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The boy book topic comes up every now and again on writer boards. I am reminded of it once again because I just got back from the library where I was browsing the YA shelves for something my boys (10 and 13) might like. While there, a mom and her 12YO son accosted me for recommendations. Um...seriously, I was blank. Because nearly everything there is not just not a "boy book," it's a blatant girl book. I looked around the library and realized it was full of boys looking for something good to read. And most of those boys were empty-handed.
I have heard of publishers looking for good MG/YA boy books. But I have also heard a number of writers get agent feedback to the tune of, I cannot sell a boy YA book. And truly, if you look at sales at Publishers' Marketplace over the last 12 months, you will see that probably 90% of the YA being bought by publishers today looks very girly.
Going back to the library, I was talking with the children's/YA librarian this week about boy books because I was looking for a realistic novel for my 10's upcoming book report. She said that at this library, "the adults have almost taken over the YA department." That it's adult women who are ordering and checking out all the paranormal romances.
I get it that some YA is better than adult! I have never really read straight adult fiction. (I will read some genre fiction.) Whenever I pick up an adult book, it seems, I want to rip out whole chapters of extraneous stuff that slows down the story and really needed to be ditched about three revisions ago. I get frustrated with plots that don't hang together and characters that wig out in the last chapter and turn into someone completely different than they have been for the past 300 pages. And I get really, really ticked off by books that skip the climax. Also, I'm not a fan of the been-there, done-that boredom vibe. I like YA because it's well written and fresh. So, I don't want adults to stop reading YA. Also, I'm definitely not against girl books. I'm a girl, and hey, I love girl books! I've been waiting a long time for my girls to be old enough so I can share so many wonderful girl books with them. :)
But I do wonder, since after all, publishing IS a business, if perhaps the many adult buyers are skewing the market such that the voices of the kids who are the ostensible audience of these books are lost in the shuffle. I know plenty of boys who read. They don't wake up on their 13th birthdays and toss all the books in the trash because now they're teen boys, so they don't read anymore. No, they go to the adult genre sections, where they find books where Stuff Happens.
I don't know what the solution is, but I wish wish wish there was one, because I hate seeing my boys frustrated over not finding enough reading material.
I have heard of publishers looking for good MG/YA boy books. But I have also heard a number of writers get agent feedback to the tune of, I cannot sell a boy YA book. And truly, if you look at sales at Publishers' Marketplace over the last 12 months, you will see that probably 90% of the YA being bought by publishers today looks very girly.
Going back to the library, I was talking with the children's/YA librarian this week about boy books because I was looking for a realistic novel for my 10's upcoming book report. She said that at this library, "the adults have almost taken over the YA department." That it's adult women who are ordering and checking out all the paranormal romances.
I get it that some YA is better than adult! I have never really read straight adult fiction. (I will read some genre fiction.) Whenever I pick up an adult book, it seems, I want to rip out whole chapters of extraneous stuff that slows down the story and really needed to be ditched about three revisions ago. I get frustrated with plots that don't hang together and characters that wig out in the last chapter and turn into someone completely different than they have been for the past 300 pages. And I get really, really ticked off by books that skip the climax. Also, I'm not a fan of the been-there, done-that boredom vibe. I like YA because it's well written and fresh. So, I don't want adults to stop reading YA. Also, I'm definitely not against girl books. I'm a girl, and hey, I love girl books! I've been waiting a long time for my girls to be old enough so I can share so many wonderful girl books with them. :)
But I do wonder, since after all, publishing IS a business, if perhaps the many adult buyers are skewing the market such that the voices of the kids who are the ostensible audience of these books are lost in the shuffle. I know plenty of boys who read. They don't wake up on their 13th birthdays and toss all the books in the trash because now they're teen boys, so they don't read anymore. No, they go to the adult genre sections, where they find books where Stuff Happens.
I don't know what the solution is, but I wish wish wish there was one, because I hate seeing my boys frustrated over not finding enough reading material.
