Saturday, January 12, 2008

Pigeon, Meet Hole. (except no, not really)

A writer friend of mine commented to me once that after the sale of your first work, publishers will expect you to stay in that genre – if your first is a YA those that follow should be YA. I’m currently sending my YA novel to publishers and an agent or two. (Will be my first once sold.) Everything else I’ve written is MG. Is my friend right? Will I have a hard time selling my MGs if I sell a YA first?
Some of the best idea people work in more than one genre and age group, and publishers know this. M T Anderson, Adam Rex, Rosemary Wells, Ann Martin, Jaqueline Woodson, Dav Pilkey, Kevin Henkes, Brian Selznick, sheesh, the list goes on.

You may have sold your YA novel to a publisher imprint (or editor) who really only does YA. In which case you'll have to send your middle grades somewhere else. But real artists cannot paint themselves into a corner. For real artists, there are no corners.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! I could have written that question, because it perfectly describes my concerns as well. Thanks for answering it. I feel a little better now, and can continue to make my list of agents who will accept both young adult and mainstream fiction.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for calling the said writers "idea people", because that's exactly what they are. They always take books to a new level, one where the average idea person says, "why didn't I think of that?"
I'm putting Jennifer Holm of Newbery and Baby Mouse fame on the list. Don'tcha just wish you came up with that there Baby Mouse????

Stephanie J. Blake said...

The Baby Mouse OR the Pigeon who can drive!

Anonymous said...

Here's a question ... what if you do sell to an imprint that only does YA? Can you approach other imprints at that same publishing house for your other work?

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