Q&A Friday

Magical Numbers Edition

Hi Friends!

I’m recovering from Covid but I’m ok! Let’s answer some questions!

As asks: I have heard from agents (in nice query passes), agented authors, non-agented authors, etc. that the middle grade market right now is TOUGH. This is especially so for my genre, fantasy. I've barely begun to query my novel, but with the market being the way it is, I'm wondering if I'm doing a disservice to my story by trying to query during a down market. Here's my question: when genre markets are "down" is it better for querying writers to take a break, until the market is hot again? How might a writer know when it picks back up? When more agents are open to that genre again? It's so hard to know what to do when you want to give your story its best shot.

Middle grade (and contemporary YA imho) is really tough right now. There are any number of reasons for this, and we never actually the one true cause, if any, but it hasn’t helped that some big bookstores are taking fewer titles in these genres overall, and favoring paperback over hardcover. Everyone makes less money on paperbacks, so it’s tough. So what do you do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I know, I know, that’s not the answer you’re looking for.