This Orthodox Jewish Author Just Landed a Major Three-Book Deal

Isaac Rudansky is a successful entrepreneur who built AdVenture Media, a PPC advertising management services company. With clients like AMC Networks, Sports Illustrated, and Nasdaq, as well as more than 300,000 students enrolled in his courses, he became one of the top PPC advertising experts globally.

Even though Isaac was by all means successful, he had one unfulfilled dream: he wanted to write a fantasy novel.

Now, he has – and he’s just landed a major three-book deal with Sourceboks/Penguin Random House, as well as a six-figure advance, which is incredibly rare for a debut novelist in the middle grade market. His book earned praise from Neil Blair, JK Rowling’s agent and chairman of Pottermore, who said it’s an, “unforgettable journey that explores the power of belief and the magic that lies just beyond our world.” Pete Knapp, America’s #1 Young Adult agent and partner at Park & Fine Literary in New York City, represents Isaac. Not only that, but Isaac is also a proud Orthodox Jew.

His new book, “Georgie Summers and the Scribes of Scatterplot,” follows 12-year-old Georgie Summers, who goes on a fantastical adventure when a mysterious and terrifying man kidnaps his father. Georgie stumbles into Scatterplot, a place where Scribes record the memories of everyone on planet Earth, and he must defeat the evil man’s plan to destroy those memories.

The book includes Jewish themes, with the “Scribehood” mirroring Isaac’s experiences in yeshiva, the Altercockers tribe, which is a playful reference to Yiddish, and the Kabbalistic concepts of light and shadow.

“After October 7, something fundamentally changed in me,” Isaac said. “I became more forthright about my Judaism and values, even in professional settings where I previously kept them private. I made a deliberate, conscious choice to incorporate Jewish elements into the book – not as window dressing, but as foundational to its themes and worldbuilding. In times when Jewish identity is under assault globally, I felt compelled to weave these elements into a story that children of all backgrounds would enjoy.”

Isaac, who lives in the Five Towns in New York, grew up Orthodox; his parents decided to become observant around the time he was born. He would write in his free time, typically short stories with Stephen King-esque themes. His family and community imbued in him a “certain irreverence, what we call chutzpah” when he was growing up. “My parents are buttoned-up middle-class professionals, but just the culture, the school, and what we learn about ourselves develops this quality. I’m saying this as a compliment; I think it’s very healthy. It creates a feeling that you’re capable, that you deserve a seat at the table, that you can make things happen for yourself.”

Isaac certainly has. He started his advertising agency without previous experience – he took a leap of faith. He then wrote his book without knowing if it would get published.

“It’s probably a combination of our history as a persecuted people,” he said. “We’ve developed differently.”

Isaac, a husband and father of five, spent years working on “Georgie Summers” without knowing if anything would come of his efforts.

“People around you are nice, but you can tell they see it as a joke,” he said. “You begin to doubt yourself. You question if it’s worth it, if you have what it takes, if you’ve wasted time, energy, and money on something that will never achieve anything.”

Once he landed an agent and signed the deal, it was “emotionally overwhelming – years of almost certain rejection becoming validated,” he said. “Landing a traditional publishing deal for middle-grade fiction felt fundamentally out of reach for an Orthodox Jewish author. In fact, I didn’t know of any other Orthodox Jews writing in this genre.”

Isaac made sure to include his own life experiences in his work. In his book are the Altercockers, exiles cast out of Scatterplot who wander the forest and are seen as heathens who don’t follow the Scribes’ rules, and the Scribes, who are pious, moralistic, and welcome you if you follow the rules and don’t question too much or step out of line.

“I modeled this after my time in yeshiva – I felt part Altercocker, part Scribe, relating to both approaches, neither perfect,” he said.

Another theme in “Georgie Summers” is shadow and light.

“In Judaism, we’re taught that we have different character traits and evil impulses within us,” Isaac said. “We don’t believe in pure good – we believe the greater a person is, the greater their negative impulses can be. We believe in repentance and directing darker energy toward good. We reject asceticism – as mainstream Jews, we like nice things.”

Even though Isaac is one of the few Orthodox Jewish authors with a big book deal, and maybe the only one in middle grade fiction, he hopes to change that. His goal is to inspire young writers to take a chance like he did and follow their dreams, too.

“Over the last 10-15 years, a whole industry of music, culture, arts, and tools for Orthodox Jews has developed,” he said. “I think representing mainstream Orthodox Judaism in fiction that’s not published solely because it’s Jewish or deals with Jewish characters is important. We should just have good fiction. In my community, kids read ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Percy Jackson.’ I hope to show Orthodox kids that the publishing world isn’t closed to them.”

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