Society of Young Publishers: Generation YA: Publishing Teen Fiction notes

Society of Young Publishers:

Generation YA: Publishing Teen Fiction

“How is the publishing industry responding to the growing demand for young adult fiction? What exactly constitutes a ‘teenage’ novel, and how do you go about writing and publishing in to this sector successfully?”

Here's the link to the event on their website: www.thesyp.org.uk/eventinfo.php?id=281
I think they were taking notes as well. Probably better than I was.

My notes on the event follow. They’re paraphrased so apologies for any inaccuracies. I’ve tried to make my own opinions clear where I’ve expressed them.

The panel begins with David Floyd speaking; he’s a social worker that helps young people in Hackney produce a magazine for people in the borough.

I like him already, because I’m from Hackney. They begin by admitting that they don’t know anything about children’s book publishing – good start!

David Floyd:

Council funded youth magazines are a real growth industry across the UK. Local authorities are keen to support initiatives that give young people a voice.

Young people are empowered through the process of creating the content, designing/producing the magazine and then there is the wider benefit of the magazine being read widely in the local area – so there are benefits to young people at every stage.

The young people involved with the project get extra benefits some of which are practical, media training, IT skills and some of which are more general, working to deadlines, creative writing and so on.

Councils can use the magazine both as part of their CSR schemes, but also to engage with young people about information that they might otherwise ignore.

One of the most popular sections of the magazine is “Agony” their name for the problem page. Teenagers aren’t interested in getting or giving advice however, they just want to laugh at other peoples misfortune. Therefore the more cruel and dismissive advice to the more extreme problem or condition, the better.

The views of teenagers are changeable and seemingly insurmountable conflicts can be over the next day. The example given is of a girl who wrote in to the problem page about being bullied. She wrote in on a regular basis and as the bullying got worse, she stopped going to school. The magazine continued to publish her letters and ended up running a supplement on bullying. This gave the victim the confidence to resolve the situation herself. The next day the girl and the bully had made up and became friends again. Even though the conflict had been serious, it was soon forgotten.

The magazines avoid preaching at all costs. Everybody talks to teenagers, but no one listens. If you do listen to teenagers they begin by talking about celebrities, fashion and football, but if you give them time they’ll talk about self-harm or world peace, with just as much authority.

The magazine encourages young people to peal back this layer of received or inherited wisdom and write opinion pieces or information pieces. They need support to do this, but once achieved, their views can be incisive and strong.

Contrast magazine has been running for 5 years and is distributed to 5,000 children in schools and colleges.

Jill Hucklesby

Jill has just been signed up for Egmont! I only just find this out from an editor before I get there, but it’s nice to meet her. She’s talking about her two books Deeper than Blue and Last Kiss of the Butterfly (published by Orchard) and her intention to write deeper, darker things for Egmont. Jill’s great!

Jill:

Deeper than Blue began as a script for television that she converted to into a novel, partly as a way of protecting the idea.

It follows a successful swimmer who loses part of her leg in an accident and attempts to come to terms with her disability.

Her books have won awards, particularly, Jill says, awards that have been voted for by children. Looking at the crib sheet this includes the: 1066 School’s Book Award, the Bolton Children’s Book award and the Cumbrian spell binding award. It was also long listed for the Branford Bose award.

She talks about Last Kiss of the Butterfly, about a girl who, after caring for her mother, whose cancer is now in remission, resents having to spend a summer bonding with her, when she wants to get back to being a teenager.

The book contains life lessons through learning about nature. It’s not about morals, it’s about journeys.

Jill mentions Egmont about 5 times, she’s going to be a good author to work with!

Questions come from audience: Is there a point where you hold back from a topic or description, because it wouldn’t suit the market?

Jill: Not really, there’s no censorship.

Kate wants to step in with her views.

Kate O’Hearn:

I’m friends with Jill but we’re very different as authors. I write YA fantasy, and only that, I won’t do books with ponies or hamsters. Why? It gives her freedom, if she wants to give someone wings, she can.

She comments that editorial opinion on YA books can differ. One of her editors at H&S (the more junior) thinks that in Y.A. the rule is, you can kill, but don’t kiss. The more senior editor thinks even strong violence is a no no.

She also doesn’t swear but says this is self-censorship rather than being inflicted by the editors. She challenges that nobody really dies in Y.A. fantasy books but she’s quickly called on that by the audience who give examples of Phillip Reeve and the Harry Potter books. I know there’re lots of deaths in Egmont’s Gone and I can tell you that there’s plenty in Puffin’s The Enemy too.

Kate thinks that only in more literary fiction do characters get to stay dead, in fantasy they’re more often brought back to life later, or imprisoned and then released.

One of the pervasive themes of her books, even though they’re fantasy, is a strong familial unit.

Kate started as an adult thriller writer she penned an adult crime book beginning with a rape scene before she decided that her narrative voice was in fantasy books. She was working in H&S as she attempted to write the adult book, but was on the floor where children’s books were made. Being surrounded by the covers and being impressed by the content, she decided that children’s books were for her.

She says her writing didn’t change from adult to YA although obviously the content was different. Her techniques and writing style remain the same.

The moralising in Kate’s books are about feminism, and politics she bases all her books on a political issue that’s relevant at the time of writing, although again it’s “hidden” within her work. She says the things she writes about are a distillation of all the things that bother her. Her next idea is for an anti-whaling book disguised as a “kick-ass mermaid adventure”.

What makes adults read YA?

A good YA book has to tell the story in fewer words, 60 – 70,000 and so is often faster paced and more concise, easier to access and get into. Adults get a satisfaction from turning pages and finishing books and chapters just like the kids do. She gives Patterson’s Maximum Ride series as an example.

Joy’s turn.

Joy Court:

Joy begins by talking about the importance of the Carnegie and of librarians to enthusing teenagers about books. She laments the lack of review coverage given to teenage/cross over books in the national press.

The Carnegie award, she goes on, is the guardian of quality YA writing, books are nominated by librarians, not submitted by publishers. The main things they’re looking for in a winner are plot, characterisation and style that stays with you. They’re looking for books that survive being reread and reread. During the judging procedure books are read 4 times and you’d be surprised at how many seemingly good books fall apart on a third read.

Joy amends this by saying that, one of the limits of this process is that it doesn’t capture the initial thrill or rush that teenagers can experience from reading a book.

Joy recommends YA books to adults for another reason – you have to work hard to target that audience – they’re age specific, mobile and changeable. Books written for them tend to be targeted and focused. That can make for some really powerful writing.

She disagrees with Kate (or Kate’s editors) about appropriateness of content in YA books, she uses Junk as an example and says that, for her, swearing is the most recognisable clue as to whether or not the book is meant for teenagers. She thinks books can have drugs in and still be very moral. She thinks that experiencing drug abuse in a book can be a safe environment for YA readers to expose themselves to situations and experiences that would be very dangerous in the real world. It enables them to think about what their reaction, views or decisions might be without exposing them to immediate harm.

Joy says Y.A. books shouldn’t pull punches, if you want to swear, just swear.

Joy notes that there is a movement amongst publishers to release books with adult covers, and even adult logos on the spine, but if they’re from a children’s list within the publisher, then it’s a children’s book.

Joy says that she gets criticism from teenagers about the fact that kids aren’t involved in the Carnegie judging process – what do you know? you’re not a teenager? But she argues that kids will give an impact assessment, whereas they’re looking for a longer view.

Joy gives The Gathering Light as an example of the first crossover book because it won the Carnegie and was on the Richard and Judy shortlist at the same time. A good Y.A. book defies attempts to age-band it. None of the criteria for the Carnegie award are age-specific.

In an open discussion that follows the following points are made:

Jill – it’s good to tackle issues and she feels free to write anything for children. She intends to explore deeper and darker places now, and Egmont’s editors are encouraging this.

Kate – she’s realised that children are insightful, if you think you’ve hidden a moral in your story – they’re going to recognise it and have an opinion on it. It’s made her more careful about the kinds of morals she includes and the way she includes them. Perhaps because kids are impressionable and less resistant to suggested morals at this age, she feels more responsible about what she writes.

David – from the youth working magazine people, says that when kids write, it’s for fun. You don’t want children to explore these dark places, it’s not appropriate for to encourage them to do that. Instead kids should write their own opinions in a fun and free way and let adults write the dark things for them, giving them books that enable them to explore issues.

Is Y.A. a new phenomenon? ask the youth workers. Joy responds by saying that young people are lucky today with the range of ages and variety of books published for them. Books are there to help people grow emotionally and empathetically.

Joy finds connection with young people through the moderation of comments on the website for book awards, and she loves it. Kate has interaction with children in school groups and isn’t afraid to ask for, and listen to, their opinion editorially. Jill also talks about school events and responding to letters and fan mail – which is often thanking her for exploring or highlighting an issue.

I’m struck that, after hearing David talk about how kids don’t want to be moralised at, Jill (and later Kate), go on to talk about how their books contain lots of moralising and instruction but it’s either hidden (in Kate’s words) or shown in a non-confrontational way. This seems to be a key use of teenage literature.

The questions of how the publishing industry are responding to this growing demand wasn’t really answered, but then, as there were no publishers speaking, that’s not a huge shock I guess. The panel are much more successful at getting at what might constitute a teenage novel and certainly have some interesting points to make about how to write for it.

I had a great time, but there was a lot of coughing and sneezing going on so my swine flu radar was on alert. It would have been great to hear a publisher speak about their views, but still got plenty out of it.

As always when the SYP and authors get together there were a number of off-topic questions about how to get agents, how to get published etc. but then I suppose that’s to be expected.