Regina L. Brooks - Writing Great Books for Young Adults: Everything You Need to Know, From Crafting the Idea to Landing a Publishing Deal

Copyright 2009 by Regina Brooks
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brooks, Regina.

Writing great books for young adults : everything you need to know, from crafting the idea to landing a publishing deal / Regina L. Brooks.

p. cm.

1. Young adult fictionAuthorshipHandbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

PN3377.B76 2009

808.068dc22

2009025725

Printed and bound in the United States of America

VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my late great-grandmother Hannah, for whom
the molding of young adults was a craft.

My deepest gratitude goes to the inspirational Katharine Sands, my soul sister, without whose coaxing and unyielding enthusiasm this book would have ever been written. Im forever thankful to you for seeing a light in me.

To my exceptional editorial and writing guides, John Weber, whose generosity and exceptional eye for excellence has brought me an abundance of everything good. And my editorial carpenter, Brenda Richardson, who can bring shape to nearly anything. Anne Wells, youre always there when I need you with incomparable editorial guidance.

To Serendipity Literary Agency staff who researched and edited for me: Debarati Sengupta, Meeta Atul Pingle, Megan Ernst, and James Seraphin.

To Sherrie Young, my partner in YB Literary Foundation whose visionary ideas always keep me assured Im on the right track; your opinion and feedback are like magic dust.

Special thanks to Dauwd Ruffin, who at a moment's notice had an answer. Having your brilliance near me and your unending support makes me feel truly blessed!

To Flora Anders, whose motivation and support early on prepared me for the publishing industry as she watched over my career and nurtured me like a surrogate mom.

To all my friends who cheered me on through the demanding writing stages.

I wish to thank the numerous people who really helped make this book a reality, including those who filled out surveys and agreed to be interviewed, those who shared their knowledge anecdotally and whose contributions youll see sprinkled through the text.

A million thanks to Peter Lynch, my editor, who had the insight to see the book's potential. I am forever thankful for your relentless patience and editorial acumen.

To my copyeditor Claire Martinson, thanks for dotting the i's and crossing the t's. After having worked on the manuscript for months, having your eyes were priceless.

To the team at Sourcebooks, who just seem to get it.

Welcome to the world of Young Adult Fiction.

Those are the words I use to kick off the workshops I conduct at various writers conferences held throughout the United States and abroad. But theyre not just words. If you want to write YA fiction, youve got to be willing to step into a whole new world.

This book is designed to help you enter that new world. Here youll find detailed descriptions of how to avoid the traps many potential YA authors fall into, as well as tips on how to create the next YA bestseller.

WHAT IS YA FICTION?

Of course there are universal standards for writing prose for any audience. To a large extent, however, elements of YA fiction, especially the tone and the narrator's perspective, differ markedly and require a whole new set of rules.

This notion of YA's otherworldliness doesnt seem to be a concept understood by most people who want to write for teens, at least judging from the manuscripts that cross my desk. I hear similar comments from colleagues in the YA world. Most of these pros wouldnt be surprised to hear that among the stacks of manuscripts I receive, 90 percent of the writers seem confused about what YA fiction is.

It's not surprising that people are confused, given that something as basic as a list of bestselling YA titles is commonly found on the same page as picture books for toddlers, complete with lift-the-flap and pop-up features. The illusion of YA as solely an extension of traditional children's books may also explain why many novices who try their hand at writing for teens rely on memories of what they enjoyed reading in adolescence. Depending on the individual's age and experiences, that might mean nineteenth-century Louisa May Alcott's Little Women; J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951; S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders, 1967; or Judy Blume's Forever, 1975. Highly commendable classics all, with messages that continue to resonate with youth, but they dont necessarily represent what YA editors are looking for now.

So what is YA fiction, exactly? Most publishing industry insiders consider YA fiction to be fiction written for readers from about the age of twelve to eighteen, featuring characters in that same age range. Keep in mind, however, that these age boundaries are somewhat flexible. While YA can often be a coming-of-age story, not every coming-of-age story is YA. If the character is an adult reflecting on his youth, that's not a YA novel.

As a literary agent representing writers of different genres, one of my jobs includes presenting my clients manuscripts to editors who decide whether they will purchase them for their publishing houses. Editors develop areas of expertise, such as food, science, business, and religion. I have long noted that certain personalities gravitate toward YA publishing, and that they have sensibilities and interests that are strikingly different from editors who work in other genres.

Just as teens like to push the envelope, YA editors, who generally have easygoing personalities, are more open to taking risks. They are often willing to try fresh approaches and formats. It is this dynamism that makes them more experimental than button-down. Mirroring their readership in another regard, YA editors exhibit high levels of curiosity. Most significantly, in addition to wanting to inform and entertain, they care about getting young people to read, and seem determined to publish books that address adolescent vulnerabilities and engage in the problems of the day.

None of this is meant to suggest that they should be nominated for sainthood. Like anyone else in business, editors must keep their eyes focused on the bottom line. Because that requirement doesnt seem to diminish the YA editor's sense of purpose, it enhances the illusion that they inhabit a separate world.