Trixie reports back from a fabulous seminar on ‘What Teens Want’ by the Spinebreakers team at Penguin / Puffin.
The London Book Fair took place this month which meant lots of publishing types descended upon the Big Smoke to chat about books. Not just what they’ve been reading lately, but the big stuff. The mullah. The deals. The behind-the-scenes IMPORTANT stuff.
The teen / young adult market in fiction has been getting pretty darn big lately. When the world is sinking into depression, this area of book sales is holding steady with the likes of Stephenie Meyer and co burning bright and exciting the hell out of the publishing world (credit crunch is just a breakfast cereal for children’s publishing, as it’s known).
So during the London Book Fair, the clever bunch at Penguin did what all publishers and agents should be doing: they asked teens what they want in book. And Trixie, aspiring writer and eMo Magazine journo, popped along for a ganders.
The editor, Danielle Innes, did a lovely little Powerpoint presentation about Spinebreakers, which has been set up by Puffin to allow teen readers to continue their journey after they’ve read a stonking good book with a chance to review, discuss, contribute and even write their own stuff.
Four teens from the Spinebreakers team also attended, all four very different – and all very interesting! They were: Conrad, Olivia, Ayesha and Malik
So what came through loud and clear?
Teens should work in marketing. They’d get paid a lot. And win awards and stuff. Olivia showed us some videos she’d created for her favourite books (which can all be found on Spinebreakers www.spinebreakers.co.uk) and they were awesome!
She also told us about a party she held based on the characters from Anna Godbersen’s Rumours. Some seriously clever marketing ideas.
There was a nice mixture of adult and teen books listed among their favourite books with the usual suspects – Rowling, Horowitz, Pullman and Blackman coming up (yet no mention of the likes of Meyer or Marr, interestingly).
There was also a nice splash of the ‘greats’ such as Orwell and Hemingway. In fact, Orwell came through strong and clear as a favourite with 1984 and Animal Farm being discussed with real vigour
Why do certain books take off?
The team weren’t so sure about this, I got the impression it’s some mysterious X factor. But one teen said that books featuring desirable objects – magical wands, a subtle knife – are a real hit. So that ‘wanting something you haven’t got’ factor played a part.
What they hated was clearer: being patronised and teenage cliches (”Love stories where boys fix all the girls’ problems” was how one put it). Teen and young adult novels seemed to be the biggest culprit when it comes to this so we need to be careful of this, fellow YA writers.
Where do they get their recommendations?
This was an interesting one when considering marketing. Parents were, surprisingly, important, not just for buying the books themselves but also recommending books. Review were also mentioned – specifically the Saturday Guardian. Word of mouth was incredibly important as well as the bookstores themselves.
When do they read?
At bedtime, mainly, to the detriment of their homework!
How do they choose a book?
Books are judged by their covers! Shiny interesting covers draw them in. And, of course, that all important first chapter. Titles were important too.
What they disliked was being mislead by a title or cover. It needs to do what it says on the tin, dang it!
And for the LOVE OF GOD, reduce the price of books!
What do you think? Get in touch with the eMo Magazine team.
Check out www.spinebreakers.co.uk
