Who do I ask about YA?

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Diviner

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I am trying to figure out if a book I have written is YA. It is part of a series of fantasy-alternate history. The other books in the series feature 17- 20 year olds, but the first book is back story and tells about the characters when they are 7-12. (This is partly world-building but goes more to character development and motivations so that readers don't think what happens when they are 12 is impossible.)

I am having it beta-read right now by superior 12-year-olds who like it. One remarked that she loved the book but the vocabulary is fairly advanced. Adults who have read it like it, too, and say it transcends ages, that, like The Hobbit, it has things for all ages. All of them seem anxious to find out what happens next, which I take as a good sign.

Another thing I am wondering about is if it really is YA. I have read several recent YA books, and they seem thin and shorter. Mine is about 95000 words.

I have read that teens like to read about children their age or older. If I were to take out the first third of the book, when the children are seven, it would lose a lot but still be a viable adventure tale. (I could simplify the vocabulary, too, if absolutely necessary.)

So one question is, should I pitch it as YA? Another question is, should I tailor it to the market as I understand it or submit it as I think it reads best? And the most important is, is it really YA or do I need to make changes?

Obviously, I like the book as it is, or I would not be tearing my hair out over this, but if I leave it as it is, how do I pitch it?

Who do I ask? I don't have an agent and all of my writer friends write for adults. If I queried an agent, would they even be willing to look at it long enough to give me advice?

I hope someone can help me with this.

Thankyou.
 

DaveKuzminski

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Pitch it as it is. If an agent or publisher decides otherwise, then go with their experience and wisdom. For now, you're just worrying over something you can't possibly isolate.
 

Zolah

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To be honest, it doesn't sound like YA to me. The length alone will make any YA/Children's publisher blink at it, and it sounds as this is an adult novel with younger protagonists, not a YA novel. Just because your characters are younger, that doesn't mean your book is necessarily for the children's market. Adults don't mind reading about younger protagonists, and if the book appeals to a YA audience, they're quite happy to go into the adult section to find it. Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series starts out with a 17 year old hero, and is much beloved by teens, but the books were written and marketed for the adult market.

Leave your book alone, is my advice. Don't rip it to shreds to fit arbitrary market concerns - that's the editor's job.
:ROFL:

One more piece of advice I'd give you: you may feel that your book will appeal to all ages, and this may in fact be the case (if so you'll be well rewarded once it finds a publisher, with lots of fat royalty cheques!). But don't tell a publisher you think that, at least not straight off. It's one of the things that makes their hackles go up, especially when it appears in a query letter.
 

zeprosnepsid

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Yeah, I think even if you cut out that opening section (I don't know how long it is) -- it still probably won't be short enough to qualify as YA. Just based on length. I don't know for sure, but I can only imagine that YA publishers have a special pile where they put the queries that list word counts out of their range =)Good luck either way!
 

Diviner

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Thanks for the responses.

As I understand what you are advising, I am to leave it alone and pitch it as adult fantasy. I can only try. I gave it to a writer friend to see if he thought it could fly that way. In its present form, it is fairly innocent, but I don't think I will mess with that to make it more adult.

Anyway, I appreciate the input.
 

scullars

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Have you thought about asking Victoria Strauss on this board? She's one of the moderators as well as a wonderful writer who has written YA books in the past. She should be able to give you some good advice.
 

clara bow

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Another way of determining which audience you should target would be the theme/issue with which the characters are struggling. For example, are they dealing with identity issues? Or are they secure about themselves, and clearly beyond any developmental issues? Erik Erikson wrote extensively about personality development, and whether or not you subscribe to his theories, perhaps his 8 stages (see link) might help you determine your characters' growth arcs:

http://psychology.about.com/library/weekly/aa091500b.htm

I wrote a YA fantasy with mostly adult characters. The two main protagonists are 19 and 30, and are dealing with both identity and intimacy/isolation issues (a blend of Erikson's stages 5&6, one could say). I never completely spell out the ages, though, so one would have to read between the lines to determine them. I don't think YA necessarily has to always have teen characters to be effective and reach a teen audience. I read "The Last Unicorn" as a 12/13 yr old, and to my recollection the characters are all adult. As a child, I never questioned that aspect of it. I'm not sure whom Beagle intended as his audience for that book, though, but it seems to be one that transcends ages (to echo a previous post). Maybe it's just me, but a good chunk of the SF/F stuff I read had mostly adult characters. Of course, that meant that some of it went over my head and I ended up re-reading some books several times as I became older. But it definitely influenced what I wanted to write.

Diviner, if you felt like it, you could always tailor your query to both the adult and YA markets, and see who bites. I did that with my manuscript and got a couple nibbles from both. Currently, though, it's with an agent seeking YA material. But I wrote it more for the YA market. Anyway, hope this helps!
 

Diviner

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Thanks for the input.

Good link, Clara Bow. Also, you are right. I can pitch it in both markets. There is no reason to think of it as either/or. Book 2 in the series is coming of age plus lots of adventure.
 

Mark

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I had a similar experience. I wrote a novel where the main character was 19 years old. When I submitted first three chapters to an agent, she asked me if I would change the character to 16. She thought this would help me market to 4-5-6 graders.

So, Dave gave you some good advice. Query it "as is" and an agent will know if you need to make any changes to fit a certain market.
 

Christine N.

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Can you cut it in half? If there's really not anything you can cut out without badly messing up the story, see if you can make two books out of if. 45000 is near the lower range for YA, but if you cut it in half and can add to each, I think you might have something.

Or just pitch it as adult. Whatever works for you.
 

kimquirky

Your question about YA

Hi Diviner- I'm very new here- hence no fancy avatars yet. I actually found this site through a link from critiquecircle.com (you may have to google it). They have a very active and informative YA forum there.
Kim
 

katiebug57

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This doesn't sound YA to me, either. If you look at Christopher Paolini's "Eragon" and read up some on him, he says that his book hits mostly middle grade kids.

Now, his getting his longer book published what something he rather fell into, and I definitely think the length would be a problem with most publishers and/or agents. If you look at the contests available for middle grade novels, the upward page limit is 160 to 300; I THINK there's one 400 page limit in there, but can't remember for sure. The point is, however, that publisher's (because these are publisher's contests) are looking for shorter works.

I also think you're going to have a tough time selling anything that deals with 7-year-olds as even middle grade! Kids just don't like reading about a phase of life they've already passed through. Perhaps if you created a POV character who is older, well, you could play around with that idea for awhile.

Personally, if I were in a book store looking at books and found a fantasy about a seven year old kid, I certainly wouldn't buy it as an adult. I would wonder why it was misshelved!!!

Sure, you can pitch it as it is, but in today's publishing world the successful author MUST consider the market, who the book is written for, and have a very strong query letter that transcends the obvious age problems inherent within the book as you have talked of it here.

Katiebug
 
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