Writing a YA Novel

I’ve written a new novel that is so short I think it will have to be a YA (young adult) novel. Which is, now that I think about it, a terrible reason to label it “YA.” Just because it’s short does not mean that young readers will automatically enjoy it.

Of course I knew this all along. But I now have a new mission in my reading: to read as many classic novels for young readers as I can. I’ve already consumed a few good ones: The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Ramona and her Mother, The Light in the Forest. All of them terrific in their own ways.

YA might give me a new approach to marketing the novel, too, when the time comes. Many of those who attend my library lectures on the history behind my novels are reluctant to purchase a novel for themselves, but when they hear that my latest would be good for their nieces or grand-daughters, perhaps they will open their wallets and shell out $10 for my latest opus.

If my thinking sounds a little cold-blooded, let me rise to my own defense and say that I’m really excited about my latest book, and that I plan to be just as ruthless as always in having the manuscript critiqued and rewritten until it’s as good as I can make it. Meanwhile, reading all these YA classics from the past gives me a new appreciation for how hard it is to write for readers of any age.