Why picking the right age category for your book is so important (and how not to mess it up). GUEST POST by Laurisa White Reyes

If you are as avid a reader as I am, you are probably familiar with the terms Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult fiction. Recently, a new category has popped up: New Adult.

What exactly determines if a book fits into one category or another? This may not be important for people who just want to read good books, (Who cares if the protagonist is sixteen or thirty-six as long as it’s a great read!) but understanding the difference is vital when you are writing books and marketing them.

Middle Grade Books

Let’s start with Middle Grade. This category is for younger readers, generally between the ages of 8 to 12, or if the subject matter is a little more mature, ages 10 to 14.

The protagonist’s age should fall into one of these ranges, and the story should be told from a child’s point of view (1^st or 3^rd person doesn’t matter). Adults may be present in the story, but the kids are the stars of the show.

Some “no-no’s” for writing for this age group include books told from an adult perspective reminiscing about when they were young and stories told from a kid’s POV but where the subject matter could be considered mature.

Middle Grade = Young Adult?  (nope)

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Basics, Part 3: Are you choosing words that zoom, screech, soar, sing?

You’re a writer, right?

And writing is all about words? 

(Come on, let me hear you nodding.)

So picking the words to go into your kids’ book should be simple… but it’s not.

In the first post in this series, Basics, Part 1: What is a children’s book? I laid out the most simple definition of a children’s book: 

1. Pages between covers
2. Aimed at young readers
3. Usually illustrated
4. All about story

In Basics, Part 2: Does your book measure up?, we looked at the first part of that definition:  pages between covers.  How many pages, exactly?  How many words?  Well, that depends on who you’re writing for.

And so does the language you choose to fill your book.

You want to choose words that zoom; words that soar; words that transport your readers and sing to them – or screech at them.

In Part 2, I actually gave you a chart, and I’m going to do the same thing here. 

Let me be honest:  a lot of people HATED the chart in my last Basics post.  These folks are artists, and I respect that.  And they refuse to be hemmed in by conventions.  Fair enough.

Life as an artist

But if you were an artist artist, I mean the kind that paints pictures, and somebody hired you to paint a family portrait to hang on the wall above their fireplace… would you measure the wall above their fireplace first?

I suspect you would.

And then you’d choose a canvas to fit the space, right?

(Just keep nodding.)

Here’s what you wouldn’t do:  go home, picking up any old size of bedsheet along the way; and proceed to paint the picture on a canvas that was huge… or too tiny to be seen.  If you do, I would hope you’d have the good grace not to get made at your client if he refused to pay for your work.

As most painters through the ages have discovered, working within size (and other) constraints probably won’t kill your artistic spirit.

So please don’t hate me for suggesting them.

Big, beautiful words

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Basics, Part 2: Does your book measure up?

How long is a children’s book?

Figuring out how long your kids’ book should be is easy:  you start typing at the beginning, and stop when it’s long enough.  Or do you?

In the first post in this series, Basics, Part 1: What is a children’s book? we looked at the most simple definition of a children’s book: 

1. Pages between covers
2. Aimed at young readers
3. Usually illustrated
4. All about story

I’ve talked a lot over the last little while about points 2-4, but not so much about #1, namely – how many pages should be between your covers?

I’ll tell you in a second.  In fact, I’ll go one better and give you a handy chart.

But first – I want you to remember that word lengths and all this technical stuff has NOTHING whatsoever to do with #4, “all about story.”  Your children’s book is primarily about story, and when you’re writing your first draft, just write. Don’t even think about word length.

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Four signs you’re not cut out for self-publishing… and one reason you might be after all.

Self-publishing used to be for losers.  It wasn’t even called self-publishing – it was called “vanity publishing.”  Even the name meant you were a loser:  “You’re so vain… you prob’ly think this book is about you!” 

In between staring at the mirror and primping your nails, you wrote a book; how cute!

Who’s a loser now?

That “loser” reputation was well-earned in some cases.  Companies out to “help” writers publish their books would sell exorbitantly-priced packages of legitimate-sounding “services,” from editing and illustration to layout and promotion.  But mainly what they’d “serve” you with, often for thousands of dollars, was a useless box of poor-quality books that would sit in your living room for years, doing nothing to sell themselves.

(A few of these companies have “successfully” transitioned to the Internet.  Visit the Writer Beware blog for a guide to some of the more heinous among them.)

That is NOT today’s self-publishing environment.  Today, self-published books are of great quality.  They look and feel super-professional, and they’re cheaper than ever.  For under $10, including delivery, you could be holding your finished children’s book in your hands next week.

Why self-publishing may not work for you

So there’s no shame in self-publishing anymore.  But that still doesn’t mean it’s for everybody.  Here are four signs that self-publishing, even in today’s easy-entry market, might not work out for you.

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6 reasons to hate blogging in 2014 – and why I do it anyway.

When I started blogging, way back in 2005, “blogging” was a newish word, and not so many people did it.  A blog was a way of sharing your interests, usually painfully specific, with perhaps a few dozen readers who may have been mostly family members.

Blogging has changed.  A lot.

1.  A decade ago, “monetize” was a joke.  Today, it’s the primary reason someone starts a blog.  Many people start blogs just to drive traffic to another blog, which then, in turn, drives traffic to a main marketing site where the big sell takes place – an ebook, an online “course,” or some collection of substandard products.  And sometimes, there isn’t even a “big sell,” the blogs generate money on their own, through ad revenue – it’s their sole raison d'être.

2.  A decade ago, bloggers loved their blogs. 

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Ebook or App: which should you write?

How do you feel about the ebook / book app revolution?

There’s a lot of bandwagon-jumping out there among self-published children’s authors these days.  Everybody, it seems, wants to publish not just a book but an app.  Indeed, there’s a bit of confusion; many people assume that if you can read it on a table, it MUST be an app – they’re confused about where the line is between ebooks and apps.

Though I’d step in and clarify. :-)

(Before I start, I must give credit for this amazing illustration to Christine Kornacki, whose site / blog and more artwork can be found here.)

So here’s where I draw the line.

• If you sit down and read it, it’s a book.  The main verb here is READ.
• If you can play with it, it’s an app.  The main verb here is PLAY.

In general (and feel free to challenge me with any exceptions you can think of!)…

• An ebook is essentially words (and pictures) on the screen, in the same way that books are words and pictures on paper - the screen simply replaces the paper. Ebooks can be read on both ereaders and tablets (including ipads).
• An app, on the other hand, although it can be based on an ebook, is far more interactive and usually includes games, sound, etc. These can only be read on tablets; most only on the ipad.

Many authors think they should automatically jump into whatever is newest and best, and I’ve seen a few people on work-for-hire sites offering to create interactive apps cheaply. 

There is also the woeful idea, in the minds of some lazy and/or unscrupulous writers, that they can take a less-than-wonderful book idea and conceal its flaws by turning it into an app instead.  Perhaps they can cover up the lack of plot or shallow characters with glitz and interactivity.  Caution:  not so fast, suckas! 

Here’s why I think you should steer clear of apps.  That’s right… I’ll say it again in bold:

If you’re a writer, steer clear of apps.

If you see yourself as an writer, with a burning need to create a children’s book, then do it:  write your book.  The verb here is WRITE.  You will basically go it alone, writing your book and either illustrating it yourself, submitting it to a publisher, or finding an artist on your own.  The core of the process is the writing and the final product will depend mainly on the quality of the writing.

You have all you need, right this minute, to create the best kids’ book in the world.

If, on the other hand, your idea is more about an an interactive fantasy world, you can think about creating an app.  Essentially, you will have to create characters, a whole bunch of interactive scenarios (multiple plotlines), and then bring them to life.  I’ve seen what it takes to create a high-quality videogame, and chances are, you don’t have the technical know-how to do it alone.  This is going to cost a bunch of money, and because other people will be involved, the quality will depend not just on your idea (which might be great) but on the others who bring it to life for you.

You do NOT have all you need to create the best kids’ app in the world.

Chances are, you can’t – create the best app, that is.  The market is flooded with cheap and flashy educational things for computers and tablets of all kinds.  Any idea you have has probably already been done better a thousand times.  If it’s what you really want to do, don’t let me discourage you, but if you believe your core talent is WRITING, then you’d better stick to WRITING.

With ebooks, on the other hand, there’s no barrier to entry.  You determine the quality of the final product by your own hard work.

According to this infographic (click for original), apps are “ideal” for:  non-serial storytelling experiences (ie NOT books), well-known brands or characters (ie probably NOT your kids’ book) and significant marketing resources (ie probably NOT your budget).

Conversely, ebooks are ideal for:  serial reading experiences (ie books), the majority of titles (ie YOUR books), and lower barriers to monetization (ie it costs you less money).

What we “read” in our family.

Actually, no quotation marks are necessary.  In our family, we READ.  These days, since we live in a place where English-language books are rare and expensive, ebooks essentially are our future, and both kids are slowly coming around. 

My kids mainly use our ereader and tablets for actual reading - ie they sit quietly for hours turning pages and enjoying more-or-less traditional tales.  It took longer for our daughter, by the way, and she still can’t read for hours on the Kobo like she can with a print book.  Kids know the truth:  no matter how we may pretend, reading on a screen IS intrinsically a different experience from reading on a piece of paper.

The main ereader the kids have access to (the grownups each have a tablet) is a Kobo Touch, in the alluring lilac quilted colour you see here.  This device is very limited… technically, it can access the Internet and it has a built-in Sudoku game, but these features are very awkward to use.  Essentially, what it does is display books on the screen.  It does a decent job of it and (with no backlight and a low-energy paper-white screen) has an incredible battery life.  It’s a couple of years old now, but there’s no reason it can’t last a good long time.

When it comes to apps, we’re limited in the kind and quantity we can enjoy, even on the Parental Tablets, because we don’t have an ipad, but I like to think that even if we did have one, I’m the type of parent who’d mainly steer her kids towards books, not apps.  I’ve seen a little of what’s out there, and (perhaps because I’m coming from a background of intense geekery in the videogame arena), I’m not terribly impressed.

I’m not dissing the potential of apps based on books!

Lest you think I’m anti-app… I’m not, believe me.  I see a well-done kids’ book app as the modern equivalent of the pop-up book, offering delightful surprises on every “page.”  I certainly don’t believe they mean the end of books, as many prophets of doom would have you believe.

(I would, however, treat apps as “screen time” instead of just “reading time” and limit kids’ access accordingly, but that’s a topic for another post.)

On the other hand, one big drawback I haven’t mentioned of apps, as opposed to ebooks, is that ebooks are generally offered in a universal format.  Apps are restricted to one device or platform, usually (these days) ipad or android.  That’s worth repeating, while I’m tossing out the bold fonts so liberally here:

Ebooks are universal; apps are single-platform.

A lot of writers don’t understand this, simply because they’re not coming at it from a technical standpoint.  Someone promises them an app, they test out the finished app and it’s good, so they go with it.  They don’t realize that they’ve just cut off some huge percentage of their potential readership.

(Some people pushing book apps may tell you that there are many confusing file formats in the ebook world, but most are similar enough to convert easily from one format / platform to another, unlike apps, which don’t port easily at all.)

Of course, if your book is a wild success, you can always think about turning it into an app later on.  If it’s picked up by a publisher, or if you already have a publisher and the book becomes successful, they may even find a way to do it for you, leveraging their resources to create an app that actually stands out.

Want to read more about the difference between ebooks and apps?

• Ebooks vs Apps for Kids
• Blurring the Digital Page
• Interactive eBook Apps: The Reinvention of Reading and Interactivity
• Food for thought:  “Interactive apps are a bad idea that keeps children from the written word, says best-selling writer.” (I think this article doesn’t understand the distinction between ebooks and apps, personally.)

Are you planning to put out a book app?  Were you planning to but have decided against it?  Are you on the bandwagon or not quite sold on the idea?

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Writer vs Author?

In my last post, I used the word “author” in the heading and “writer” in the body of the post.

In general, I call myself a writer and have for years, pretty much the whole time I’ve been writing freelance. 

Many people, reading my serious writing, have tried to call me a “journalist.”  I felt awkward letting them do so since, although I write well, I don’t technically have a journalism degree.  It felt a bit like being caught practicing medicine without a license… but not quite, because I wasn’t putting anyone’s health at risk.

When she was just getting started, Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club and many more) once announced proudly that she was an author.  “A contemporary author?” the inquirer asked.  “I realized,” writes Tan in the The Opposite of Fate:  Memories of a Writing Life, “that if I were not contemporary I would be the alternative, which is, of course, dead.”

Since then, despite her rise to prominence in the North American literary scene, she has insisted on calling herself a writer:

A writer writes-she writes in the present progressive tense. Whereas an author, unless she is clearly said to be "contemporary," is in the past tense, someone who once wrote, someone who no longer has to sharpen her pencil, so to speak.

And if as brilliant a luminary as Amy Tan – a kids’ author herself, by the way! – can call herself a writer… so can I.

What do you call yourself as you dive headlong into this writing adventure?  Remember, even if you haven’t published a word, if you write… you’re a writer!!!

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