Kids or MG

alleycat

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What's the length and age of the major characters? MG is a short novel form.
 

praktikle1

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Major Character is fourteen years old. The book is about 90 kindle pages and somewhere around 16k words. There are ten chapters with illustrations.

I've tried quite a few categories but it is so hard to find on a search.
 

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I'm uncomfortable that in order to even understand your question, I have to click a link and go to your Amazon sales page. That makes me feel like your message is a sales pitch in disguise. I know that is cynical, but it does come up on forums like this. Instead of just posing a sales link how about telling us a little about where you are running into trouble.What age are your characters? How long is it? How complicated is the language? What age kids did you imagine would be reading your story?

Edit: by the time I wrote this, you had already added some info. Thank you! This post might be of interest to you: http://literaticat.blogspot.com/2011/05/wordcount-dracula.html

A fourteen-year-old character usually means middle grade audience. 14K words is pretty short but not completely unheard of.
 
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cornflake

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Major Character is fourteen years old. The book is about 90 kindle pages and somewhere around 16k words. There are ten chapters with illustrations.

I've tried quite a few categories but it is so hard to find on a search.

The age sounds like upper MG, but the word count is way short - that's not even close to the the 'normal' length.
 

praktikle1

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Got it

Not a sales pitch. Just asking for assistance. Sure the link is there. Maybe the 'Book Description' will give you what you need to help me out. Do I want it to be children's fantasy, fiction or MG. Is a fourteen year old reader too old for this type of story?
I haven't gotten many hits since it has been published. Could it be categorized incorrectly or is it just really bad?
 
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killdeer

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I read the description, and here's my thoughts.

The description combined with the length suggests that you've underestimated the length and complexity of middle grade fiction. No single item is 100%out of place, but on the whole I get the sense that this story is for younger kids. You're running at around a third of the usual word count, without even considering that fantasy often runs a bit long.

How many hits you've gotten has to do with marketing, and online marketing simply isn't something I know much about. I can make the general observation that just putting your book on Amazon won't necessarily draw hits regardless of quality. You need a way to promote it. I'll also point out that your book description is in essence your "sales pitch" to prospective buyers. I don't think the sales pitch was communicating the drama of the story.

Have you tried comparing your story to books you read when you were a kid? Consider how old you were when you read your favorites, and then consider their length and complexity. That's a good way to start getting a sense of how to match substance to age. Then move on to reading current books, since it's important to get a sense of what kids today are reading.
 

Ferret

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Do I want it to be children's fantasy, fiction or MG.

How much children's lit have you read? Have you checked how other books are categorized? Children's fantasy, fiction, and MG, the three categories you suggested, all overlap. You should be asking whether yours is a chapter book or a middle grade book.

I agree that the age of the MC and the word count seem at odds with each other.
 

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I'm confused by the title Kids or MG?, which makes it sound like the two are mutually exclusive. Recently noticed another poster saying something similar--along the lines of not wanting to write for kids, but being willing to write for middle grade.

Just to be clear, MG stands for middle grade, which is targeted toward children 8 - 12 years old. In the US, this means 3rd through 6th grade. Students in elementary and the first year of middle school are most definitely still kids.

Check out Killdeer's link to literaticat's blog; it is a great summary of word count requirements. And, folks, read the stickies and previously asked questions. All of this has been covered, and is available for your perusal.

And READ. Go to the library and check out a tall stack of middle grade books. Read them... and repeat. Think about how your story compares to these books. Does it seem like a good fit? If not, you have an idea what is needed in revision.
 
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EMaree

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Not a sales pitch. Just asking for assistance. Sure the link is there. Maybe the 'Book Description' will give you what you need to help me out.

Praktikle I'm going to quote your book description below, just so that AW members don't have to click away to know what you're talking about.

Meet Minchu, a curious fourteen year old lad from the town of Wibbley. Join him on his magical journey in search for the truth about his town’s past. Have fun with Minchu as he encounters many offbeat characters along the way who amusingly guide him to the mysterious Mt Kadooble. Why Kadooble? That's where he can find the B’Glug, a seemingly dreadful creature that brought fear to the streets of Wibbley for countless generations past. Is there a connection between the B’Glug and thirteen-o-clock, a time that only exists in Wibbley? Let’s meet at the clock tower in Towne Square to discover ‘Why Time Was Changed In Wibbley’.

Going off this description alone, without looking at the sample, it feels more like a chapter book than middle grade. Chapter books don't have much of an ebook audience at present. The voice also feels a bit off for the genre you're trying to target, so I'd check out some popular books for whatever genre you decide to target (and I'll stress that you should check out recently published books, not classics).

I glanced at the sample as well and there are some big blocks of paragraphs. Might be worth double-checking that your formatting is as you intended.
 
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praktikle1

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I'm confused by the title Kids or MG?, which makes it sound like the two are mutually exclusive. Recently noticed another poster saying something similar--along the lines of not wanting to write for kids, but being willing to write for middle grade.

Just to be clear, MG stands for middle grade, which is targeted toward children 8 - 12 years old. In the US, this means 3rd through 6th grade. Students in elementary and the first year of middle school are most definitely still kids.

Check out Killdeer's link to literaticat's blog; it is a great summary of word count requirements. And, folks, read the stickies and previously asked questions. All of this has been covered, and is available for your perusal.

And READ. Go to the library and check out a tall stack of middle grade books. Read them... and repeat. Think about how your story compares to these books. Does it seem like a good fit? If not, you have an idea what is needed in revision.

I am willing to write for any age and I want all ages to read this book. The Main Character is 14 years old but what some are saying is that the book is too short for kids 14 and up. (16k, ten chapters)

I don't want to limit it to 8-12 year old kids just because of its length.
 

praktikle1

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I'm confused by the title Kids or MG?, which makes it sound like the two are mutually exclusive. Recently noticed another poster saying something similar--along the lines of not wanting to write for kids, but being willing to write for middle grade.

Just to be clear, MG stands for middle grade, which is targeted toward children 8 - 12 years old. In the US, this means 3rd through 6th grade. Students in elementary and the first year of middle school are most definitely still kids.

Check out Killdeer's link to literaticat's blog; it is a great summary of word count requirements. And, folks, read the stickies and previously asked questions. All of this has been covered, and is available for your perusal.

And READ. Go to the library and check out a tall stack of middle grade books. Read them... and repeat. Think about how your story compares to these books. Does it seem like a good fit? If not, you have an idea what is needed in revision.

I think it is a good fit for MG and/or 8-12s, but what I am hearing is that the book may be too short for MG. So..if I categorize it as MG, they don't want it because it is too short. If I cat it as kids 8-12 the MGs don't see it. It seems like I need a category that fits both. Please correct me if I am wrong about this.
 

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MG is 8-12 yo kids. The length is irrelevant to that. Kids read up, so if you had upper MG, a 14yo protagonist wouldn't be a problem. However, you need the story and word count to match upper MG, and neither the description nor word count do.

Out of curiosity, is that a Doctor Who allusion I see in your description? ;)
 

Ferret

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Yeah, like Sage said, MG is 8 to 12.

Can you think of any books on the market that are similar to yours in terms of the character's age, the story, and the word count?

You said you want all ages to read the book. That's an understandable desire, but perhaps not a realistic one. I think a book needs a target audience. Of course people who don't fall into that group can still read the book, but trying to make it appeal to all ages can mean it doesn't appeal to anyone.