 0:56
  So, Saman, we are here at Bookcon 2026 and we're just talking off camera how it's crazy, the amount of people.
• 1:02
  And it's crazy, it's insane every time you come to the Javits center, but especially for bookcon because of the enthusiasm,.
• 1:10
  The energy, and the sheer amount of people.
• 1:11
  Yeah, unreal.
• 1:13
  So for our audience, we have an audience of entrepreneurs, startup founders.
• 1:18
  Many are not in the publishing world, so they may not know who you are.
• 1:21
  Just to set the stage for our listeners, can you give us your backstory?
• 1:24
  Sure, sure.
• 1:25
  I actually started in the business world.
• 1:28
  As a consultant and did that for a few years, but ultimately really dreamed.
• 1:33
  Of being a storyteller.
• 1:35
  And so I pivoted, went to film school, started gaining a career as a.
• 1:40
  Screenwriter in Hollywood and as a director, and then decided I wanted more control and took a story that I really.
• 1:47
  Saw for a film and turned it.
• 1:49
  Into a novel so I could have complete and utter control over it.
• 1:53
  And ultimately that was my first novel.
• 1:55
  Published in 2013 and it took off.
• 1:57
  It was called the School for Good.
• 1:59
  And Evil and It became a 13 year series.
• 2:02
  And that's what I did for 13 years.
• 2:04
  It was six books, two prequels, you.
• 2:06
  Know, a handbook graphic novel, a huge.
• 2:08
  Movie from Netflix, 175 million dollar movie starring Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington and Laurence Fishburne.
• 2:16
  And, you know, that was sort of the high point of that series.
• 2:18
  And so I knew the time had come to do something else.
• 2:21
  And so my second original novel comes out now, so which hopefully will spawn.
• 2:25
  Its own kind of life.
• 2:28
  So that's kind of what happened.
• 2:29
  You know, I started in the business world and then realized I was actually meant to be a storyteller.
• 2:33
  Okay.
• 2:33
  Yeah.
• 2:34
  And appreciate that high level overview.
• 2:36
  So let's dig into some of that, because when you wrote the Good, the School for Good and Evil, right, you.
• 2:41
  Were at a low point in your.
• 2:43
  Career where, you know, you, after business, you went into Hollywood and you were looking to do several projects.
• 2:52
  Doors kept kind of closing, Right.
• 2:54
  You wanted to stay true to your art, but it was tough, given the industry type of thing, 100%.
• 2:59
  And so you decided, I'm, you know, fuck it, I'm just gonna write what I want to write and whatever happens is gonna happen.
• 3:05
  Yeah.
• 3:05
  And that is what that is.
• 3:07
  When you wrote School for Good and.
• 3:08
  Evil, yeah, I felt like I wanted to put something out in the world,.
• 3:13
  My first thing out in the world, because nothing was coming out, you know, I was writing screenplays, I was getting paid really well.
• 3:18
  I was going to direct a movie.
• 3:19
  And then things kept appearing in the way, as they do in Hollywood.
• 3:22
  Right.
• 3:22
  90% of projects don't get made.
• 3:24
  And I just felt like I want.
• 3:25
  To put something out to the world, and when I do, I want it.
• 3:28
  To be something I can stand behind.
• 3:30
  And I feel like there was too.
• 3:31
  Many times where I had to compromise.
• 3:33
  Or water things down.
• 3:34
  And with Scupper Ganimo, I just felt kind of unleashed.
• 3:36
  Like, I'm going to write this book.
• 3:37
  I'm not going to listen to what anyone says.
• 3:40
  I'm going to write what I think kids would want.
• 3:44
  And when it came out, it.
• 3:45
  It was pretty controversial.
• 3:48
  You know, reviewers were like, this is.
• 3:50
  Very different than what, you know, kids.
• 3:53
  Seem to be reading right now.
• 3:55
  But that ultimately is what allowed it.
• 3:57
  To just kind of catch fire, you.
• 3:59
  Know, and that's what happened.
• 4:00
  It became a word of mouth kind of force and ended up spreading to, you know, it's in 35 languages, 110 countries.
• 4:08
  And it was just because it was different.
• 4:11
  But for something to be different and.
• 4:13
  Work requires you to be able to just, like, go for a big risk,.
• 4:18
  You know, and be bold.
• 4:20
  And I think that came as a.
• 4:21
  Result of a lot of doors being.
• 4:23
  Closed in my face.
• 4:24
  So when that happens, right, because you're at this moment where you just don't care.
• 4:28
  I'm going to write what I want to write.
• 4:29
  And then when it takes off like that, what was that like for you?
• 4:32
  I think I started to feel pressure because they wanted sequels, and I ended up doing five sequels to.
• 4:38
  So you start to feel like there's an audience and then again you start.
• 4:40
  To feel that compromising feeling.
• 4:42
  And I think I just have to keep reminding myself with each book is,.
• 4:45
  You know, books take over a Year to write.
• 4:47
  I can't write to somebody else's specifications.
• 4:50
  Like, it has to be what I want to do.
• 4:52
  And I think that became the guiding light in my writing career, which is, I'm not gonna listen to anyone.
• 4:57
  Not the fans, not, you know, the market, not, you know.
• 5:01
  Well, the only person I ever trusted was the editor that I was working with.
• 5:05
  And that became a very deep relationship.
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  And almost like a psychologist that I.
• 5:08
  Would work with, but otherwise, I didn't.
• 5:11
  Let the outside world in.
• 5:12
  And I feel like that's part of.
• 5:13
  The thing is, like, to make sure that if you have a vision that you strongly believe in, almost messianic in, you know what that vision is, to make sure that the final product actually matches that vision.
• 5:24
  I think too often we have a.
• 5:26
  Vision and we allow ourselves to be swayed by things along the way.
• 5:29
  But ultimately, the vision is the key thing.
• 5:30
  And it's the same thing that happened.
• 5:32
  When, you know, 13 years later, I finally wrote my second original novel.
• 5:35
  Same thing.
• 5:36
  What's the vision?
• 5:37
  And make sure the final product matches that.
• 5:39
  Okay.
• 5:40
  And also, as the success started coming in, I mean, that the book series sold 4 and a half million copies last count, so.
• 5:47
  But as the success starts happening, you still kept your day job for a long time.
• 5:52
  I was a tutor.
• 5:53
  I used to tutor kids for the SAT and college applications and things like that.
• 5:57
  And I loved it because it kept.
• 5:58
  Me in touch with teenagers, you know,.
• 6:00
  And it let me learn the languages and the patterns and everything like that.
• 6:05
  And so I didn't want to give it up for two reasons.
• 6:08
  One, I really enjoyed working with them.
• 6:10
  And the second thing was I didn't want writing to be my sole source of income because then I felt like.
• 6:15
  There'd be too much pressure on me,.
• 6:16
  And I couldn't be as bold and take as many risks as I wanted to.
• 6:20
  And I feel like by not having.
• 6:21
  It be my sole source of income,.
• 6:23
  I could just kind of, you know, not think in terms of the market or I couldn't be afraid, because what's.
• 6:29
  The worst case that happens?
• 6:30
  I lose my entire writing career, and.
• 6:32
  I just go back to what I.
• 6:33
  Was doing before, which is tutoring.
• 6:35
  Okay, all right.
• 6:36
  And now it's interesting because as the School for Good and Evil takes off, right, naturally the film stuff comes around.
• 6:43
  And first.
• 6:44
  First it was Universal that didn't work out.
• 6:46
  And then ultimately it came out of Netflix, but it was in long process.
• 6:50
  Long process.
• 6:51
  I got bought the day the book came out by Universal in 2013, and then we went through Development and everything like that.
• 6:58
  I think it was too close to.
• 6:59
  Wicked in terms of that movie they were developing and Universal couldn't have both of them.
• 7:04
  And so ultimately they sold the movie to Netflix or Netflix bought it from them.
• 7:09
  And then, you know, we started over with Netflix.
• 7:13
  And you know, you go through, so, you know, directors were fired, writers were fired.
• 7:18
  I think there were nine different writers on it.
• 7:19
  And so you go through this whole process to get the final result.
• 7:24
  But ultimately, as the author, you're not the driving force.
• 7:27
  With $175 million movie.
• 7:29
  There's 700 people working on the movie.
• 7:32
  So you learn to kind of just.
• 7:34
  Accept it as an interpretation of the.
• 7:36
  Book, but it's not your baby.
• 7:40
  Instead, what I sort of saw it as is almost like a very expensive.
• 7:45
  Trailer for the book.
• 7:46
  And so what happened after the movie came out is it starts a whole new generation of kids reading the books, which allows you then, in an entrepreneurial.
• 7:53
  Way to think, okay, I have, you.
• 7:56
  Know, a series that normally after 10 years, a book series would start to fade.
• 8:00
  Now it's, you know, regenerated.
• 8:03
  And so, you know, we start to.
• 8:04
  Think about, okay, new covers, maybe new graphic novels.
• 8:08
  Like, you start to just reinvigorate it because, you know, especially with the kid audience, 8 to 12 year olds, you can have something that's evergreen, that can really last forever because some of the series really do because new
• 8:19
  kids come in, their siblings, pass it down.
• 8:22
  It just becomes something that renews itself as long as you keep kind of watering the plant.
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• 9:12
  And with the movie, how involved were you in that?
• 9:15
  Somewhat.
• 9:16
  I mean, I could interfere when I.
• 9:19
  Thought it was going well off track, and I tried.
• 9:22
  But ultimately I feel like in most.
• 9:25
  Cases the author is kind of thrown aside at some point, you know, because, I don't know, it's just otherwise they would trust you for everything.
• 9:34
  You're the expert on it.
• 9:35
  So the more they can get rid of you, the better.
• 9:38
  Okay.
• 9:39
  All right.
• 9:39
  And so after the whole process, now.
• 9:42
  You've wrote in your.
• 9:43
  Written your second original novel, which is called Young World.
• 9:46
  You have the bookie right here.
• 9:48
  It's very bright.
• 9:49
  I don't know if you can see it on camera.
• 9:51
  The camera can actually.
• 9:52
  It's funny, it's dayglow neon.
• 9:54
  And dayglow neon actually doesn't show up on screen, so you can't really see.
• 9:57
  The real color of it until you hold it in your hand.
• 10:00
  But trust me, it's very bright.
• 10:03
  And so your, your first book series, School of Good and Evil, was a kid's, not a fiction novel.
• 10:12
  Yeah, this is also fiction, but this is a very different type of story.
• 10:16
  Tell us about this story.
• 10:17
  Yeah, so this one, again, I had the vision of this color.
• 10:20
  I had this vision of like a.
• 10:21
  Nuclear color and like an orange.
• 10:25
  And I thought to myself, okay, what.
• 10:26
  Fairy tale would this represent?
• 10:28
  And I started to realize it wasn't.
• 10:30
  A fairy tale at all.
• 10:30
  This one was going to be a political party.
• 10:32
  I started to think like, okay, there's.
• 10:34
  Going to be a political party with this color of nuclear orange.
• 10:38
  And it became a story about young.
• 10:40
  People banding together, forming a third party that takes over the American government and.
• 10:44
  Then takes over eight other governments in the world.
• 10:46
  And now you have eight governments led.
• 10:48
  By teenagers in the first 20 pages of the book.
• 10:51
  And what was interesting about this is it was the same thing as School.
• 10:55
  For Good Evil, where I had like.
• 10:56
  A clear vision of the inside was going to be just as neon as the outside.
• 11:00
  You'll see there's over like, you know, 150 visuals that are neon inside the book.
• 11:07
  And I wanted to kind of break the format of what we're used to with books.
• 11:11
  I wanted it to be its own.
• 11:13
  Thing and feel like a multimedia novel.
• 11:16
  And so again, it felt like starting.
• 11:18
  My career over because I had to.
• 11:19
  Convince a publisher to let me go.
• 11:21
  In a totally different direction, Reinvent the.
• 11:23
  Form, spend money on a very expensive book.
• 11:27
  But that was the vision I had from the beginning.
• 11:29
  And so I was very strong about it in the same way that I was about school.
• 11:32
  Okay, all right.
• 11:34
  And so this comes out May 5th.
• 11:36
  May 5th.
• 11:36
  Okay.
• 11:37
  And I understand there's already a studio.
• 11:40
  Bidding more on the movie.
• 11:41
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:41
  So there we have a lot of producers interested and studios interested in the book.
• 11:47
  I'm holding onto it for right now because I feel like with the school, Forget evil, I think I gave it away too early almost.
• 11:55
  And I Would like to just have a little more control with this one.
• 11:58
  And I don't feel the urgency or.
• 12:00
  Need to necessarily get it made into.
• 12:02
  A movie or tv, you know, right away.
• 12:04
  I'd like it to be done by the right people.
• 12:06
  Okay.
• 12:06
  All right.
• 12:08
  And throughout this whole process, when you look back, right, like, how you started in business, that didn't work.
• 12:13
  The Hollywood stuff didn't work at first.
• 12:17
  You.
• 12:17
  You wrote on your own terms and experienced massive success, as in coming this whole way.
• 12:22
  And now with starting with another book and having this much excitement before it even comes out, what would you say is the best part of this journey for you?
• 12:30
  I think for me, it's.
• 12:31
  I don't lead from a place of.
• 12:34
  Ego and conscious mind.
• 12:36
  I'm always trying to tune in to.
• 12:39
  What kind of like the creative elves,.
• 12:41
  Or maybe like, the side of myself that I'm not conscious of wants to do.
• 12:45
  So, like, when I started having dreams of this crazy color, I actually, like,.
• 12:50
  Had faith in it.
• 12:51
  Like, okay, there's something that.
• 12:53
  You know what I mean?
• 12:55
  I didn't even know what that color was like.
• 12:57
  I'd never seen it before.
• 12:58
  It was like a tropic cone.
• 13:00
  I was like, why am I dreaming.
• 13:01
  Of that neon color?
• 13:02
  So to learn to trust instincts that are beyond the surface, I think is super important.
• 13:09
  I think every entrepreneur and CEO needs to spend time in a quiet room.
• 13:14
  You know, some version of meditation where.
• 13:15
  You're just tuning in and looking for.
• 13:18
  Things that you might not be conscious of.
• 13:20
  And I feel like that's very crucial.
• 13:22
  Wow.
• 13:23
  Love that.
• 13:24
  Okay, Soman, if fans, other people want to get in touch or follow your work, what's the best way people can find you online?
• 13:30
  Sure.
• 13:30
  My Instagram C and then the website.
• 13:33
  For young world is revoltingyouth.org that's revoltingyouth.org.
• 13:38
  If you pre order the book early, you also get.
• 13:41
  I kept diaries during the making of it because it was such a crazy process.
• 13:44
  I felt like I was building, like, Noah's ark with this nutty book.
• 13:47
  So I kept diaries for three and a half years.
• 13:49
  And so I'm collecting the diaries in.
• 13:51
  A special edition paperback called Diary of a Novel.
• 13:54
  And you get it for free if you order.
• 13:57
  So that's@revoltingyouth.org okay, we'll link all that in the show.
• 14:00
  Notes for everyone.
• 14:01
  So, man, thanks so much.
• 14:02
  My pleasure.
• 14:02
  Thanks for having me.
• 14:03
  All right, Sam.