Crossover Fiction

[LBW66]

I'm wondering what to make of the crossover fiction market. Is it real? TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is still a bestseller according to Amazon and may well be one of the earliest to appeal to both young and adult readers. HARRY POTTER certainly hit the mark as a "family book".

My ms is written at a middle grade reader level and I've had about 25 readers from age 10 to 60 read it and it appealed to all of them.

If this is a real and growing market, how do you sell it to an agent?
-Laura

[ClaudiaGray]

I don't know that To Kill a Mockingbird was tremendously early in appealing to both young and adult readers; plenty of classics (Little Women, for instance) fall into that category too. I do think publishers are more conscious of the potential for marketing that kind of crossover now, though.

If I had a book that I thought might have similar appeal, I'd probably simply present it to the agent as YA, and maybe include one line about how it had the "potential to appeal to adult readers as well." A LOT of YA crosses over now, so I would think that any agent in that category is aware of the possibilities.

[Evaine]

Diana Wynne Jones once said, when on a panel at a convention, that some of her books are marketed at adult in the States, but children's in the UK, and vice versa, for no apparent reason that she could see. She preferred it when they were marketed as adult - she got more royalties!

[Harper K]

I agree with Claudia Gray's suggestions. You'd query agents who represent middle grade. "Crossover fiction" isn't really a genre; it's just a collection of books that have wide appeal and are, on some level, very lucky. ;) You can certainly suggest to potential agents that it has crossover appeal, and hopefully you'll eventually have an agent, editor, and publicist who share your view.

There's no way to ensure that a book "crosses over" -- you can write a really good book, get it in the hands of brilliant people in the publishing industry, and make sure word gets out. But a lot of crossover success is just serendipitous.

[Shady Lane]

The Outsiders was originally marketed as an adult book, while now it's the YA standard.

Just throwing that out there. Books tend to migrate.