The virtual YA world vs. the REAL YA world

The lovely Hannah Moskowitz recently blogged about the discrepancy between what YA authors who live in the Twitterverse/blog-o-sphere believe is going on in the industry, and what actual teen readers think/feel/buy. You should read the whole thing, including the responses, but for the sake of time, here are two of my fave Hannah-isms…

“To put it plainly, I’m starting to wonder if YA is turning into something written by/for the internet community under the guise of writing for everyday teenagers, and that who likes you on the internet is more important to your career–or, if not to your career, to your psyche and your perception of your success–than if teenagers are picking up your book.”

“Our views of what teens actually read [are] completely skewed by what WE pimp out. We assume that the stuff we hear about on the blogs are books teenagers are really picking up, and a lot of the time that’s just not true.”

This really resonated with me. It often feels like, as a YA author, you HAVE to have a kick ass website and a huge following on Twitter. If you don’t, you’re a nobody who obviously won’t sell books. I fell right into that trap and queried all the trendy agents and followed all the important tweeps. When they followed me back or commented on my blog, I felt validated. I, too, could be a success if I got in with the right people.

And then the emptiness set in.

I’m in a better place now. My agent loves me and my work, I have excellent YA friends who nurture both my muse and my soul, and my writing is better than ever.

Still, something about Hannah’s blog nagged at me. I pulled out my Nook and started browsing the Barnes & Noble website, searching for the elusive books I’ve missed out on after months of living in the Twitterverse. Problem was, the only books I could think to look up were ones I’d already heard about.

No. This required an in-person trip.

After dropping spawn #1 off at kindergarten, I dragged Hubster and spawn #2 to Barnes & Noble. Imagine my shock when the books I’ve been eagerly anticipating because of Twitter/blogs were outnumbered at least 25:1 by all the OTHER new releases that came out this month. Even more alarming, I’d never heard of the other authors/books before… and they look FANTASTIC!

For instance, I plan to read THE DUFF and PARANORMALCY—those were pimped heavily on Twitter and sound awesome. After today’s reconnaissance mission, I’ve added BRUISER, FAT VAMPIRE, LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, HOTHOUSE, RICH AND MAD, and NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL to my Must Read Immediately list.

You know what I just noticed?

Four of these six books were written by men. There were quite a few more books who had male authors that caught my eye, but didn’t make the list.

Perhaps women are using social media more and that’s why I’ve never heard of these books? Whatever the case, I’m going to spend more time perusing the bookstores and paying attention to what gets snapped up fastest by my target audience—teens.

Are there any books YOU love that aren’t getting much air time?