YA Market: If Teens Aren’t Tweeting, Why Are We?
Authors should blog. Authors should get on Facebook and set up fan pages. Authors should tweet. And many YA authors do, setting up themed blogs, tweeting their favorite books, putting up book trailers and extra content. But just who is the content reaching? According to a recent study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, teen blogging and tweeting are down. Interestingly, the researchers list teens as 12 – 17 years old and young adults as the 18 – 29 set. Key facts from...
Read MoreInkpop: A Virtual Slush Pile
Yesterday, HarperCollins Children’s Books launched inkpop, “an interactive writing platform and community for teenagers”. From PW: Inkpop had a soft launch in late 2009 and currently boasts more than 10,000 members ages 13 and up, and 11,000 written submissions, which include novels, short stories, poetry, and essays. An editorial board of Harper editors will review the top five member selections each month, offering feedback on their work as well as, potentially, the possibility of...
Read MoreNew Adult Fiction – Beyond the Limits of YA, or Just New Packaging?
Earlier this week, I asked about the limits in YA literature. Is there a line? And if so, where is it? St. Martins’ Press may have the answer. Late last year, they ran a contest in conjunction with #YAlitchat founder, Georgia McBride, to find some New Adult, or NA, titles. From McBride’s blog: We are actively looking for great, new, cutting edge fiction with protagonists who are slightly older than YA and can appeal to an adult audience. Since twenty-somethings are devouring YA, St....
Read MoreCandor review over at SFWP.org
My first review for the Santa Fe Writers Project is up! If I were pitching Pam Bachorz’ Candor at an editorial meeting, I’d call it “dystopian contemporary YA meets The Stepford Wives with a dash of Wisteria Lane from a male perspective”. Oscar Banks is cookie-cutter perfect. He’s a straight A student, is dating the prettiest, smartest girl in Candor High, and has more friends than a parrot at a pirate convention…[more] Read it at SFWP.org, then check out some of their excellent...
Read MoreBook Love and the Kindle – A Match Made in Purgatory?
As children, we’re encouraged to visit the library, to sign up for a card and borrow books. When there’s no library around, or a lack of the latest and greatest, we swap books with friends and classmates or sign up for online services such as Paperback Swap, Bookins, and Book Mooch. Borrowing books is an important part of the zeitgeist. And while borrowing a book from a library or swapping one online may be a simple matter, borrowing a book from a friend is an essential process. Libraries...
Read MoreErma Bombeck Writing Competition
The Washington-Centerville Public Library is running an Erma Bombeck writing competition. Writers can submit 450 words in two categories – human interest and humor. From the site: A personal essay “deals lightly, often humorously, with personal experiences, opinions, and prejudices, stressing especially the unusual or novel in attitude and having to do with the various aspects of everyday life.” ˜Phillip Lopate, The Art of the Personal Essay. Erma Bombeck inspired people...
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