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.