January 29, 2018: Market/Target Age
My goal last week was to take my Young Adult story - ON A SCALE OF ONE
TO TEN - down to Middle Grade, or ages 8-12. Did I succeed? Nope, it’s definitely a WIP (work
in progress). I read several MG and YA books, looking for comparisons, likes,
and differences; and lately, I’ve read several chapter books, to get in the
right mindset of the character and to grasp a better understanding of how the
authors play with words.
There are many articles out there that address age-appropriate books.
One bit of helpful advice I found: Bookstores have a shelf for MG and another
for YA, but there is not a shelf in-between.
However after that, the information turns gray. Apparently, there are upper
MG or lower YA. Another article suggested a good target age for MG is 14 years
old, but then, another one stated a writer should aim higher or lower as 14
years old represents change, hormones, on the cusp, etc. I guess there’s no
real set-in-stone rule when it comes to writing MG or YA, other than one
publisher recently stated the YA market didn’t “take off” as it was anticipated.
Since my story, SCALE, cannot jump from YA to Adult, my goal of taking it down
to MG seems to be my only option. How do I accomplish that? The most obvious is
to make sure my Main Character is involved in age-appropriate scenes, i.e.,
year of school, activities, and angst. I also read the MG character isn’t
necessarily involved in edgy activities, but can certainly have a parent who is
a drunk, on drugs, etc. That’s all fine and dandy, but my MC’s best friend is a
victim of child abuse, and don’t even begin to tell me that doesn’t happen to
MG age children…and younger. Child abuse can happen at any age, and at the end
of my story, there’s a list of agencies that offers assistance. The message is
important. The story is edgy. The age is fluid, but I must narrow it down to
one genre and the way to do that is to read, read, read what the market is
selling. Middle Grade it is.
Posts
