Know Your Genre: Contemporary YA

This is the second in the Know Your Genre series. Last week we took a look at Gothic romance. Today the topic is Contemporary YA.

Last year I read 40 recently published contemporary YA titles, because I wanted to really understand where the market was headed. And a great many themes and conventions revealed themselves to me. Now, rules are made to be broken, right? However, a unique, groundbreaking book would still probably tick off a few of these observations, while deviating in some fascinating way on one or two points.

So here goes:

1. First person, baby

More than 90% of the books I read last year were in either first person past tense or first person present tense. To my ear, the first person present tense has a breathless quality which feels younger and slightly less literary than past tense. But both forms have a personal, confessional tone which works well for teen voices.

Exceptions to this rule tended to be extraordinary. David Levithan's "Greek chorus" voice for Two Boys Kissing broke my heart from page one. And Rainbow Rowell's (very close) third person for FanGirl was mindblowingly skillful.

I only found a couple of titles with alternating first person points of view, and always in romance titles. Katie McGarry's Pushing the Limits series and books by Simone Elkeles did this.

2. MCs Between 15 and 18. Mostly.

It's possible to write YA about younger characters, but the stakes have to be pretty high for a teen to read about a person younger than themselves. (Patricia McCormick's SOLD is one brilliant example. The 13yo main character is sold into sex slavery.)

In the other direction, there is a definite trend toward YA books which follow their narrators into the summer after high school graduation, or off to college. Sarah Dessen, Gayle Forman, Rainbow Rowell, Sara Zarr and Lauren Myracle all recently published books with off-to-college narrators.


3. Not Too Short, Not Too Long

While fantasy novels, with all that world building, can be really fat, contemporary YA has historically topped out before 80,000 words. But if I were to pick a trend, I'd say the trend is toward more variation. I read 55,000 word books and 107,000 word books last year. Using www.arbookfind.com, I averaged all the ones I'd read which appeared in their database. My (not very) scientific result was a 77,000 mean.

4. Girl Power

Although I read some great boy voices, (Living With Jackie Chan, The Beginning of Everything, Reality Boy) girls are still the most frequent YA narrators. This is probably because girls are the biggest demographic reading YA novels.

5. No Topic Too Taboo

There is almost no subject matter which is wholly inappropriate for YA. I read books about rape, AIDS, drugs, oppression, sex, pregnancy, mental illness, abuse and sociopathic family members. And death. Lots of death.

So it's all on the table, and usually each difficult topic is handled with the weight it deserves. In fact, I read some moving, redemptive books about difficult subjects this past year, the sort that made me want to push them into the hands of everyone I knew. Colleen Clayton's What Happens Next counters a nasty rape with compassion and triumph. The gorgeous Personal Effects by E.M. Kokie is about death, abuse, war, loyalty and bigotry.

That said, I read a few titles where the handling of taboos felt a bit uneven, and left me scratching my head. One book had its characters smoking pot all the way through the book, from page one, but was much less comfortable addressing the sex its characters were probably having. And one book took on a dysfunctional family with grace and power, but didn't remark at all as its 16yo main character had an overtly sexual relationship with her 22yo boyfriend.

In fact, of all the taboos these books covered, sex and drinking were the two which authors and editors seemed to feel most fickle about. Sometimes they were handled with grace and gravity. Sometimes they were the entire subject of the book. But in other titles, they were excepted as normal and inevitable teenage behavior.

Of course, all fiction chooses its battles. But in a YA book, meant to be read by minors, uneven treatments jump out at me more frequently.

6. Drama!

It probably goes without saying, but there are no quiet, dainty little YA novels. And maybe that's why I like them so well. They are never, ever dull. To all that drama and teen angst, I say, "bring it!"

Sarah Pinneo  is a novelist and food writer. Her most recent book is Julia’s Child. Follow her on twitter at @SarahPinneo.

Losing Sight of the Target

by Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL

 ©Stina Lindenblatt

The choice of genre that we chose to write is based on many things, but the most important driving force is passion. You need to feel passionate about what you write if you want your readers to experience it, too. If they feel your passion, chances are good they’ll love your story. The downside of writing about what makes you passionate is that it might cause you to lose sight of your target.

When I refer to target, I’m talking about the true target audience you’re writing for. If you write middle grade stories, you’re writing for nine to twelve year olds. If you write young adult stories, you’re writing for twelve to seventeen year olds. And when you write new adult stories, you’re writing for seventeen to twenty-five year olds. Those examples are categories, but if I were to ask you who your target audience is for your given genre (e.g. romantic suspense, medical thrillers, cozy mysteries, etc), are you able to identify it?

It’s important to know who your target audience is, but it goes beyond knowing where to direct your promotional effort. Don’t get me wrong. It’s vital that you target the right individuals if you want to see maximum sales. But your marketing efforts might not necessarily focus on your true target audience. Take middle grade fiction, for example. Most middle grade readers between nine and twelve years old aren’t reading book blogs. Most aren’t reading blogs, period. It’s the adults with the purchasing power (parents, teachers, librarians) who read the blogs. The majority of young adult books are bought and read by adults. That’s not to say teens aren’t reading them. They are. But they don’t have the disposable income to buy them. They tend to borrow books from their friends and from the library.

It’s important to know who your target audience is, but it goes beyond knowing where to direct your marketing effort. In traditionally published books, there are checks and balances. The publishers have determined what is acceptable within a given category or genre. Graphic sex in young adult novels will be edited to fit the guidelines (in other words, it won’t exist). The stories and voice will be authentic to the true target audience. If it isn’t, it won’t be published.

These checks and balances don’t exist in self publishing. Which means it’s easy to write young adult books for the wrong target audience (i.e. for adults who love YA stories instead for teens). It’s easy to lose sight of what’s important to teens and write a non-authentic story. It’s easy to write a book and forget who your true target is, but due to pressure from reviewers, you are forced to re-label its genre (from YA contemporary to adult romance). It’s easy to write a book that becomes controversial, for the wrong reasons.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? Often controversy leads to increased sales, which can push a book into bestselling status, because readers love to know why a particular book is controversial.  If becoming a bestselling author is the only reason you write stories, well lucky you. But if you write stories to touch the heart of your target audience, your true target audience, please don’t lose sight of who they are when you write your stories. They’ll thank you for it.

Do you know who your true target audience is? Do you write for them, or do you write the books you crave, even though you’re not part of the true demographic (i.e. a male writing romance)? Or do you try to aim for both?

Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL writes young adult and new adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog. 

Pathway to Publication: An Interview

One of Querytracker.net success stories recently landed a book contract with HaperTeen. Ryan Graudin was thrilled to share with us her story on her pathway to publication.  I, for one, can’t wait to see what tattoo she decides to get. (Yes, you will have to read the interview to see what I’m talking about).

Ryan, can you tell us what happened between the time you signed with your agent to the time HarperCollins told you they just had to have your book (i.e. offered you the contract)?: I signed with my lovely and awesome agent Alyssa Eisner Henkin in May. One of the great things about her is that she’s such a fast worker (i.e. has a very short reading/turnaround time). She got me her revision letter within the same month. Printed out it was 4 pages long… detailing scenes and big picture issues that she thought needed improving. I had a minor panic attack and then dove into insane work mode for about 3 weeks. My house was a wreck. There were notecards of scenes covering the living room floor and endless mugs of half-consumed tea and coffee. But while my abode suffered, my manuscript improved. I got it back to Alyssa in mid-June. It went through another small round of edits and then (after what felt like forever at the time) my book went out on submission in mid-July. Compared to a great majority of authors, I received my first positive response within a day!! The editor really loved it, but she still needed to finish it and get reads from her bosses. Once she acquired those she had to get the approval of several boards within HarperCollins before she could put together an offer! This whole process stretched out for about three weeks. I was an absolute mess the entire time. Just ask my poor, patient husband.

Now that you’re going to be published, is there anything you wish you had done differently before you were agented? I wish I’d written more for myself in college (as opposed to writing only for class). Also, the first book I queried never got picked up, but I spent almost 4 months writing its sequel before I switched my efforts to LUMINANCE HOUR. Generally writing the sequels to books that aren’t picked up is a poor use of your time… I learned the hard way.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your book? While I was writing the first draft of LUMINANCE HOUR, I was working a 45-hour a week teaching job in a foreign country. My life was busy with outside work, traveling and handling the stress of living half a world away from everyone I knew. I was amazed that, although the rest of my life was so crammed, I was still able to piece together this fully formed and functional novel! “I don’t have the time” is not an excuse to not write. If you’re determined enough, you can make the time.

Is there anything you’ve done that you feel helped you grow as a writer? I took a lot of formal writing classes all throughout middle school, high school and college. These did help my writing, but I think most importantly they showed me the value of critique partners. Another thing I’m passionate about which has really grown my writing is traveling. Last time I counted, I’ve been to more foreign countries than I have states. Seeing so many different cultures, people and places helps me broaden the stories I’m able to tell. In fact, LUMINANCE HOUR probably wouldn’t have come into being if I hadn’t had the awesome opportunity to visit London and walk through Buckingham Palace when I was younger. Much of the story takes place in that palace, and my experience of being there in person was invaluable!

What’s the wackiest thing you did in researching your novel? How much research was involved in writing your novel? I had to do a fair bit of research for this story: having words translated into Old English by one of my former English professors, acquiring a floorplan of Buckingham palace, scraping my memories from the two trips I took to London when I was 13 and 17, reading dictionaries on British spirits and folklore. I also watched a good deal of the Queen’s official YouTube channel. And I spent a lot of time talking in my fake and probably terrible British accent. Do any of those qualify as wacky?

Any quirky writing habits? I have to be listening to music. Generally it doesn’t matter what kind of music. Rap, Pop, Soundtracks, String Quartets. My iTunes is a mess of genres. Also, I cannot write unless I have some sort of hot drink at my side. Coffee, tea, cocoa, chai. This often leads to me being over-caffeinated. And I have to open my Internet browser at least once every 10 minutes. It’s amazing that I get anything done!

If you could give one piece of writing advice, what would it be? Just one? How about I give you three. Work your butt off. Don’t take anything for granted. Don’t give up.

What did you to do to celebrate signing with your agent? How about when you celebrated signing the book contract? Champagne. On both occasions. My husband and I are both “starving” artists at this point in our lives, so it was a real treat when my parents took us out for shrimp and grits (my favorite Southern dish) to celebrate the book contract! Also, I’m thinking of getting a tattoo to mark the occasion… but that’s still in the works.

If you could have one superhero power or paranormal ability, what would it be? To write a rough draft in the span of a single day! Just kidding. Seeing as I love travel, I would probably want to teleport everywhere. It would save so much time and money. Plus I could see all of my friends around the world whenever I wanted!

Bio: When she’s not writing and drifting around the globe, Ryan Graudin enjoys hunting through thrift stores and taking pictures of her native Charleston, SC. Her novel LUMINANCE HOUR, the story of a Faery Godmother who falls in love with the prince she’s forced to guard, is due out with HarperTeen in 2013. You can learn about all of these things and more at Ryan Writes. Her twitter handle is @ryangraudin.

War of the Genres

We’ve all heard them. Those assumptions about the different genres found in fiction. 

Literary: Boring. Nothing more than whiny characters.

Thriller and horror: Cheap thrills for the intellectually challenged.

Romance: Smut. Nothing more than the flashing of body parts.

Picture Books: Coloring books with words.

You can probably add to this list of what you’ve heard for your favorite genre, but have you turned your back on a genre you figured you could never enjoy? Maybe if you give it a chance, it could open your eyes to a world of possibilities. Possibilities that could cause your writing career to leap into a whole new stratosphere.  

Some Benefits of Reading Outside Your Genre

Certain genres are character-based while others focus on plot. If you read predominantly plot-based stories, you’re missing out on an opportunity to see how others develop characters readers love to connect with. If they (and this includes agents and editors) connect with your characters, they’ll keep turning the pages. This is what you want. Romance, young adult, and horror are a few genres that rely heavily on emotions. Thrillers and suspense are perfect examples for solid pacing. By reading other genres, it will help you further develop your craft.

And let’s not ignore the ideas that might be triggered by reading outside your genre. Just don’t forget to make them your own and not a copy of someone else’s story.

Challenge Your Assumptions

Before you shoot down a genre, make sure your beliefs are based on education and not on assumptions. By education, I mean borrow books in the genre then actually read them. But make sure you do this with an open mind. If you’ve already told yourself the genre is a waste of shelf space, nothing short of a miracle will change that opinion.

Which Books to Read?

When looking for a book to read, find out what titles won the genre’s prestigious awards. You can read the bestsellers, but sometimes they aren’t the best representation of it. The books might have been heavily promoted because they landed the author an equally hefty advance.  On the other hand, you might love them as much as their fans.

Target Audience

Keep in mind the genre’s target audience. You might not appreciate Dancing Cinderella (a Disney Princess book); however, many six-year-old girls love it. It’s all right not to like middle grade or young adult novels, but remember, you weren’t their target audience to begin with.

Goals of the Genre

You might not think a genre is worth reading, but you might be surprised when you discover the goals it sets out to achieve. For example, many people assume erotic romance is nothing more than pornography. It isn’t. The sexual encounters between the heroine and hero are predominantly there as part of the character’s personal growth, for example, trust of the opposite gender. Another genre would utilize a different approach for the same goal. Each has its own purpose.

The common writing advice we hear is to read outside your genre. Have you recently tried one you’ve never considered reading? One you felt wasn’t worth your time? You never know, you might discover one you never expected to like. Maybe you’ll even write a novel in it and see your career take off in a direction you never expected. Now, wouldn’t that be worth it?

Stina Lindenblatt writes romantic suspense and young adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog, Seeing Creative.  

Melodrama Isn't a Four Letter Word: Guest Post by Deborah Halverson

We are thrilled today to be joined by editor Deborah Halverson. She is the founder of the well-known Dear Editor site as well as a former editor with Harcourt. Her most recent publication is Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies.

*Ms. Halverson has generously offered to give one of our QT followers a copy of Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies. The details of how to win are at the end of the post.

Melodrama Isn't a Four Letter Word

by

Deborah Halverson

So, you’re a Thirty-Something writing a teen novel, and you want your narrative voice to sound convincingly youthful. That’s an outstanding goal. A believable voice makes all the difference in the success of a manuscript. But how do you actually do it? The answer might surprise you. It may go against every rule you’ve ever learned about writing good fiction. It might actually make you shudder. The answer is . . . you need to channel a key element of the teen persona: melodrama.

“No! No!” you cry, throwing back your head and draping your forearm across your brow. “Not (*gasp*) melodrama.” Indeed, every writing instructor who ever lived has marked up countless margins with the red-inked words “Not believable—too melodramatic.” I often penned it myself as an editor, first for a major publisher, and now freelance. And with good reason. Melodrama is exaggerated emotions. Melodrama is indicative of stereotypical characters and a lack of tension in your plot. Melodrama is hokey and makes readers think, “Oh, gimme a break. No one would say that in real life.” Melodrama is a no-no.

Or is it? Those are all good points, no doubt about. But they aren’t the be-all, end-all, either. Melodrama isn’t always bad. In the case of teens, melodrama is real.

Think about it—with a teen, things aren’t bad, they “suck, big time.” And Big Brother doesn’t get mad, he “freaks out.” And don’t forget the classic, “He’s gonna kill me!” Teens don’t self-analyze, they just react. They are all about exaggerated emotions and grandiose notions of self. The world revolves around them, doesn’t it? They certainly don’t analyze their treatment of their friends and come to sophisticated judgments like, “I was curt, even to Melanie.” They say, “I even ripped into Melanie for no good reason. Some friend I am. Here, Mel, let me shove you off a cliff while I’m at it. God, I can be such a jerk.”

Your preferred narrative voice might not be that colloquial, of course. You might be going for a more formal feel, with the terms “gonna” and “ripped into” and “freaked out” far from your word bank. But your character’s situation will be the same. The words and phrases you choose must suggest a grandiose view of that situation, its extent, its implications, and its impact on the protagonist herself. Teens tend to see themselves as the center of the universe, and their judgments stem from that. One aspect of your protagonist’s internal journey will involve the maturing process, with her learning through the course of the book that the world does not, in fact, revolve around her. She’ll see that what she does affects others, and that what others do isn’t necessarily about her. So, okay, maybe Big Brother won’t actually kill her.

Cracking the door open for teen melodrama does not mean you’re throwing that door wide for stereotypical characters or hokey dialogue. You still need to support your characters with a strong plot filled with tension that stems from high stakes. You can’t let everything lie flat and just count on melodrama to add all the excitement—that’s what’s given melodrama its bad name. Wield melodrama as but one tool in your belt, the one that will add a youthful outlook to your narrative voice.

Teens can smell a poser a hundred yards out. Melodrama is your ticket to crafting a believably young voice. It’s about overreacting to the situation, sounding way too dramatic for the events at hand—and that’s pretty much a definition of the teen experience, isn’t it? You’re absolutely right to want the narrative voice in your teen novel to sound convincingly young. Let the things that happen to your teen protagonist rattle her cage, big time. Let her be melodramatic about them, let her judge herself and others harshly, erroneously, and/or quickly. Inject a little melodrama into your character’s personality . . . you’ll sound decades younger in no time.

Deborah Halverson is the award-winning author of Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies and the teen novels Honk If You Hate Me and Big Mouth. Armed with a masters in American Literature, Deborah edited picture books and teen novels for Harcourt Children’s Books for ten years before leaving to write full-time. She is a frequent speaker at writers conferences and a writing teacher for groups and institutions including UCSD’s Extension Program. Deborah is also the founder of the popular writers’ advice website DearEditor.com and freelance edits fiction and non-fiction for both published authors and writers seeking their first book deals. For more about Deborah, check out her website DeborahHalverson.com.

*To enter to win a copy of Ms. Halverson's book, Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, leave a comment below. The winner will be contacted by email on Monday, July 25th. Links to more posts by Ms. Halverson and other chances to win her book can be found here. 

Agent-Judged YA Contest Is Now Open for Submissions!

Our agent-judged Young Adult fiction contest began today, Monday, May 9th at 9:00 am Eastern Standard Time. Agent Roseanne Wells from the Marianne Strong Literary Agency is judging the contest.

The contest entry window is 24 hours and will end at 9:00 am Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, May 10th.

You may only enter one project. Please be certain all projects are complete, edited, and polished enough to present to an agent.

Submissions must be made via our online submission form. (A free QueryTracker.net membership is necessary to use the form and can be accessed from the form page.) Only entries received through the online form will be accepted. Entries emailed directly to the agent or agency will be disqualified.

This contest is for YA fiction only, so no MG or Adult projects in this contest, please.

Ms. Wells wants to see the first page of your manuscript (+ or – half a sentence. Don’t just end mid-sentence).

Details for this contest were posted in the Publishing Pulse last Friday, and have been in the contest widget in the sidebar for over a week.

The response time and announcement of the winners (who will receive critiques of their material from Ms. Wells) will depend on the number of entries. The more entires, the longer it will take--one of the pitfalls of not having an entry cut-off. Ms. Wells hopes to have the results within two weeks. I'll give updates as to her progress and the winners will also be notified directly via email.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them in comments!

Best of luck to everyone and special thanks to Ms. Wells for judging!

* Please note: Sometimes the email notifications from this blog do not go out right when the post is published. Therefore, if you are an email subscriber, this email might arrive after the contest has begun. This is due to a Google Blogger issue we cannot control.

More Contest News

We'd like to wish a hearty congratulations to Jane George, runner-up in our Agent-judged YA Contest. She will not be accepting her prize... because since entering out contest she has signed with literary agent Gwendolyn Heasley of Artists and Artisans. Yay Jane!

Writer Stephanie Boman has been chosen to fill the runner-up spot and is invited to submit a partial to Anna Webman of Curtis Brown Ltd. Congratulations, Stephanie!

If you would like to follow our contest winners in their quests for publication, here are links:

J.A. Lawrence

Facebook

Jane George

See Jane Write

Stephanie Boman

Stephanie Boman, YA Writer

You Can Read My Mind

Alyssa Kirk

Teens Read and Write

Demonic Attractions

John Sankovich

Author John Sankovich

Katherine Zane

Katherine Zane

Thanks to all of you, our readers, for making our contest a success.

From Picture Books to YA - Information to Get You Started

Are you thinking of writing for children? Some of our readers have asked for more information about the different kinds of Children's fiction books, which is definitely a good place to start when writing for kids.

Picture Books are the books most people think of when they think "Children's." They combine text with illustrations and cater to kids' shorter attention spans. Normally picture books are 24-32 pages long, which includes title page, dedication, etc. Let me clear up a common myth: you do not have to be able to illustrate to write a picture book. Boardbooks also fall into the category of Picture Books. Here's a secret that I learned from an editor at Peachtree Publishers: DO NOT write a rhyming picture book. Most of the submissions Peachtree receives are rhyming - and most of what they publish is not.

Though children do not spend a huge amount of time with Early Readers, the books are an important step in their learning process. Early Readers are specifically designed for those who are learning to read. Typically 48-64 pages long, these books have a word count of up to 1500. The plot and sentence structure need to be simple, the dialogue snappy, and the story carried by the text rather than the illustrations. An example of early readers is the Frog and Toad series.

The next step up for developing readers is Chapter Books. Designed like a grown-up book but with super short chapters, the plot focuses specifically on solving one main problem. Children of this age need something they can relate to; the Magic Treehouse books, for instance, cover a plethora of subject matter. But at the core are Jack and Annie, a brother and sister team whose adventures always start out in their own backyard. Chapter Books are usually between 48 and 80 pages long with a word count of up to 10,000. The three key elements in writing these books are action, dialogue, and, if possible, humor. Be sure to give these kids a reason to turn the page.

Middle Grade books are a landmark for children - choosing one to read is a sign of their growing independence. Written for kids age 8-12, they run between 80 and 200 pages with a word count of up to 40,000. The plot should be clearly defined, the story conflict-driven. It's best to keep adult characters to a bare minimum. (After all, how could eleven-year-old Harry Potter have had the adventures he did with loving parents hovering nearby?) The story needs to move along quickly, in the first line if possible, with background information woven in as it progresses. The main character must be the one to solve the problem; if an adult steps in and sloves it, the reader will lose all sense of independence they've gained in reading the story.

In the hinterland between Adult and Children's literature hovers Young Adult, not quite fitting into either category. In recent years YA fiction has become increasingly popular - and edgier, though its audience is still considered age 12 and up. When asked in an interview what was too edgy for YA, agent Anna Webman with Curtis Brown said, "I shared this with some colleagues and we couldn’t think of anything that is too edgy these days." Readers can handle complex sentence structures, advanced vocabularies, and multiple points of view. Plus, with some books being in excess of 100,000 words (ahem, Twilight) authors have more room to write and explore subplots and multiple points of view. You will really have to tap into your "inner teen" to write Young Adult - but in today's market it may be well worth your while.

And there you have it, book types in a nutshell. :) If you are a Children's book writer, I'd love to hear more about your projects and your audience.