Spinebreakers ‘What Teens Want’ event

Hey ya’ll! Guess what? I attended the London Book Fair today. I booked a ticket in a moment of pre-Crimbo madness last year and I left after half an hour to go shopping (sorry, but it really isn’t worth it for aspiring authors unless you happen to nab a meeting with an agent or publisher. Which you probably won’t cos they’re not there to discover new talent, they’re there to discover new deals and partnerships).

BUT there is a decent programme of events and one made the train journey worth it (that and the top I bought in High Street Ken!). I went to a fabulous seminar on ‘What Teens Want’ by the Spinebreakers team at Penguin / Puffin. And when I say team, I mean actual teenagers cos it’s those dudes – the ones us YA / teen writers are aiming our stuff at – that matter, right?

The editor, Danielle Innes, did a lovely little Powerpoint presentation about Spinebreakers, which has been set up by Puffin to allow teen readers to continue their journey after they’ve read a stonking good book with a chance to review, discuss, contribute and even write their own stuff. Four teens from the Spinebreakers team also attended, all four very different – and all very interesting! They were: Conrad, Olivia, Ayesha and Malik (apologies if I get these names wrong).

Here’s some stuff I got from the event that might be useful for other teen / YA writers out there:

• Teens should work in marketing. They’d get paid a lot. And win awards and stuff. Olivia showed us some videos she’d created for her favourite books (which can all be found on Spinebreakers) and they were awesome! She also told us about a party she held based on the characters from Anna Godbersen’s Rumours. Some seriously clever marketing ideas.
• There was a nice mixture of adult and teen books listed among their favourite books with the usual suspects – Rowling, Horowitz, Pullman and Blackman coming up (yet no mention of the likes of Meyer or Marr, interestingly). There was also a nice splash of the ‘greats’ such as Orwell and Hemingway. In fact, Orwell came through strong and clear as a favourite with 1984 and Animal Farm being discussed with real vigour
• Why do certain books take off? The team weren’t so sure about this, I got the impression it’s some mysterious X factor. But one teen said that books featuring desirable objects and skills – magical wands, a subtle knife - are a real hit. So that ‘wanting something you haven’t got’ factor played a part.
• What they hated was clearer: being patronised and teenage cliches (“Love stories where boys fix all the girls’ problems” was how one put it). Teen and young adult novels seemed to be the biggest culprit when it comes to this so we need to be careful of this, fellow YA writers.
• Where do they get their recommendations? This was an interesting one when considering marketing. Parents were, surprisingly, important, not just for buying the books themselves but also recommending books. Review were also mentioned – specifically the Saturday Guardian. Word of mouth was incredibly important as well as the bookstores themselves.
• When do they read: at bedtime, mainly, to the detriment of their homework!
• How do they choose a book? Books are judged by their covers! Shiny interesting covers draw them in. And, of course, that all important first chapter. Titles were important too. What they disliked was being mislead by a title or cover. It needs to do what it says on the tin, dang it!

So all-in-all, interesting especially for publishers but also offered some nuggets of interest for us teen / YA writers. The ‘don’t patronise us’ message was LOUD AND CLEAR which can be scary for YA writers as many people suffer from this irritating disease when they get over the age of 18 which automatically makes anything splurting forth from their mouths patronising. Hopefully I don’t do that with my book.

I also attended the ‘How to Get Published Masterclass’ on Saturday which went over stuff I know already really and has been blogged about elsewhere (click here) stressed the need for patience when you’re a writer, which is so true.

So will I go to the LBF next year? Unless I have a deal in the works, possibly not. But I will keep an eye on the seminar programme and maybe combine it with meeting some London friends.

So, watch this space.

Right, I’m off to check out www.spinebreakers.co.uk…

What I Was by Meg Rosoff

I finished reading What I Was last night. If it were scratch and sniff, it would smell of sea air, seaweed, and bangers and mash (a delish British meal for my friends across the pond).

I absolutely loved Rosoff’s crunchily fabulous How I Live Now (as you can see from this review) and finally got around to reading this little gem about a boy who’s carted off to a boarding school on the south coast and comes across the mysterious Finn, a boy with no past and a stroppy cat. It’s about friendship, love, a real coming of age treat with a fab ending.

What I adore about this book is the voice. We writers always hear agents and publishers talk about an author needing to have a standout voice. Rosoff is the author that comes instantly to mind when I think about this. Her writing style is a dream – I wanna wrap myself up in it and sail away! She’s funny, ironic – the main character throbs off the page, dry wit and all. To give you an example of voice (not the best example – I’m a very naughty reviewer and haven’t bought a copy in with me today but found some extracts online) here’s a passage to whet your appetite.

‘Did I mention that St. Oswald’s was my third school? The first two asked me (not entirely politely) to leave, owing to the deplorable nature of my behaviour and grades. In my defence, I’d like to point out that my behaviour was not deplorable if by deplorable you mean rude, belligerent, violent and antisocial—setting fire to the library, stabbing or raping a teacher. By deplorable they meant “less than dedicated to study,” “less that competent at writing essays,” “less than interesting to the head and the board of governors.” Given my gentle failings, their assessment strikes me now as unnecessarily cruel, and makes me wonder how they labelled the student who opened fire with an AK-47 in the middle of chapel.’

This is by no means the best example, there’s many more. Anyway, as is the case with my reviews, I end now, very quickly, offering you just a teensy morsel of this utterly wonderful book. Go buy it! Now!!!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I just finished this raw lump of a book and believe the hype, it’s a real page-turner. Action-packed, gritty, violent – I’ve walked away from it feeling like I need a good old clean (any streams around so I can scrape the blood and dirt off me; wipe the horrid images from my mind?)

As always, I’m not gonna go into detail, google is your friend.

Now, what I really loved about this book was the idea itself. 12 kids thrown into a battle against each other, a modern Running Man… just awesome and damn it, why didn’t I think of it first? The main character, Katniss, is great, Kickass. Real strong. An inspiration. The little details Collins brings in of a future world – the creatures she invents, the dystopian nuances – work very well. The little ideas and surprises, and twists and turns here and there – awesome. It will make a fabulous film.

BUT (isn’t there always a ‘but’?) the use of present tense was a bit jarring. I actually like present tense but it got a bit ‘listy’. And you know how us writers are always told to ’show, don’t tell’, Collins does a helluva LOT of telling when showing a scene with actions and dialogue would’ve worked so much better. And though Katniss is strong, she turns into a pathetic doe-eyed thing when it comes to ‘acting out’ the love stuff. She’s also dispassionate too and it takes a while to warm to her. The start is very very slow – a lot of people would be turned off by the first few pages where, literally, hardly anything happens. There were moments of great writing (as in, beautiful to read) but these were sparse. The writing was as gritty and tough as the subject-matter.

But really enjoyed this book and a definite must-read for aspiring YA writers purely because of the massive hype around it.