The rise and promotion of UK YA fiction - a guest post from YA author, Keren David

Today, I'm delighted to welcome Young Adult author, Keren David, to Absolute Vanilla.
Keren is one of my favourite YA authors and recently she, together with fellow YA authors, Keris Stainton and Susie Day, have taken up a challenge to give Young Adult fiction from the UK more airtime - through the creation of a new UKYA blog and the #UKYA hashtag on Twitter. And about time too, I reckon. YA fiction seems to be dominated by books from the US, and yet UK authors are producing brilliant, funny, gritty, thought-provoking and beautifully written stories for Young Adults that really deserve to reach a far wider global audience.
Over to Keren...

YA Author, Keren David
Image courtesy Keren David

In 2008, when I started writing my book When I was Joe, for teenage readers, it would have been difficult to find anyone more ignorant about teen fiction than than me.

I’d never heard of Melvin Burgess, Siobhan Dowd or Kevin Brooks. I’d no idea that bookshops had sections marked ‘Teen’, ‘Young Adult’ or even ‘Dark Romance’. I was the opposite of everything you’re told to be - savvy, well-read, aware of the competition and the marketplace.
I think that this was a rather good thing which made me less self-conscious as a writer. I’m particularly thankful that I never discovered Gillian Philip’s Crossing the Line before I got a publishing deal - it’s so good, that I fear I may never have written another word.

It meant though, that I had a steep learning curve, as I started finding out about this strange new world of publishing. It’s been a journey of discovery that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, I’ve read great books, made brilliant new friends and found much to talk and think about.

However, some things bothered me. From my London viewpoint, the YA world felt a little stacked against me (although not nearly as much as it is stacked against writers from most of the rest of the world).

These are some of the things that I noticed.

- When I was Joe was published in America. The reviewer for Kirkus warned that its many Briticisms would act as ‘speedbumps’ for American readers.
- Teen sections in British bookshops dominated by American writers - some published by UK publishers, others displayed proudly as ‘imports’
- My teenage daughter reading many, many books set in exclusive American boarding schools.
- Blogger friends reporting that UK publicists often seemed to spend most of their time and money pushing the latest American buy-in and not British authors.
- The top ten best-selling children’s books in the UK dominated by US writers – Twilight, Wimpy Kid, Percy Jackson.
- British authors telling me that they were encouraged by agents and editors to make protagonists young - 16 at the most - and to avoid sex and swearing, while American YA had older characters and tougher storylines.
- Book sections in supermarkets in which every teen book (of about 10 on display) were written by Americans.

One day I had a conversation with a blogger on Twitter, which started when she complained about books calling themselves ‘YA’ when they were really ‘teen’. Lots of people joined in, as we debated the difference between US YA and UK teen novels. She said she just preferred reading about High Schools, proms, baseball and road trips – reading books set in the UK just felt all wrong. That was the day that the #UKYA hashtag was born.

And then I found a discussion on Goodreads which showed me that American readers were keen to read genuine British books - they just didn’t know about them. I googled ‘teen books set in London’ and I found this link on Trip Advisor. Swallows and Amazons! Oliver Twist! It was clear that contemporary British teen fiction needed a place of its own on the internet.

So, fellow authors Keris Stainton and Susie Day and I worked together to set up www.ukyabooks.wordpress.com . When I say ‘worked together’ I mean that Keris did 90 per cent of the work - thanks, Keris! Our aim is modest - just to showcase books by British authors, or authors writing in Britain - bringing them to the attention of a wider audience. We don’t know what it will achieve - we just felt it was needed.

Of course, it’s not just British authors who suffer from the American domination of YA. Australians realised this ages ago, and have been actively promoting OzYA. I love reading books from all over the world - including the US, of course – and I would hate to limit myself to UK only. I just want a playing field that’s more level. I want British teen readers to find themselves in books, and I want kids around the world to learn about what it’s like to be a British teen who doesn’t go to Hogwarts.

And maybe, once they’ve taken that step, they’ll want to find out what stories writers are telling all over the world.

Writing, a form of masochistic insanity - considered in two parts

Barking mad. Yes, that’s it, we must be. Insane masochists. Uh-huh. There can be no question about it.

I know, I know. What, you’re wondering, am I on about this time.

Well, simply put, it’s this: I’ve come to the conclusion, after multiple conversations with “pre-published” (read “wannabe”) authors and published authors, that we are all bonkers. Yes, don’t look so aghast, you know it’s true. We are probably certifiable. Go on, feel free to tattoo “out to lunch” on your forehead. It could become the Next Big Thing…

If I consider the pain, the agony, the suffering, the loneliness, the setbacks, the uncertainty, the insecurity, the rejections, the blows to confidence and self belief, the cuts in advances, the dropped deals, the cancelled contracts etcetera, etcetera that writers and authors experience, then I have to wonder what sort of sane and rational person would and could want to endure this? Um…give me a moment while I think about this. Oh, yes, right: NONE! Honestly, no person in their rational mind would tolerate or even entertain the setbacks that writers (and other artists) doggedly endure with determination and perseverance in the hope of getting a deal/the next deal. Anyone of sound mind would say “Sod this for a game of soldiers, it’s too much like hard work, it hurts too much, there’s no money in it, I can’t stand the constant blows to my ego, I’m off to become a human rights lawyer/brain surgeon/rocket scientist/accountant.” But do we say this? No, we don’t. We weep into our hot chocolate, we flail on the floor, we sob on each others’ shoulders, we crumple up into balls of despair and dejection and depression – and then we pick ourselves up and put ourselves through the same thing all over again. It’s madness. It must be. It can’t conceivably be anything else.

This lark we writers have of saying, “We write because we must, because we can’t do otherwise,” is a load of old baloney. And yes, mea culpa, I stand accused along with the rest of my writer pals. But the thing is… We make choices. We CHOOSE to write. We CHOOSE to pursue the dream of getting published and then getting published again. They say, (whoever the hell they are) that perseverance is key to success. It strikes me it is also key to insanity. I mean why do we constantly put ourselves through this? Is it that we are driven by frenzied and terminally insane egos? Surely it must be, or why else do we do it? Fame? Not bloody likely. Fortune? Even less bloody likely. To change the world? Forgive me while I fall about laughing. You think you know? Alright then, answers on a postcard, please – or in the comments section of this post.

But levity aside for a moment while I put on my serious hat.




One doesn’t want to be so dramatic as to say what many writers experience in the quest to be published is akin to having one’s soul ripped out, but given we put a piece of our soul into everything we write, one may as well. So it’s probably no small wonder then that an increasing number of clearly less crazy authors are trying to take back their power by self-publishing or e-publishing existing books now out of print. In many ways, we may perhaps be lucky that times are changing, but it will be up to us to help drive that change. And I think, given the scenario in the publishing industry per se, this may be no bad thing.

Aside from lamenting the difficulty of trying to get published with so many of my pals who are in the same boat as I am, there is also, increasingly, a flip side to this coin - and that’s the lot experienced by many published authors of my acquaintance. Authors, who despite working with a particular publisher for years, or having signed a two or three book deal, get dropped by those publishers for no apparent good reason. It goes on to beg several questions about why writers get treated this way. While we may not put up the financial backing, the creative endeavour is primarily all ours, as is an increasing amount of the marketing and publicity. To make it, we have to work hard at what we do, blood, sweat and tears oftentimes, and many, many hours of time are involved. And yet we are treated like puppets. Why do we even allow it? (That rampant insanity again, I suspect.)

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not blaming publishers. In fact, I entirely understand the publisher’s position; I worked in the corporate world for long enough to be able to see both sides. Business is about creating shareholder value. It’s about return on investment, cashflow and projections. To ensure the best returns one needs to be strategically driven and focused. Usually, that involves taking a long term view in one’s product lines, and conducting ongoing and astute market research that not only predicts market needs now, but also in the future.

What does alarm me, however, is an industry, which according to recent articles, is more interested in debut authors than established authors. Surely there should be some sort of balance? Instead there appears to be an alarming trend out there. New authors are getting lots of chances. (Yes, I know, YAY!!!) Trouble is, if those authors don’t make the bestseller lists or garner awards with Book One, they’re tossed on the scrap heap of also-rans. Meanwhile, established authors are cast aside to make room for the next Hot New Thing. It begs the question: what sort of logic, what market research, what long term strategy is driving this? Is there actually any or has it come down to rank opportunism focused primarily on the moment? I would genuinely like to know, and to understand, because it begs a second question, how does this approach make good long term business sense? Repeat business, a focus on existing successful product lines together with new innovations and constant market awareness are what create success. Or… Are publishers also perhaps going bonkers given the rapidly changing environment in which they find themselves?

Either way, and with no real answers (until you kindly respond in the comments section), it strikes me quite forcibly that this lark of writing is quite simply mad. Yes. Mad, insane and deranged!

Am I going to stop? Oh pul-lease, what a question, or, in any event, not just yet. Do I look like a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon to you? Now pass me that gnawed pencil please, get me some chocolate and then shut the door behind you.


You may also want to take a read of Maureen Lynas’ excellent post, How Big is Your Slushpile, offering a different and altogether more humourous approach on the subject of writerly endurance.

". . .the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey."
Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist