Consider my Eyebrows Raised Pt. II

8) One interesting thing that some people have tried with some success and others have totally killed their query by screwing up: writing the query letter as the main character from the book. The upshot- makes the letter stand out, seem more interesting, can itself be a testament to your abilities as a writer. The downsides- makes including biographical information difficult, can be confusing.

9) On a somewhat sad note: Highly capable professionals, even writers of other sorts of material who want to write children’s fiction. This happens A LOT. Teachers and lawyers are the most common culprits. Journalists will usually look to write books for adults. But technical writers and college professors also go for the kids books. You might think it’s because it’s “easy” to write MG books, but that’s not really true. And in my experience, many of them really have a love of it. Or at least, they love the idea of it. Not so long ago I got a proposal for a 45,000 word MG (little too long) from an active anthropologist whose book (which he thought was best suited to 9 year olds) takes place during the days of the Roman Occupation of England and their bloody battles with the Scots. Uh. Oh, and he planned to include maps, charts, and references. Because being an anthropologist by training, this is die-hard realism in historical fiction. I’m pretty interested, actually. Nine year olds? Probably not so much. If you’re out there dude, consider re-writing it as a YA. And be sure your hero is a teenager. Otherwise you face

10) Bizarre ages. A book aimed at 10 year olds should generally star characters no less than 9 and no older than 12. Why? Because that’s your audience. Okay, fine. The man who turned me to writing (and taught me how to raise my eyebrow quizzically- if you can identify this author from this description alone, you deserve a prize) wrote books for that age group that I read at five. But I’m awesome. And notably, I continued to read them until I was 12 because for God’s sake, I was a child. I liked reading light, goofy things about KIDS. YA books? Same deal. It’s possible, but very, very hard to write a book aimed at the YA market with a 24 year old protagonist. Consider 18 or 19 your practical limit. You can write an adult novel starring someone in their late teens, but these will usually have the air of a bildungsroman to them. It can get complicated of course. What about YA Adult crossovers? I would say: consider your PRIMARY audience. If it’s actually a YA that might appeal to adults, you’re talking about a cast primarily consisting of teens a la Harry Potter. If you’re talking about, say, Light Fantasy which is what I used to transition to adult books (and the reason I still have a fondness for genre fiction despite the majority of it being verbose, derivative and insubstantial) go ahead and make them anywhere from late teens on.