What (Female) Teens Read
Children’s and young adult books have been a bright spot for publishing even through the recession, showing growth where other categories have floundered. Naturally, publishers want their customers to enthusiastically buy their products. To do that, the publishers need to know what their customers want.
A new survey put out by TeenReads and The Book Report Network says teens respondents (who turned out to be overwhelmingly female) are most drawn to series fiction, especially in the romance and fantasy genres. The vampire-lovers out there are smiling so widely their canines are showing. Next comes adventure and mysteries/suspense/thrillers.
The survey reached out to many geographic areas and populations. The results of the survey are nicely broken down and displayed at Publisher’s Weekly here. It’s good news if, like me, you’re writing a fantasy novel. And it’s great news for the industry and book-lovers everywhere when children’s books are selling well.
My test readers are done with my manuscript (Thank you, all!) and helped make it a better work. Now it’s in the hands of those professionals who actually make a living selling books. I’m sure they’ll find ways to improve it, which is a good thing.
It just came out Tuesday and, so far, it’s a really fun read. I’m a little more than 100 pages into The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, written by 
Another book which I just loved and read, oh, probably six months ago now, was The Graveyard Book by 
She spoke on a slew of issues, including how the economy is affecting acquisitions, which I found particularly interesting. Kendra assures us that publishers are still acquiring books (after all, that is what they do), although they’re being pickier and taking fewer risks. As such, she encourages authors to aim for specificity in their work: in hook, plot, target audience, and, later, the agent or publisher to which you submit.