Marni Bates began her writing career at the age of 19 with her autobiography, Marni, for HCI’s Louder Than Words series. Her debut fiction novel, Awkward, has been translated into Portuguese, Spanish and Hungarian and has been optioned by Disney Channel as a made for TV movie. She has three other novels with KTeen; Decked with Holly, Invisible, and Notable, as well as short stories in Ambush Books’ Magical Mayhem and Love Stinks Anthology.
In her free time she can be found reading romance novels, rollerblading, singing really loudly (and off-key) in public and . . . watching copious amounts of television.
Marni Bates 
Hi there.. I’m reading your book ‘Marni’ and I need to make a report. But i don’t know when’s your birthday & other infos.. Hope you’ll reply ASAP. I’m doing a biography op yours.. :))
I was born on November 1st, 1989. I hope this helps with your report!
It really helped.. Thanks a lot. Btw, thanks for your book. 🙂
OMG. I just want to say I have read all the book and You are my LIFE. My favorite book is Marni. It is a great book. Every page is so descriptive. You are my favorite author and i can tell you I don’t like to read book. I have to find the PERFECT book. I was looking my library and found that book. At first I wanted to read it because it looked short but then i started to read it and I fell in love with it. I told ALL my friends about how amazing the book is. Then I did a book Report on it and got an A. Thank you SO much for writing this book and hopefully you write more.
Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! ❤
Omg! I LOVED Awkward so much!!!!!!! I got it 4 my b-day and it was THE BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!! I couldn’t get enough of it. All my friends where BEGGING me to lone it to them when they saw how much I loved it! I love to write and would LOVE to be a published author one day. Do you have any tips for young writers? Like, REALLY young authors? Like, not even teen yet author? Cause I’d love to hear ’em! Thnx!
Thank you so much! I’m thrilled that you loved Awkward! I will definitely try to add a tab full of advice for writers. But here’s what I think is the most important if you want to be a writer: you have to sit in the chair and get the work done. That’s also the hardest part for most people (regardless of age) because it’s work! Especially when the characters are being annoying and the plot isn’t making sense and your favorite show (the one with that awesome cliffhanger) is about to come on…you get the picture. That’s why it’s so important to focus on the story and actually write. I hope that helps!
Just finished reading AWKWARD and i absolutely LOVED it!!!! I am THE GEEK of my school and you know what? im PROUD. this book has made me realized that and i thank you!! Truely an amazing piece of work.
Hi, at school we have book clubs and your book, “Marni”, was one of five choices as well as another Louder Than Words book, “Hannah”. I became a fan of you on good reads that’s how I got to this website 🙂
So, I just wanted to say…. thanks for writing the most awesomest book EVER!
Hi! My name is Samantha Bousquet and I am a book reviewer. I am the blogger of http://bundlesofbooks101.blogspot.com/. I have around 3500 pageviews and am a consistant blogger. I was checking out your latest book and it looks so good! I was wondering if you had a review copy? I hope to hear from you soon!
Hey Marni! I was wondering…um, yeah, how do you publish your book without no one knowing your identity?
Hi Alyssa,
Well…everyone knows my identity because I decided not to use a pen name. Initially that was incredibly scary because I knew that the people in my (small) town would have some very strong opinions about my autobiography. That said: it was important to me that I own my work. And now when I Google myself (Yep. I’m that geeky sometimes) things actually pop up! You know, beyond high school journalism articles. 😀
hi so my name is sabrina im such a huge fan i love you and your talent of writing books it would mean the world to me to respond to my post i keep update on all of your books/blog i read all your books out so far and my favorite was awkward..i just want to ask was that a true story on how ur high school junior year ended up ? or anything in the book actually happened ? im such a huge fan i took a photo of you and printed it out in a store to make it poster size i have a poster of you in my room and im 15 a freshman in high school and your just my idol thank you for everything u made me rethink aot about my self ❤
Hi Sabrina!
Wow, I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed reading my books! I had a great time writing Awkward, partly because it was so different from my high school experience. No YouTube fame for me. And sadly, most of the guys at my school weren’t exactly Logan Beckett material. That said, I definitely was a rollerblading history geek who feared the cool part of the school quad. Which means that my older brother insists I based the entire thing on my life (lies! All lies!).
Right. I also have an annoying brother who finds my bouts of awkwardness absolutely mortifying.
Yet another thing I have in common with Mackenzie.
To answer your question: my junior year of high school ended pretty well…and that summer I went on an incredible cross country bus trip. I journaled almost every day and that gave me the confidence to pursue writing something novel length. So when I returned to Oregon I promised my mom that I would write a book.
And unlike my many promises to clean my room, I followed through on this one.
Fast forward a few years and…I get to write for a living. And I get to discuss books with wonderful people (like you!) on a regular basis. So thank you for caring so much about what I write. It really means a lot to me.
I would love to see the Marni poster you have on your wall! Partly because my brother won’t believe me if I don’t have photographic proof. I don’t want you to feel pressured though. So if you feel comfortable taking the photo (and letting me post it on my blog) you can send it to me at MarniRBates@gmail.com.
Thanks you for caring so much about my books!
Sincerely,
Marni
AWKWARD IS AN AMAZING BOOK! I just finished reading it… (at 10:00….and my mom yelled at me but it was TOTALLY worth it!)
I love Mackenzie’s character…and now I’m going to sound like a pompous teacher and tell you that your word choice and variety of prepositional phrases in sentences was GREAT! (I pay too much attention in English class;) ) YOU WRITE AMAZING BOOKS! NEVER STOP WRITING!!
You rock and you know it,
Linnea ;P
Hi Linnea,
I’m sorry for the ridiculously slow response, but your message was so incredibly awesome I honestly did not know what to write. I think about your prepositional phrases comment every single time I edit. Which means I’ve been thinking about it a lot. And it always inspires me to keep refining my paragraphs, even when I’m struggling to see straight. So thank you so much for writing to me. Your support really has made such an enormous difference.
Sincerely,
Marni
P.S. There’s no such thing as paying too much attention in English class. You rock and you know it!
I LOVE YOU!!! Hehe soo you are awesome i have some ideas for a book you could write.. you probly wouldn’t but it could be vaugely about me
Hi Aly,
Why have me write a book that’s vaguely about you when you could do it? If you have a story that needs to be told, I vote you go for it! Best of luck!
Hi, Marnie,
I have ordered “Awkward” and I look forward to getting it. I am not a teen-ager or a young adult, or even middle-aged…I am seventy-eight years old, have a loving husband, and three wonderful grown sons…Richard, 48, Stuart, 47, and Nelson, 36. I love to write but have not been successful in my writing. Just recently my proposal to a literary agency was turned down. What I was wondering is how do you know what is best for a person to write? I started out with a story about Middle School kids, then moved over to High School. I know that I can write and really enjoy writing but I want to be relevant. Reading your books is very compelling…I feel instantly involved and want to continue. I don’t work well in groups and have tried to self-teach. I would love to hear your comments.
Thanks so much, Janet (steele.janet@sbcglobal.net)
Hi Janet,
Okay, so it’s really common for people to struggle while searching for the genre best suited to their voice. It’s also really easy to get so caught up in the pursuit of an agent/book deal that you lose sight of the story you want to tell. My best advice for you is to focus on telling the most compelling story you can. You may also want to consider altering your goals a little. If the objective is to write something that makes you grin foolishly…nobody can take that away from you. And I suspect that will be the story that catches the eye of an agent. So I suggest you don’t try to chase the market and just keep on writing.
Best of luck!
~Marni
Hi Marnie,
I was just wondering if you were having any contest to win decked with Holly?
I really loved awkward and I want Decked with Holly so much but I can’t find it signed, so I was really wishing you would have a contest coming up.
Thanks, Anita
Hi Anita!
You ARE too awesome for yourself! Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and support. I will definitely look into a Decked with Holly contest! I’m so glad you enjoyed Awkward. I can’t wait to hear what you think of Invisible!
Happy Reading!
~Marni
HI! OMG! I’v read AWKWARD about 7 times and it NEVER gets old! It is the best! I have also read INVISIBLE and just today I got the book NOTILE! Can’t wait to get reading! You are an amazing writer and I hope you never stop writing because I am a HUGE reader and your books are some of my favorites 😀
Thank you so much for sharing your writing 🙂
Olivia
Hi Olivia,
Wow! Thank you so much! I am so glad you enjoy reading my books. Your support and encouragement means the world to me. Seriously. I am grinning like a fool right now. I can’t wait to hear what you think of NOTABLE!
Wishing you a very happy new year!
~Marni
Hehe, OMG! haha, I can not believe you responded! Now I am the one grinning like a fool 😀 I finished NOTABLE about a week ago and it was so great. It was a lot more intense and the characters faced a lot of different challenges then in the past books. I hope that you write more! I’ll be following!!
~ Olivia
Your books are the BEST!!!! My mom got me the book Awkward for Christmas, LOVED IT!!!!! Because of that I searched it up online and found a whole set of you other books. So, I decided to buy the whole book series and read all of them. I am not done with them yet but im on my way. 😀 I am also doing a book report on your book Decked with Holly. You are a very talented writer and I am really looking forward to seeing more of your books!
Hi Ashleigh,
Wow, thank you so much! I’m thrilled that you are enjoying my books. Your enthusiasm and support means the world to me!
Good luck on your report. I’m sure you’ll be fabulous! 🙂
Sincerely,
Marni
Hi Marni,
I just read “Awkward” and I loved it 🙂 now I’m doing a project about you and I was wondering what town you were born in?
Thanks 🙂 ❤
Hi Natalie!
I grew up in Ashland, OR and um,…I’ve forgotten where I was actually born. Santa something. Good luck on your report! I’m so glad you enjoyed Awkward! 🙂
Wishing you all the best!
~Marni
I absolutely adored Decked with Holly, it was marvelously written. I was wondering\hoping that you would write a sequel of this book. I obviously know you wouldn’t write a book because ONE person wants you too, but I think it would be really interesting to read how their relationship turned out for example how Holly is taking the press and paparazzi or maybe the relationship is great and then they hit a bump in the road I don’t know, anything but anyway it would ‘ve great if you were planning that. Also sorry if you were already planning this and I completely wasted your time.
Hi Annabeth! I’m so glad you enjoyed Decked with Holly! I had an absolute blast writing about them. Part of me would love to write more about their relationship, but I think that ship has pretty much sailed… (I know. Lame pun. I couldn’t resist!) I have fallen in love with a whole new cast of characters and they are keeping me pretty busy. That said, I really appreciate your enthusiasm and support! Your message absolutely made my day! 🙂
~Marni