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| From The Simpson's, hosted at Librarified |
But there is that thing. It's about content. I'm not published. I'm not agented. And the only two manuscripts I've completed are both (I think, I'm no marketing guru) Young Adult Literature.
So why am I part of a Middle Grade blog?
Well the good news is that I do have a project in the works. It's an ambitious one. I'm happy to say it will be a Middle Grade book (or hopefully a series of them), but unfortunately, it's a bit of a secret, and that's all I can say.
However, the whole question has got me thinking: how many authors are there out there who write both YA and MG, and are not only commercially successful at it, but artistically as well?
I use the Neil Gaiman picture from the Simpson's episode, because I know I have personally enjoyed not only his adult novels, but also at least one Middle Grade novel he's written: The Graveyard Book. Yet, there are obviously very few writers out there who have his level of success.
Of course, you have series like Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling, or Percy Jackson, by Rick Riordan, which I think can both be successfully argued evolve from MG into YA by the time they end, but again, such a thing is rare.
There are some friends and darlings of the blogosphere who write both, like Laura Pauling, and Shannon Messenger, and then there are some more famous authors who I've never met, like Scott Westerfield, and Patrick Ness, but I guess my point is (more a question than a point, but bear with me here) do you think it's a viable aspiration to hope to write both?
And whether or not you do (or don't) do you know of any writers who are thriving at it that I haven't mentioned?
Either way, you never know. I haven't had success with my YA work yet, so maybe it turns out that it was never my thing, and I'll only have to worry about MG, but for the time being, I am definitely curious to hear what all our readers think.
And if you're not sure what you think, that's okay. Here are some resources of other people's opinions.
Shannon's agent Laura Rennert on writing blockbuster MG and YA fiction.
Michele Acker interviews some agents about MG and YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
Claire Legrand muses on the differences between the two for WriteOnCon.
Sally Apokedak covers the basic differences on Vonda Skelton's blog.
C. Lee McKenzie writes about how the line can be blurred at Carrie Butler's blog.
Otherwise, that's all I have for now. What do you all think?
