Magic-wand whooshing Kid-Lit scenario

You-Know-Who is instrumental in changing the entire setting of the young-adult (YA) fiction world and upping the stakes, don’t you?

Hagrid and his Baby Dragon, Hedwig, the chocolate frog, moving beans, Dumbledore, the muggles and the entire Hogwarts have transformed the YA literature genre and breathed in new life. Harry, Ron and Hermione have made Rowling’s dream come true and, along with that, the YA fiction world has reached new heights.

There is a very thin line that exists between children-literature and adolescent-literature and few critics are of the opinion that the latter one still receives step-motherly attention from the receivers – marketers, retailers and the customers. Basically the structuring fence or the side walls existing between these two slightly overlapped categories are hard to define and many books are potential enough to be grouped in both.

So, the adolescent literature more often than not gets clubbed with kid-lit or with ‘adult’ stories. But when the idea sells you are on a roll – when your books are displayed at large malls, when the young readers queuing up for their copies, when you get worth reviews and these all convert into profit – you don’t wage a war on not strictly categorizing your book.

The question is did YA find a niche yet or is it still struggling? Is it easy to find an agent or is it difficult? What could be done so that YA gets its own footing or is it that one could only focus on improving manuscript and make it more saleable?

Fantasy had always been a very strong and mixable formula for kid-lit/YA. The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in the Wonderland, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Snowwhite and Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, Thumbelina, Tom Thumb, all are quite fantasized. Again, books similar to Uncle Tom’s Cabin bring in the picture of harsh reality. Another phenomenon also dominates and that is the paranormal aspect. These days there are loads of YA books on the shelves which gel in paranormal fervor with other ingredients.

Kid-lit started going in earnest almost a decade ago with the Potter series, then it received another injection of name and fame with The Twilight Saga (it also is considered as vampire lit) being launched. Both of these are serving fantasy and paranormal concoction. Contemporary realism does not look like a sales hook in YA world unless it is an outstanding piece of writing.

So, to sell more contemporary realism plots the authors are pondering over making romance as the mainstay – teen romance has all the potential of selling fast. It could even be friendship and a dash or hint of romance and apart from that if smooth character building, coherent plot, continuity and some high-pitched concept elements could be hurled in – well, even contemporary realism could be saleable in the YA world.

There is another aspect to it. Kid-lit is expanding fast not only in printed version but also in e-book form. Kindle, Nook, iPad and other such gadgets have turned the tide and succeeded roping in more e-readers and thus stretched the kid & teen library. 

The scene is not that somber – there are many retailers for ebooks as well as there are ebook marketing portals, namely, Open Road Integrated Media etc. The three most commonly used formats that are compatible with most of the devices and e-tailers are Mobipocket, EPUB and PDF.

But the bottom-line is marketing. In the maturing market of kid-lit/YA, you need to tap the appropriate authors, agents and the other literary properties – the right mix at the right moment and that’s BINGO!