Guest Post: Author LM. Preston

I'm happy to have author LM. Preston dropping by the blog today for a guest post! Her latest book The Pack comes out later this year. 

 A Little About LM.

LM. Preston was born and raised in Washington, DC. An avid reader, she loved to create poetry and short-stories as a young girl. With a thirst for knowledge she attended college at Bowie State University, and worked in the IT field as a Techie and Educator for over sixteen years. She started writing science fiction under the encouragement of her husband who was a Sci-Fi buff and her four kids. Her first published novel, Explorer X - Alpha was the beginning of her obsessive desire to write and create stories of young
people who overcome unbelievable odds. She loves to write while on the porch watching her kids play or when she is traveling, which is another passion that encouraged her writing.
 

 Since a lot of my readers are aspiring YA authors, I asked LM. if she wouldn't mind sharing her thoughts on being a YA author.

WRITING FOR THE YA MARKET

YA, what is that? It’s the young adult market which ranges from ages 12yrs to 18yrs. If you write for ages 12yrs to 13yrs realize that parents may be heavily involved in their child’s reading selections, so in most cases if you want to promote your book to this age group – keep it a bit clean.  Ages 14yrs and up, will usually mix it up a bit between reading YA focused books and adult books.  You can use all of the taboos that you can’t for the younger age group with kids 14yrs and up.  There are also many sub-genre to consider when writing YA.  Those include: adventure, romance, humor, mystery, historical, contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, and so on.

My journey as a YA author has taught me a lot about how I write and what makes me want to continue to write.

PREPARE TO WRITE YA

Take time to observe the group you are writing about.  When writing for teenagers realize that they are very picky about sounding old or goofy.  This is easy for me because I have four kids, and two of which are within the age group in which I write for.  They are the best resources of information on language, what’s interesting, what not to say, how far to push it and so on.  Not to mention, I also observe their interaction with their friends, siblings and adults.  It is enlightening and it has given me great material. People watching is a writer's cheatsheet into the character's they portray.

USE KIDS TO BETA YOUR WORK

The best feedback I have ever gotten for my work came from my kids’ friends.  I allowed many of them to beta for me.  I even bribed some with free movie tickets in order to get them to do it.  Getting feedback from this group is invaluable.  I gave them a checklist to fill out, and a facebook page to update with question or comments, and also invited them to give me feedback on my cover.  The results were outstanding. Especially when you give them the freedom to pick out mistakes. I actually do a contest with my kids and thier friends. The contest specifies that the winner who picks out the most mistakes gets a free movie coupon. Let's just say, that sometimes worked better than I anticipated.

ASK KIDS WHERE THEY BUY BOOKS, OR IF THEY WILL HELP YOU MARKET YOUR PRODUCT

Several of my teenage betas loved my book so much that they offered to start an email chain about my book.  They also posted it on their facebook and myspace accounts.  I was floored, because I didn’t even ask for this.  They offered it.

Remember, if you are writing for young people, the best judge of how your book will do in the market comes from your market group.  Also, when acquiring an agent or publisher you can refer to the large amount of young betas that had reviewed your work.  So grab your nieces, nephews, kids, cousins, or anyone who has kids and write that YA novel.

by: LM Preston, author of Explorer X- Alpha and THE PACK (coming out 8/2010) www.lmpreston.com

Thanks for stopping by, LM.! I'm currently reading The Pack and will be reviewing it in the next week or so. Check out the book trailer, it's pretty awesome!