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Young Adult Series Blockbusters 5/1/2019 12:40:28 PM
The Incredible brand that Young Adult series has left upon us. At no time in history had we ever experienced such bestsellerdom in books and movies.
I swear and, as God is my witness, I had a terrible prejudice against anyone who wrote a series, or planned to write one before their first book was even picked up. I laughed at anyone who wrote a complete series and had no agent to push it. Back in the day, series books weren’t as popular as they are now. Today, it’s almost a given that large independents and big publishers love to sell a series. Two-book, trilogies and large series packages are more popular than EVER. Multiple books are actually favored by publishers–it seems to be the advantageous way to hook readers, build a fan base, and at the same time launch a debut author. If you’ve written a standalone today, chances are excellent that you will be asked to follow it up with a sequel or more books that belong to a series–your special universe. I was left in the dust, from my own account, all those years ago, up until fairly recently.
So, I want to formally APOLOGIZE for my narrow view and ridiculous exclamations.
I completed the first book, edited it with my agent, and put it out on submission. Multiple offers for it came in rather quickly. A lot of offers. My agent thought we really had something and ask if I was up to writing sequels. I said that I would give it a shot and did. But I was nervous. Meanwhile my agent would hold off the buyers.
I can’t tell you what kind of hard work this project cost me. It was a mountain of writing, revising, editing and titling.I was hesitant every step of the way, wondering if all of this effort could possibly pay off. Then I realized, what did I really have to lose? I’d made them stand-alones, with only slight references to each other that could be removed very easily. So I just about guaranteed myself a possible sale–somewhere–even if it was small press. When the work was done, I was satisfied, and so was my agent.
The whole package sold to Melange Press, the young adult Fire & Ice division.
I can remember J.K. Rowling penning (starting) Chamber of Secrets before her first book was picked up. Now that’s MOXIE! Or call it blind faith. Not only that, it was her intention to write seven books! Look what happened to Twilight, Hunger Games, Wool, Divergent–they went on to success–becoming huge breakouts.
Now that my YA trilogy is over, I mourn it. I miss my characters. Terribly so. I can’t believe that I did this, stepping up to the plate and accomplishing my most difficult writing project ever. They’re little books. They’re a family. And it just so happens that the first in the series, Screamcatcher: Web World, just went on sale two minutes ago as of this writing. The two remaining books are subtitled Dream Chasers and The Shimmering Eye. If you like teenage paranormal investigators, this just might be your cup of tea. Enjoy!
