State of the Market

I ran across a blog post this morning that I thought was pretty interesting. Note the section under middle grade regarding "marketing platform or media hook." Those are terms usually reserved for adult nonfiction. Go figure.

http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/state-of-the-childrens-book-publishing-industry/

I'm not really sure what they mean about having a platform for MG. That's the first time I've ever heard that, and so I'm thinking it must be different than a nonfiction platform. Maybe it's not an author's platform but a built-in book platform. For example, someone writes a book about a kid who finds a rare species of plants and tries to save it from extinction. The platform could be the marketing of the book to nature and conservation organizations and their publications. Or maybe it could be used to target science teachers. I don't know. Like I said, I never heard of that before.

But I do agree with the voice thing. A lot of writers just don't get it right. I've read several contest entries that were called MG but sounded very YA. A true MG voice knocks you over the head and is unmistakable. I think that's what the agents/editors were commenting on. For those able to nail it, I think it gives them a huge advantage. At least that's my bit of optimism for the day.