Claim: Ready Player One was sold to a publisher.

Ready Player One is a 2011 dystopian science-fiction novel , and the debut novel by Ernest Cline . In 2012 , the book received an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association and won the 2012 Prometheus Award .   Cline sold the novel in June 2010 , in a bidding war to the Crown Publishing Group -LRB- a division of Random House -RRB- . The book was published on August 16 , 2011 . An audiobook was released the same day ; it was narrated by Wil Wheaton , who was mentioned briefly in one of the chapters .   A film adaptation , directed by Steven Spielberg , is currently in production , and slated to premiere in spring 2018 .