If it looks like a teen novel and sounds like a teen novel...
...when Mr. Doyle got an idea for a novel, it wasn't a stretch for him to write about being a teenager. His book "I Love You, Beth Cooper," which will be published May 8 by News Corp.'s Ecco imprint, opens with a nerdy high-school senior giving a graduation speech. He then veers from his prepared text and declares his love for the school's prettiest cheerleader. The 24 hours that follow are either the best or the worst of his life."Most of my dreams involve high school or college, along the lines of, 'I forgot to take the midterm,'" Mr. Doyle says. "In this case, I dreamt the opening scene."
But when it came to turning this into a book, Mr. Doyle found that his teenage theme brought with it some difficult choices...
The story goes on to say that kids' publishers wanted to "YA" the novel: "Tell it in the first person, increase the female quotient and write chapters in which male and female narrators alternate. This carefully manicured approach, he was told by one publishing house, was 'what we usually do.' "
In the end, he found an adult publisher, even though his main character is only 15. Was that good? Bad? Hard to say. But the cover shows they were maybe a little ambivalent even after they made their decision; does that look like an adult novel?
It's not all roses in the adult world. As the WSJ points out: it's a good time to be publishing books for teenagers: "Although there aren't any hard numbers, publishers say young adult is a hot category at a time when bookstore sales declined about 3% last year. However, determining whether a book should get a young-adult label is more art than science, and brings with it an array of complicated issues for authors, publishers and retailers."
Personally, I think it's weird not to know who you want to read your book. I've had lots of adult friends say they've enjoyed Runnerland, which I'm grateful to hear. (Thank you, all.) And I'm not gonna give back any grown-up's money, if they want to buy a copy.
But it's a book for teenagers. That's who it's about. That's who I had in my mind for all those months and months I was writing. And that's who I hope will read it.
Nuff said.
People keep misreading that story and my views as somehow being disparaging of YA literature. It's a marketing story. It's about the packaging and placement, not the product.
I designed that cover, by the way. I picked that design and that artist (Evan Dorkin) because I thought it looked cool. It's orange because that was one of my high school colors (I wanted to put out two covers but...) (Comment this)
Thanks for your post. And you're right. My bad. I started off questioning why publishers need to switch horses mid-race, and then I cantered into blame-the-author territory, which I had no business doing. Lazy thinking.
I shouldn't try to reverse-engineer what you were thinking from a story in the Washington Journal; but I do find it interesting that publishers are willling to adopt such a range of marketing approaches to the same book.
It's interesting to me, too, that you think you'll "get to" older teens by avoiding the YA label. You're probably right. But I'm proud to stick to YA - and to read it myself.
Orange is my favourite colour. Good luck with your book... (Comment this)