Tag: Children/YA Lit

What do you think is the outlook for children’s writers in the LDS market? Any hope of publishing picture books, early readers, chapter books, or MG novels? Lisa Peck seems to be doing well with the CTR series. Do you think there’s room for more series books for kids?

Do publishers shy away from children’s books because of the cost production factor or because the market is simply too small?

Do you think there’s a way to create more desire for children’s books in the LDS market?

I always grimace a little when I read questions like this because there is no easy or good answer. I wish I could say that the LDS children’s market was in an upswing but I’m not seeing it.

Yes, publishers have to look at the cost of production vs expected sales levels when considering any book. It is the rare children’s book that balances out. They cost a lot to produce. The market is simply too small. The bigger publishers can afford the risk. The smaller ones are going to have to really have their socks blown off to take the chance. Children’s books do not sell as well as adult books. Fiction does not sell as well as non-fiction. A fiction children’s book has several strikes against it even before the envelope hits the slush pile.

But don’t despair. Please don’t let the market as it is stop you from writing your children’s books. We NEED good, solid, LDS children’s books–especially at the middle reader level.

As for series books, if you take a look at DBs online popularity rating of middle readers, you’ll notice that there are several LDS series books in the top 100. And as a publisher, I’d much rather take a chance on a children’s book that was part of, or could be made into, a series, than a stand-alone.

How do you create a desire for the LDS children’s market? Same as for any market. You need a fantastic manuscript, a brave publisher and an enthused marketing department.

If we look toward the national market, do you recommend we de-LDS the story (keep it clean and have morals, but no overt “Mormon-ness”)or do you think the national market would be open to LDS stories with LDS characters? Maybe it would help demystify our religion (some are still convinced we practice polygamy, etc.).

Okay, I should know this and be able to spout off a list of nationally published YA books that have LDS characters, but I can’t so help me out. Kristen Randle’s Slumming published by HarperCollins is one. And Charlotte’s Rose by A.E. Cannon, published by Wendy Lamb Books. (Although, that’s more of a middle grade book.) Orson Scott Card’s Lost Boys features an LDS family, but given the subject matter, I think that’s more of an adult book than YA. What else?

I mention those to show that national market YA with LDS characters is not unheard of but it’s also not very common. If that’s your plan, I’d suggest that you first publish a non-LDS YA book. If it’s successful, then talk to your agent about publishing LDS books. You can go straight for the YA with LDS characters, but I’m thinking that’s going to be a tough first sell.

Someone disagree with me and tell me it will be easier than I expect it will be. Please.

A few more comments on publishing YA:

1. Several of you have posted that you buy lots of YA books and so do your kids. Of course you do! And so do I. I probably buy upwards of 50 YA titles a year—and I don’t have any YA readers at home anymore. The reason? We’re writers—and readers, and so are our children. The people who read this blog are not a true representation of the book buying habits of the average American family.

2. Scholastic is a great place to buy YA books at reasonable prices. However in most families, once the youngest child in a family moves beyond middle school into the upper grades, the true YA age group, they no longer have easy access to Scholastic book sales. You can still order them online, or watch for the posters at the local elementary school, but it takes an extra effort and most people do not make that effort.

3. In my opinion, one of the reasons LDS writers are doing well in the national YA market is because their books are cleaner. So many national YA titles contain graphic violence and sexuality, encouraging teens to participate in pre-marital sex and other inappropriate behaviors. As LDS writers, most of us do not include that in our books. Sometimes there is pressure to do so, but we can stand up to that. There is a whole host of non-LDS parents and readers who want well-written YA without the trash. So yes, if you’re writing YA and the LDS publishers are saying, “Great story, we just can’t publish it right now…” go national. Or skip us small potatoes and go national in the first place.

Hi! Great blog. (Thanks)

Here’s my question: I’ve spent the past year submitting my YA to LDS publishers. Every rejection I’ve received said the same thing – that YA is a hard sell in the LDS market right now. Why is this? YA seems to be hotter than ever in the national market.

Thanks in advance.

YA is a harder sell for a variety of reasons (these are generalities, not specific cases):

1. Adults buy books; teens do not. Teens buy music or clothes or food. Most teens who read get their books from the library. If a teen owns a book it is usually a gift from an adult or something they really, really love and want to re-read.

2. Teens who read are voracious. While a parent will spend money to support their own reading habit (feeling they will keep the book and read it multiple times), they don’t want to spend the same on kids who will read a book in a day and then be done with it. It would break the family budget to keep the kids in reading material.

3. Teens who don’t read rarely make it past chapter 1. Parent won’t invest in a book that may or may not be read. Since most parents are not a good judge of what their kids will want to read, it makes the investment even more risky.

4. Most LDS YA books are a one-time read–a pleasant story, but not something that is going to grab the teen reader and make them want to keep it and read it multiple times. We don’t have any classics yet, nothing on the level of Lord of the Rings or Dune or Enders Game. (Yes, I like fantasy, so those are the titles that immediately pop into my mind. I’m sure you can think of many others.) Think of it like DVDs. We buy the ones we love and know we’ll watch over and over again. We rent the ones that we think we’ll only want to watch once or twice.

5. It costs the same amount to publish a YA book as it does an adult book. Given #1 above, all things being equal, you will sell two or three times as many adult books as you will the YA book.

YA may be selling better than ever nationally, but adult fiction still outsells YA fiction on a national level–and for the same reasons as listed above. This will always be the case. Think of the last 10 books you purchased (not counting Christmas gifts). How many were for your teens and how many were for you?

The good news is that the LDS market runs parallel but a little behind the national market. Trends you see there will eventually show up here. The bad news is that in a small, niche market like ours, an uptrend in YA may be so small it won’t even be noticed.