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A wacky notion
May. 6th, 2013 08:15 amSo I've got a wacky notion for a YA novel that'll sell: A dystopia!
Awesome, right? No need for any details, it's a fucking dystopia. Someone will die, someone else will fall in love, and if the setup of the dystopia makes no logical sense, who cares? It's only the weird socially restrictive order that matters!
Seriously! It's like money in the bank!
Actually, the last two ones I read for PW were genuinely interesting takes, one taking a different structural approach, and the other presenting a POV character and some twists that really adds to the genre as a whole. And I firmly believe that When We Wake is next year's Printz winner (of course, I thought Code Name Verity would win this year's award, so what do I know?). But I sometimes worry that every good exception is only going to lead to dozens more cynically-written and even more cynically-acquired (and edited) books that are fucking carbon copies of each other and add nothing new or interesting to the field. It's not that every subgenre doesn't get this; I tend to get dystopias, mysteries, and contemporary problem novels as my big YA categories for PW, so I see the problems there, but not the eight zillion Twilight/Vampire Diaries knockoffs, or the Pretty Little Liar-wannabes (and, come to think of it, one of the three books I starred for YA in the last year could well be considered a PLL-style book). And I remember when Elayna was ten seeing four million books with covers designed to evoke Lemony Snicket.
But damn, sometimes I wish it weren't so obvious that some publishers and editors (and yes, authors) simply want to rake in some bonus cash on the long tail from The Hunger Games. Props to the ones who go above and beyond, but they're the exception.
Awesome, right? No need for any details, it's a fucking dystopia. Someone will die, someone else will fall in love, and if the setup of the dystopia makes no logical sense, who cares? It's only the weird socially restrictive order that matters!
Seriously! It's like money in the bank!
Actually, the last two ones I read for PW were genuinely interesting takes, one taking a different structural approach, and the other presenting a POV character and some twists that really adds to the genre as a whole. And I firmly believe that When We Wake is next year's Printz winner (of course, I thought Code Name Verity would win this year's award, so what do I know?). But I sometimes worry that every good exception is only going to lead to dozens more cynically-written and even more cynically-acquired (and edited) books that are fucking carbon copies of each other and add nothing new or interesting to the field. It's not that every subgenre doesn't get this; I tend to get dystopias, mysteries, and contemporary problem novels as my big YA categories for PW, so I see the problems there, but not the eight zillion Twilight/Vampire Diaries knockoffs, or the Pretty Little Liar-wannabes (and, come to think of it, one of the three books I starred for YA in the last year could well be considered a PLL-style book). And I remember when Elayna was ten seeing four million books with covers designed to evoke Lemony Snicket.
But damn, sometimes I wish it weren't so obvious that some publishers and editors (and yes, authors) simply want to rake in some bonus cash on the long tail from The Hunger Games. Props to the ones who go above and beyond, but they're the exception.