Blake Nelson has been taking some flack for a quote in an article in PW about a reissue of his book, Girl. He’s had success as a writer in YA, so this novel, written for adults, is being reissued as a YA. [Full disclosure: and I don’t think is quote is so bad. Most adults – your peers – don’t read YA. So if you publish YA, you don’t really exist for them.]
“Nelson says when he was first trying to find a publisher, some friends actually recommended that he pitch Girl as a YA book. “I was resistant, because YA was so dead at the time, there was nothing interesting going on there,” he says. “Also I felt like I had done something interesting and wanted it to be out in the real literary world. So it was published as an adult book—and, of course, it took off with 12- to 18-year-olds.””
Cick on the link and look at the original cover – that’s supposed to be a photo of Judith Regan on the cover. At her suggestion, after she bought it. When she was far from a girl. Yes, that big, bad Judith. Who knows if it’s true, but she certainly has the ego for it.
