How To Sell Your Middle Grade Novel and Make It a Hit with Kids - Alyson Gerber

Alyson Gerber is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Liars Society series, a middle grade mystery set at a New England prep school. The Liars Society has been picked as a Best Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop and has been nominated for six state book awards, including the Texas Bluebonnet Award. The Liars Society #3: A Secret Escape will be in stores April 7. Alyson has an MFA from The New School in creative writing. She grew up in New England and now lives in New York City with her family. 

A key to writing for middle grade is knowing your audience. So, Alyson moves through the whole room getting to know us (our names and where we live) before she gives us the secrets to writing bestselling middle grade. 

Alyson believes where we are from defines a lot about us. 

Who is your audience? 

Middle grade readers are 3rd to 8th grade, a very wide age of readers (3rd graders and 8th graders are very different). Can you tap into each of those ages within in the story? Alyson find a sweet spot with 5th grade.

With middle grade readers, short chapters are a key to success. 

Tip: Study the way publishers or others pitch a book to help you craft yours. For example, check out this one for Alyson's Liar's Society. Watch it HERE.

Alyson emphasizes that as writers of middle grade, we need to be able to get back into that middle grade experience. It's a time when kids are experiencing things for the very first time. We need to get back into recalling what it was like to have experience for the first time (first heart break, first betrayal, first dismissal by adults). 

Work on your pitch, and the many different versions of it. You will always need it.

Alyson, suggests going outside your genre to find great comp titles. 

Think about your aesthetic and vibe! 

Alyson shares some highly recommended middle grade reads. 

The room is energized with attendees sharing their pitches with each other. Do I even spy Tiffany Jackson (author of the above Blood in the Water, and many other great novels)? 

Make Your Story Take Flight with Torrey Maldonado

Torrey Maldonado is the author of popular books for young readers, including WHAT LANE?. His newest book, HANDS is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, won a starred School Library Journal review and is a “Best New Book of 2023”. Learn more at torreymaldonado.com.

This session is packed with good gems of advice from Torrey. Here are a few:

Torrey's mom always told him, he belonged. She could see he had imposter syndrome. For his mom, she had road blocks, so she was sure to  tell Torrey that he belonged. Torrey hopes you carry that with you, that any space you are in, you belong. 

As writers, many of us get anxious to speak or share. Torrey's tip is: Don't fight the energy, invite the energy. He even uses the energy of music to invite his words to take flight. 

And here we can see Torrey bring the energy as he talks about some writing advice he got watching Daredevil. 

Practice the power of the pause, so you can see how engaged your audience is. 

Torrey shares that when we write with musicality, not only do we create universality, but the readers will remember it better. 

Some tools Torrey used when crafting his books:

• Mya Angelou's words: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." These are words Torrey takes with him when he writes and reads his work to others. 
• A tip he received from the producer of one of his audio books. He suggested to think of each character as a feeling. To put each feeling into each character. What's the one feeling you want to get from each? Torrey says this will help you hit your readers "heart keys."
• A set of questions Torrey asks every time he writes or recites: 
• Am I delivering the emotion that I want the reader to feel? 
• Is what I'm writing or reciting fast? How could it feel faster? 
• Will a reader want to skip this part? 
• What about this part will readers want to read (to hear more of)?

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If you want to view this session to hear the full content, along with the rest of the conference, register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/summer-conference-2023. Replays of the conferences will be available until September 10, 2023. 

Kelly Yang Keynote

Kelly Yang is the best selling author of the FRONT DESK series, and young adult novels PARACHUTES and PRIVATE LABEL. Watch for her upcoming middle grade, NEW FROM HERE, which will be out March 1, 2022. 

 

During the pandemic, Kelly was living in Hong Kong with her husband and kids. She found herself flying back to America with her three kids, while her husband had to remain in Hong Kong for work. She found herself facing life as a single parent during a pandemic, so she had to reinvent the way she wrote. She had to write in her laundry room and  in her car, hiding from her kids. She had to write in all sorts of chaotic situations. 

And so Kelly shared some tips on writing through distractions:

• Set a small goal.
• Focus on the things you can control.
• Do not edit as your go. Just write.
• Use the Notes app on your phone to jot down ideas, lines, etc. 
• Plan, plan, plan. 
• Fight for your time to write. 

Kelly also spoke about how to make a great middle grade protagonist:  

Kelly thinks a lot about creating a great protagonist for middle grade. For her, a great middle grade protagonist is someone you can relate to, someone you can follow who isn't annoying, someone who is admirable but isn't perfect. 

As writers we should all ask the question: Why does this character get to be the main character? 

And a great character takes action, and a great character grows. 

And to leave you with a wonderful note that Kelly shared: "We have the power to connect strangers, simply through the words on the page." 

The SCBWI 2021 Winter Conference Manuscript Gallery Offers Writers An Opportunity To Be Discovered!

 

Illustrators have the Portfolio Showcase, putting their illustrations in front of the top publishing professionals working today. And the winners of that portfolio showcase have gone on to have significant careers as illustrators!

Now, on a scale the SCBWI hasn't done before, there's a parallel opportunity for writers:

Registered Winter 2021 conference attendees who are SCBWI members can post up to 500 words of ONE children’s book manuscript, PB text, PB dummy or manuscript synopsis to our online manuscript gallery. Over a hundred editors and agents will be invited to peruse the gallery starting on February 19, 2021. These agents and editors will then reach out to authors whose work is a good fit for their lists. This is a fantastic opportunity to get your work in front of industry professionals!

The deadline to submit your manuscript is February 12, 2021. Find out all the details here.

The full conference information is here - it's going to amazing!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

#SCBWIdigital Workshop: Linda Sue Park presents "Using Scene To Build Story"

This is the 7th #SCBWIdigital workshop, free to SCBWI members in this time of global health crisis.

Linda Sue Park is a master writer and teacher of writing. She is the author of many books for young readers, including the 2002 Newbery Medal winner A Single Shard and the New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water. Her most recent title is Prairie Lotus, a historical fiction middle-grade novel.

Today, for the SCBWI community, Linda Sue is sharing "Using Scene To Build Story." She cautions us that this is how she writes fiction, and that it's not the only way to do it. "Writing is so personal," meaning that everyone's process is different. She hopes we might gain a tip or two, add our own spin, and eventually we'll develop our own process for writing a story - different from Linda Sue's process, and different from everyone else's process, too.

Linda Sue shares her definition of story, in a graphic:

Linda Sue Park (bottom right), the slide showing her definition of story, and ASL interpreter Jennye Kamin (top right)

"Before I start, I need to know" what the character WANTS (external quest), what the character NEEDS (internal quest), and the setting.

"Most of the time, the character doesn't know what they need" at the beginning of the story.

Linda Sue shows us how she applied this story definition to her latest book, Prairie Lotus, also in a graphic:

Hannah WANTS to graduate from high school and work as a dressmaker in her father's shop. Hannah NEEDS to learn to stand up for herself against bias, racism, and sexism. The setting is 1880 Oceti Sakowin homeland (what is now South Dakota).

Linda Sue speaks of how she thinks in scenes, not chapters. In fact, she explains that it's a few drafts in before she figures out the chapter breaks.

She suggests we do this exercise:

What’s your character’s external plot (what they WANT), their internal plot (what they NEED), and the setting?

There's a great demonstration of how, when you compare a book to a movie, a half-page of text is about 15 seconds of film... Linda Sue illustrates this (simply and dramatically) and has us consider, if we've spent half a page to describe something, or to have our character's internal dialog, that's like 15 seconds of a movie not moving forward! Seriously, count out 15 seconds... that's a long time for a reader to get distracted.

Using her novel, A Single Shard, she demonstrates how a single sentence should be able to encapsulate what a scene is about.

Linda Sue advises us,

With every scene, your character is going to make progress or face impediment to one of their quests (external or internal).

She keeps this in mind as she writes, looking at her character's internal and external quests, and asking herself "is this scene progress or impediment?"

There's so much more, with discussions and examples from Linda Sue's Project Mulberry, and Keeping Score, her distinction between middle grade and YA, and her technique for developing depth in a story - in every scene - along with an exercise to get more depth in our own writing.

And an explanation of how the story's ending should have "unexpected inevitability."

Linda Sue Park (at bottom, in pink) - ASL interpreter Jennye Kamin (at top)

It really is a master class, with so much to learn and apply!

Thank you, Linda Sue.

Stay safe, all.
Lee

Author Panel: Creating Memorable Main Characters for a Book Series - Lisa Yee

Lisa Yee
Photo Credit: Emi Fujii

Lisa Yee has written twenty novels and chapter books for kids. In addition to her Millicent middle grade series, DC Super Hero Girls as well as several books for the American Girl book series. She

When asked what makes a memorable character, Lisa responded that even if a character is unfamiliar to the reader, there is something about them that is familiar. Lisa also responded affirmatively that she puts herself in her books. But she quickly added that she steals from others' lives around her. Her Bobby books center on her son. Dan Santat illustrated the series and came to her house to draw her son, so art is based on him too.

Another question focused on whether the creators start with character or plot as they craft a series. Lisa starts with characters if she generates the series like Millicent Min, Girl Genius. Before she writes, Lisa spends time thinking about characters, what they like and don't like. It's a layered approach to their development. It's not until the end of the book do they come out fully formed.

But with the DC Super Hero Girls series, she focuses on plot because the super heroes' characters like Wonder Woman are well-known and understood. But at the same time, if I got her or any other character wrong, "people would want me dead" because they know and love these characters. But "after some mental gyrations, I realized that I'm just writing a story about these teens and their insecurities and I get started." 

Author Panel
L to R: Ben Clanton, Debbi Michiko Florence,
Bruce Hale and Lisa Yee

Follow Lisa on Twitter and find out more about her on her website.

Meg Medina: Storymatic—Modulating for Age Groups

Meg Medina

Winner of the 2019 Newbery Award, NY Times bestselling author Meg Medina centers her stories on girls, family and Latinx culture.

Meg shared her way of writing books has changed over ten years. She invited the audience to take what works for them and leave the rest. With that foundation, Meg guided everyone through each of her books by publication date and explained the story of each - challenges and triumphs.

When she first started in the industry, she had been advised to find an age group and "write it to death." But she couldn't do it. She led the audience through a series of considerations she undertakes with each story she develops. Telling the truth and deliberating on where the reader is their development are paramount. She shared so many exercises and questions that must be answered just based on these two considerations alone. It's no surprise why her books garner acclaim and find their way into so many readers' hearts. She thinks so much about them before she ever starts writing.

Meg loves her bitmoji

To know more about Meg and her work, visit her website or follow her on Twitter.

Andrew Harwell: Writing Middle Grade Fiction

Andrew Harwell is a Senior Editor at HarperCollins Children's Books.

What is middle grade?
The fiction that is aimed at readers from 8 to 12 years old, about 2nd to 6th grade.

Key elements of middle grade:

Character, POV, Perspective

Middle grade readers are incredibly sophisticated and you can trust them to read and understand point-of-views that are a bit more sophisticated. You never want to talk down to your reader.

Voice, Style

We want to hit the ground running on page one with your character, seeing what they see, thinking what they think. 

3 things that Andrew often see in middle grade in terms of voice:

1. gross-out humor

2. precious cleverness

3. arch narrators

Plot

Middle graders can handle the sophisticated. 

Hooking your reader on page one doesn't have to be active or big. What makes a moment exciting is that it matters to the character. 

Theme or Concept

Be sure when you're plotting that you are trying to tap into something bigger and more universal. 

Setting

Paying attention to setting and making your setting unique is important to your story. 

Diversity, #OwnVoices, Representation:

More and more editors and writers are using sensitivity readers to get the representation right. There is a lot that writers might not even know they don't know. Editors are also trying to find representations from marginalized voices. 

Sarah Davies: Writing Salable Middle Grade

Sarah Davies is the founder of The Greenhouse Literary Agency, which represents authors of YA, MG, and picture books.

Sarah loves literary fiction with a strong commercial hook. Middle grade fiction is really the first that immerses young readers in new worlds and introduces them to empathy. These books often are among the most important people read.

We are in a fabulous, golden time for middle grade. Librarians and educators play a bigger role in linking readers with books, and it's sometimes a slow process.

How can you raise the level of your writing and make your manuscript stand out?

She has identified eight common denominators of great, salable middle grade. Here are a few things she looks for:

1. Know your market. What is middle grade? Her submissions inbox tells her a lot of people don't know what they're trying to do or who they're writing for.

At the younger end, it's chapter books that are typically 15,000-25,000 words long and illustrated with line art. Her client Tricia Springstubb writes these. They can be character led or concept driven. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker is an example. The Magic Treehouse is concept driven.

Novels for older middle grade readers run 30,000-60,000 words. (If it's longer, ask yourself why.) These core middle grade novels are about characters from 10 to 13, with a sweet spot of 11 to 13. THE TRUTH ABOUT TWINKIE PIE by Kat Yeh is an absolutely delightful middle grade that received a lot of buzz.

There's also a "tween" category that tends to be pinker and fluffier and deals with crushes, clothes, and friendships. Aladdin does this sort of book well.

2. Know your reader. How is MG different from YA? The YA protagonist is older, with a protagonist who is 15 to 17. But it's not just simply about age. The interior world of the pre-teen child is different from the older teen. If all good fiction has some rite of passage in it, the older teen's right of passage is "who will I be as an adult." For a middle grader, it's about firsts, the beginnings of finding an identity separate from your parents. Asking who am I, what am I?

3. Voice. Her client Mark Maciejewski had a funny voice. His submission needed work, but that voice struck her. Sometimes she can hear the adult behind the voice--and adult who is trying to remember how they think children sound. "Can you access the real thing? If you can, you're two-thirds of the way there. If you can an agent will spot you."

Let your voice shine through in the opening, rather than dumping plot info up front.

Read a lot and listen to children speak and understand their phrasing and logic. "You've got to develop your voice muscle."



The Greenhouse Literary Agency
Follow Sarah on Twitter
Like The Greenhouse Literary Agency on Facebook

Stephen Fraser: Middle Grade Perfection: What We Can Learn From Classic and Best-Selling Books

Stephen Fraser joined The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency as an agent in January 2005. He worked most recently at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where he edited such creative talents as Mary Engelbreit, Gregory Maguire, Michael Hague, Ann Rinaldi, Kathryn Lasky, Brent Hartinger, Stephen Mitchell, and Dan Gutman. He began his career at Highlights for Children and later worked at Scholastic and Simon & Schuster. A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, he has a Master’s degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons College in Boston. He represents both children’s and adult books in a wide range of genres.

Lin calls him a leading light in our field, and tells us he is very helpful, very concrete, and very specific. He also wears some very dapper bowties.

Stephen says an agent is supposed to be impartial about the books he represents, but he does admit he loves middle-grade fiction the best, growing up he read everything, and his inner eleven-year-old is still an active connoisseur of MG manuscript submissions.

"Some of the strongest books in the whole canon of children's literature rest in middle grade."

What are some of the writing rules that 12 classic or beloved middle grade books teach us?

Here are six of the books and their lessons:

Every time an editor asks you to revise, see this as an opportunity to make a perfect book with carefully crafted writing like in Charlotte's Web.

Some of the best novels can be brief, like Stone Fox. It's a satisfying narrative with true drama. Books for middle grade readers can have real drama in them and be story-packed. 

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, celebrity can get a book published, but it can't keep it in print for forty years. This book stays, Stephen says, the lesson here is to let imagination ride high in your story. 

Louis Sachar, you may already know, takes about a year to write a book, but Holes took him two years. What he does so well here, Stephen says, is maintain the hilarious voice of hapless Stanley. Humor if done well can fuel an entire novel. As a side note, Stephen says, consider taking two years to refine your novel and you may just win the National Book Award and the Newbery. And an Emmy.

In Missing May, the setting is as much a character as the human main characters. Do yourself a favor and invoke a rich setting to help bring your story to life and set it concretely in the reader's mind.

Sarah, Plain and Tall, is Stephen's favorite book in the universe. This short novel, clocking in at a mere 58 pages, rewrote the tradition of middle grade fiction. Every word resonates so that you almost feel like the book is illustrated, but there are no pictures! It's the writing that is that good. Originally this book was planned as a picture book, but the author felt there was more story to tell. Every book, says Stephen, should have this level of imagery.

Stephen leaves us with a Henry James quote: "Remember that your first duty is to be as complete as possible. Remember that your first duty is to be as complete as possible—to make as perfect a work. Be generous and delicate and pursue the prize."