One thing you might not know about me, if you are new to my blog, is that I’m a crossover author. I write all fantasy, but some is for children and some is for adults. My stories often occupy a no-man’s-land between the two. Especially with shorter work, it can be really hard to place stories for publication. (I mean, it’s always hard, but still.)
Word count is one important distinguishing factor. Juvenile magazines typically want stories that are 700 or 800 words. Only a few will take work as long as 1,200 or 1,500 words. A typical short story of mine is between 2,000 and 3,000 words. So you can see that cuts me out of those markets, unless I make a case to serialize a story. (This has yet to happen.)
Even more important, though, is the story’s point of view. For a children’s story, the POV really must be a child, or someone with a childlike perspective. This is why lots of children’s stories have animals as the viewpoint characters. Conversely, a story that is intended for adults might include children, but the point of view will clearly reflect an adult’s perspective.
This distinction is in my mind because I’ve recently finished a story that — miracle of miracles! — came in at 600 words. That makes it ideal for juvenile markets, and there is an important child character, too. But, it is not a children’s story. The POV is an adult, and her thoughts reflect an adult’s concerns like taking care of a disabled child and growing enough food to feed them both. There’s also a dark twist at the end that no child POV would envision.
I often get caught in this bind with editors. Adult publications reject my stories because the tone is deceptively gentle and a child is present. They thus assume it is a juvenile story. But juvenile editors reject my stories because they are too long and the POV is an adult. What’s an author to do?
What I did was to self-publish my misfit stories into the collection, Aunt Ursula’s Atlas. It was my first self-published book, in 2016. You should take a look. And, what the heck! If anyone out there is curious about about children’s publishing, go ahead and toss your questions my way.
Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Facebook, Instagram and/or CounterSocial.
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