Middle Grade Landscape, Part 2

Are Shorter Books the Next Big Thing?

Um………………maybe?

As I said last week, some authors and others in the industry have been speculating that people want to reader shorter books, after years of plunking money down on gigantic epics.

I also said last week, and believe firmly, that a book should be as long as it needs to be, no longer, no shorter.

(For you LOTR nerds…….)

This is especially true in books for young readers from chapter books through young adult, because those books are marketed in two ways: by age, and then by genre. In terms of genre, fantasy, science fiction, dystopian, and certain historicals lend themselves to greater worldbuilding and by extension greater length. Contemporary, first romance, and humor genres are usually shorter, as are books aimed at the younger side of the audience.

Regardless, I don’t believe there are hard and fast rules as to word count in middle grade, just the focus on a general range: 30K words to 55K words for contemporary, etc., and up to 85K words for fantasy, etc. I also don’t think we need to worry about forcing our books into a certain length because of a trend.

That said, I do think we need to take note of reader interest in reading short, or as Kate Dwyer put it “slim”, books. They have value in particular for young readers who are struggling with reading skills. If that’s your jam, write for those readers keeping their skills in mind. And I would add that shorter chapters are also important for those readers.

I especially like what Nathan Bransford had to say on the topic, that the thing to be aware of is whether the words on the page have meaning, contribute tension, are crucial to the story’s arc and pacing, and not whether they are too much or too little by word count.

What’s Hot on the Horizon

The PW article mentioned several categories of genre that seem to be much in demand by readers at the moment, and I’ve observed a few others. Here they all are:

Scary books. Horror, mysteries, dark topics – these are all very popular. Kids love to be scared in the safe environment of a book, middle grade in particular. Contemporary stories with a touch of light magic always resonate, too.
Nonfiction. Teachers and librarians need good creative nonfiction. Biography, history, nature (especially related to climate) are all important, so if you are a research hound, go for it.
Graphic novels. As I mentioned in the last post, graphic novels, like shorter books, are perfect for any reader but especially for readers who struggle as some in middle grade do. Let’s give them books with images that cross the spectrum. Heck, I remember reading Shakespeare and Homer in comic book form and loving them. Let’s accept that reading is reading, however it’s presented, and if you think you have a graphic novel idea, give it a go. Graphics will continue to grow in popularity.
Underrepresented voices. For the past few years offerings featuring characters, myths, and worlds from diverse communities have been growing. This is truly important and overdue, and I don’t see this trend flagging. Eventually I also hope we see books with assumed-to-be diverse casts, no tags needed.
The “Judy Blume” tailwind. Her fabulous books written years ago are seeing a resurgence. Look for nostalgic back-casts with familiar characters, worlds, and flavors, but with a modern twist. Also books that touch on the emotional roller-coaster of going through those tween years – they will always be big.

Now, please take all this with a grain of salt. You might be writing the next big thing, and it may have nothing to do with the above list. See my note at the end of this post.

Money Talk

Here’s the frustrating part of being a middle grade author.

Very few of us make a living wage from our book sales. Advances are down, and royalties (assuming your book has earned out) are not sustainable income. Even with 8 books in print (most from major publishers), my royalty income would not be enough to take my family on a nice vacation.

Author Laura Salas has been breaking down her income for a while, and she echoes this hard truth.

Which is why most middle grade (and picture book and young adult and, frankly all) authors supplement their income by offering paid school visits and speaking engagements, by teaching (moi), by book coaching (moi aussi), by editing, and/or by writing work for hire for industry, education, etc.

Throw into this issue AI and the probability that not too far down the road simple writing – advertisements, say, or posts like this one (I promise I’m human all the way) – will be written in seconds by a computer is worrisome. Or…it could be liberating, giving lots of us more time to be creative? I recently sat in on a webinar and saw how AI could be useful for content creation, except for one tiny thing: it’s really hard for AI to generate a piece like, say, this one, and have the voice feel authentic. However, if publishers can use our prior work to create something that does sound like you or me, which has been mentioned…we need to stay on top of that potential dark alley.

As always, whether you are published yet or not, I highly recommend joining The Authors Guild, who have recognized this issue and are actively working to keep authors safe, and who also provide tallies of author income and note income generators.

Join My Mailing List!

The Bottom Line

No matter what, there’s a pretty simple directive to come from all of this, whether you’re thinking about book length, content, or getting paid. It’s one directive I tell my students and clients.

Write what you love. Write because you can’t not write. Tell the story you were meant to tell. Maybe you’ll make some money, but that shouldn’t be your prime consideration. Understand the market and the industry and do what you can do to support your writing. Get help when you need it. Don’t give up.

I’ll see you next time with some craft advice.

Speaking of Which………

Check out my blog post on Gray Space this week on Jane Friedman’s site! I’m pretty psyched to have a post there, and if you are curious about writing craft or the industry, you should check out all her posts.