MG and YA authors, should we be worried?

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Quillwitch

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Jan 1, 2015
Mexico
I recently came across a conversation on twitter started by a literary agent who specializes in children´s and Ya books and she mentions, through several tweets, that she is worried that people ( readers, and therefore booksellers, librarians, and hence publishers) are asking ...begging for shorter books. Apparently, the young reader´s attention span has shortened again post- pottermania.

The agent´s name is Molly Ker Hawn, if any of you care to follow her tweet. I´m posting here some of the observations made for your consideration. This worries me very much since I´m not very good at getting to the point, cutting to the chase, killing my darlings etc... and my work tends to be rather long. Any thoughts fellow MG and YA writers? @Agente Pete?


The thread begins here:

"I'm reading queries and seeing a trend that's dismaying me: so many very long books. I ask every bookseller I meet what they want to see published, and virtually all of them mention that they need shorter MG and YA books for their customers."
"I watch so many interactions between (adult and young) customers and booksellers in bookstores, and I've lost count of how many times I've seen a customer decline a recommendation because the book is longer than they want."
"For book fanatics like authors/agents/publishers, I think it can be hard to remember that not every young reader is like you (we!) were. A lot of 11-year-olds are daunted by a 90K-word MG novel."
( are kids dumbing down yet again?)

"And, look. In many cases, if a book needs a lot of editorial work—such as helping the author trim 20K words—the publisher won't be inclined to pay as much for it as they would if they felt the book was readier for publication."

She goes on to direct us to an already well know blog post among MG writers on adequate page count ( I will leave the link here below for those who have never read it.)

And so it goes on, and other agents,librarians booksellers,editors chime in with the same observations. Sounds like it´s a logical thing to consider but, will our stories be better for it? Or will they end up being half-baked results of what they were meant to be? I mean, yes, JK Rowling went a bit too far with her word count ( in many cases, quite unnecessary) but HP book 1 was /is considered long to and it´s only about 325 pages. I can´t imagine cutting my book any short than that!
What length do you consider your books will be once you are finished?



Here is the link: f you want a guide to word count ranges in children's/YA, I recommend @literaticat's now-classic blog post here. http://literaticat.blogspot.com/2011/05/wordcount-
 
I actually took a different point of view to worrying about it. This is the market and a writer needs to understand their readers or at least take them into consideration as they write.

My book seems to be creeping up in word count. I find it exciting to try and write 'tightly'. It's a challenge but it improves our craft rather than hinders. Much like when Twitter used to be 140 characters. Stretching it to 280 is now easier lol! since I've had so much practice with writing a tweet to a small margin of characters. Albeit might not be relevant but the similarity for me stands. It's just extrapolated into a larger canvas.

Incidentally, my current WIP is now 45k and I think the end it will be 50-55k. It's in keeping with the said agent's reference for MG fantasy (sweet spot 45k - 65k).
 
Just from one individual bookseller perspective. My MG and YA customers "who read" have no concerns about the number of pages/words - we sell more thick books than thin. My MG and YA customers "who are being prompted to read" search the shelves for the slim to thin books. It is a bit of a quandary.
 
Interesting.

My first book is probably in chapter book territory and is around 16K words at the moment, which is a touch long for that market.

I like editing stuff down (up to a point), but it can be tough to do on your own. It's helpful to have a dispassionate outsider to indicate areas that could be cut.

It's a good discipline, keeping the word count lower. And it doesn't have to lessen a novel's impact - in fact, it can enhance it. Sarah Crossnan's YA books are pretty low wordcounts, but they are beautifully written and pack a real emotional punch.
 
I saw this conversation this morning on Twitter, too. It didn't worry me. Like @Emurelda, I thought it was simply a good heads-up/reminder of the recommended lengths for MG and YA books. My MG books generally fall between 60k and 65k, without me thinking much about length, and I've had a number of reluctant readers tell me how nice it was to have a short-ish book that was focused on action. My daughter also likes my short books, because she's too busy doing other things to focus on reading long books. I've simply come to realise that that's my target market. My son HATES how short my books are--he's a lover of long, epic series that run into several hundred thousand words. Different strokes for different folks. As a writer, it's good to know the division exists, so you know how to target your own work. Beyond, that I don't think there's anything to worry about.
 
I saw this conversation this morning on Twitter, too. It didn't worry me. Like @Emurelda, I thought it was simply a good heads-up/reminder of the recommended lengths for MG and YA books. My MG books generally fall between 60k and 65k, without me thinking much about length, and I've had a number of reluctant readers tell me how nice it was to have a short-ish book that was focused on action. My daughter also likes my short books, because she's too busy doing other things to focus on reading long books. I've simply come to realise that that's my target market. My son HATES how short my books are--he's a lover of long, epic series that run into several hundred thousand words. Different strokes for different folks. As a writer, it's good to know the division exists, so you know how to target your own work. Beyond, that I don't think there's anything to worry about.

I saw you there!
 
Interesting ... I just went back to a pair of novels I'd started a while ago (after finishing one novel...looking for the next project to complete) and, with this Twitter discussion in my head, I suddenly realised what had stalled these two. They wanted to be shorter stories than I was trying to make them into. With new 'permission' to make them only as long as they wanted to be, I found both started flowing well! Perhaps they will end up being novellas, and that's okay. Perhaps they will end up being short novels, and that's okay, too. But my block was in trying to make them what they weren't. A good lesson for me.
 
Here's a word count conundrum....

There's a competition I'm interested in, which stipulates that children's novels entered should be at least 15K words long.

I find it a wee bit suspect that a competition for children's novels has set a minimum word count above the generally recommended count for younger readers and chapter books.

Especially as I've just spent several (mostly satisfying) hours cutting the aforementioned WIP from just over 16K to about 14,860.

Pah.
 
memorizing musicals and operas- phase,
You memorized musicals and operas too?! Sometimes (still) when I need to stop my brain from doing, I plug into them still and let it whirr around as familiar background "noise" and then I can think/paint/make. Can't write to music though, I need silence :)
 
Here's a word count conundrum....

There's a competition I'm interested in, which stipulates that children's novels entered should be at least 15K words long.

I find it a wee bit suspect that a competition for children's novels has set a minimum word count above the generally recommended count for younger readers and chapter books.

Especially as I've just spent several (mostly satisfying) hours cutting the aforementioned WIP from just over 16K to about 14,860.

Pah.
That's so annoying.

Although chapter books can go up to 25k and middle grade up to 65k. Is that what they may be targetting? perhaps?
 
I save musicals or operas for only the longest ceremonies.
Oh, god, yes. I remember sitting in a day long (hideously boring) series of lectures (I studied Research Science, and it made me want to winch out my eyeballs at the best of times) and after about 20 minutes, knowing I had another 2 and a half hours+ of torture thought: "Righto!: Lot 665 Ladies and gentlemen, A papier-mache musical box in the shape of a barrel organ. Attached, the figure of a monkey in Persian robes..." and worked my way through the entire opera. It was somewhat blissful. I've no doubt my head was lolling, eyes rolling and I was possibly drooling too.
 
@KateESal that's very odd. Aren't chapter books are around 10,00-12,00 words? I hate these rules and strict word count standards. Sarah Crossan is such a great writer, and if she adhered to such strictures her books would never have seen the light of day! Add a few eccentrically-long chapter titles to get the word count over 15,000 ;)
 
Interesting ... I just went back to a pair of novels I'd started a while ago (after finishing one novel...looking for the next project to complete) and, with this Twitter discussion in my head, I suddenly realised what had stalled these two. They wanted to be shorter stories than I was trying to make them into. With new 'permission' to make them only as long as they wanted to be, I found both started flowing well! Perhaps they will end up being novellas, and that's okay. Perhaps they will end up being short novels, and that's okay, too. But my block was in trying to make them what they weren't. A good lesson for me.


Where can I buy one of those lessons...
 
I recently came across a conversation on twitter started by a literary agent who specializes in children´s and Ya books and she mentions, through several tweets, that she is worried that people ( readers, and therefore booksellers, librarians, and hence publishers) are asking ...begging for shorter books. Apparently, the young reader´s attention span has shortened again post- pottermania.

The agent´s name is Molly Ker Hawn, if any of you care to follow her tweet. I´m posting here some of the observations made for your consideration. This worries me very much since I´m not very good at getting to the point, cutting to the chase, killing my darlings etc... and my work tends to be rather long. Any thoughts fellow MG and YA writers? @Agente Pete?


The thread begins here:

"I'm reading queries and seeing a trend that's dismaying me: so many very long books. I ask every bookseller I meet what they want to see published, and virtually all of them mention that they need shorter MG and YA books for their customers."
"I watch so many interactions between (adult and young) customers and booksellers in bookstores, and I've lost count of how many times I've seen a customer decline a recommendation because the book is longer than they want."
"For book fanatics like authors/agents/publishers, I think it can be hard to remember that not every young reader is like you (we!) were. A lot of 11-year-olds are daunted by a 90K-word MG novel."
( are kids dumbing down yet again?)

"And, look. In many cases, if a book needs a lot of editorial work—such as helping the author trim 20K words—the publisher won't be inclined to pay as much for it as they would if they felt the book was readier for publication."

She goes on to direct us to an already well know blog post among MG writers on adequate page count ( I will leave the link here below for those who have never read it.)

And so it goes on, and other agents,librarians booksellers,editors chime in with the same observations. Sounds like it´s a logical thing to consider but, will our stories be better for it? Or will they end up being half-baked results of what they were meant to be? I mean, yes, JK Rowling went a bit too far with her word count ( in many cases, quite unnecessary) but HP book 1 was /is considered long to and it´s only about 325 pages. I can´t imagine cutting my book any short than that!
What length do you consider your books will be once you are finished?



Here is the link: f you want a guide to word count ranges in children's/YA, I recommend @literaticat's now-classic blog post here. http://literaticat.blogspot.com/2011/05/wordcount-
Am interesting and informative post. I too have a concern about word count. I have a YA fantasy that is 57,000 words. It is that amount because that is what it took to tell that story, I didn't have a target other than to write the story and stop when it was finished. My first look at YA word counts gave me ranges from 50 to 60K and I even saw guidance that said 60K max. Since then, I have seen people say 60K is too short and some people say that YA can go up to 100K.
I think it all boils down to the story and providing it isn't way off the mark either end, it shouldn't matter. I saw one YA debut novel at over 170K (on a database of published novels that I have since lost the link to) so it is very much about the story and whatever the current vogue is, there will always be exceptions.
 
I have managed to get my YA novel down from over 85K to just over 73k. Lots of editing over several years with big gaps between each slashing session. That's it, I'm not trimming it anymore until I see the whites of an agent's eyes, otherwise it'll turn into a Haiku.
Genetics mutate
Animals Communicate
Two souls entwine
 
Everyone's attention span is shortening and the last generation wasn't forced to develop the same type of attention span you have. I don't know if anyone should be worried. Worried seems like the wrong word. It's information worth noting and using.
 
I'm not worried. :)
Longer stories can be broken down into trilogies, but must have a self contained story within each book. Some readers want a longer read, and some a short read. Luckily, there is so much variety out there.

Good to hear you are getting your muse back, @Quillwitch. :)
 
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