FAQ

Angie gets a lot of the same great questions — about her books, about writing, speaking, and more. Here are the answers you seek!

Yep! Love Big, but they were two different rappers with two different styles. I’m a Hip Hop head—I could go on for days just talking about those two. The East Coast/West Coast beef didn’t have anything to do with me (check the Wikipedia page—my name isn’t on it) and that was over twenty years ago so…shrug why not like both and appreciate them for what they brought to Hip Hop? In fact, Biggie was an inspiration for my second novel, On the Come Up.

Yes! But they are not identical to the book. Books and film adaptations are like fraternal twins in a “Parent Trap” situation—they’re being raised by two different parents. The book versions are raised by my publisher, and the film version is raised by the movie studio. They parent different, their kids are different and will even look different, but they still share genetics. As the author, I’m like the grandparent rooting for both kids. I don’t make decisions, but I do advise.
The title comes from the definition that Tupac Shakur gave “Thug Life,” which was not just the tattoo he had on his stomach but a code of the streets he developed for impoverished neighborhoods. “Thug Life” is an acronym for, “The Hate U Give Little Infants F**ks Everybody.” Voila, the title of the book, just without the L.I.F.E. part ’cause we can’t put the “F” word in a Young Adult book title. Plus, that would be one long title.
Yep! Love Big, but they were two different rappers with two different styles. I’m a Hip Hop head—I could go on for days just talking about those two. The East Coast/West Coast beef didn’t have anything to do with me (check the Wikipedia page—my name isn’t on it) and that was over twenty years ago so…shrug why not like both and appreciate them for what they brought to Hip Hop? In fact, Biggie was an inspiration for my second novel, On the Come Up.

Yes! But they are not identical to the book. Books and film adaptations are like fraternal twins in a “Parent Trap” situation—they’re being raised by two different parents. The book versions are raised by my publisher, and the film version is raised by the movie studio. They parent different, their kids are different and will even look different, but they still share genetics. As the author, I’m like the grandparent rooting for both kids. I don’t make decisions, but I do advise.
Even before I wrote The Hate U Give, I knew I wanted to write a novel that paid homage to hip-hop. As a teenager, hip-hop was how I saw myself when I didn’t see myself in books. I had this character, Bri, and I knew she had to be a rapper, but that’s all. I got the idea for the plot after “The Hate U Give” was published. The censorship challenges the novel faced reminded me of the rappers who had meant so much to me And how they went through similar experiences. I was looking to them for inspiration about the censorship I was dealing with, just as I was trying to write a book about hip-hop. This made me look at what it means to be a young black person in America, when freedom of speech isn’t necessarily free for you.

The key is to write, write, write, and be prepared to re-write, re-write, re-write. Also, read, read, read, especially books that are in the same category and genre as yours. Find good critique partners and beta readers—they can help you see things that you may not notice in your manuscript. When you’re ready to query literary agents, read the Query Shark Blog in its entirety and then write a letter. But you’re not done with revisions yet, because you should get your query letter critiqued too. Once you have a solid letter, research agents, find those who rep your category and genre, and FOLLOW THEIR SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (I can’t stress that enough). Online contests can be a good way to put your manuscript in front of agents and an even better way to make friends in the writing community. The biggest key, though, is to never give up. Ne-ver. I don’t care how many rejections you get (and believe me, there will be a lot of them). Keep writing, keep querying.

Angie Thomas