His successful first novel, Three Things for a Desert Island (Shlosha Devarim le'iy Boded), was published in 2006 by Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan Publishing House. The novel became a bestseller in Israel and is considered a cult book among Israeli backpackers. The book was nominated for the 2006 Geffen Award.  Avni's second novel To Be (Ha-chamishit shel Chong Levi) was published by Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan in 2009.

Yoav Avni holds a BA in Economics and Management from Tel-Aviv University (1996), and an MA in Communications from Clark University (1997). His writing is influenced by authors like Tom Robbins, Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut.