Deborah Halverson: Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies

Deborah Halversonedited books with Harcourt Children’s Books for ten years — until she climbed over the desk and tried out the chair on the other side. Now she is the award-winning author of teen novels including Honk If You Hate Me and Big Mouth . Armed with a master’s in American Literature and a fascination with pop culture, Deborah sculpts stories from extreme places and events — tattoo parlors, fast-food joints, and, most extreme of all, high schools.

Deborah is also the founder of the popular writers’ advice website DearEditor.com, a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences nationwide, and a writing teacher for groups and institutions including the Extension Program of the University of California, San Diego. She freelance edits fiction and nonfiction for both published authors and writers seeking their first book deals. By conducting word-by-word line editing or more general substantive editing, Deborah helps authors hone their storytelling voices, synchronize age-appropriate language and subjects, and develop stories that appeal simultaneously to young readers and to adults such as parents, teachers, and librarians.

Deborah lives in San Diego, California, with her husband and triplet sons. For more about Deborah, visit her author website at www.deborahhalverson.com and her writers’ advice website at www.deareditor.com.

For Robin Cruise, who gave me not one but three big breaks… and more importantly, her friendship

On my first day as an editorial assistant with Harcourt Children’s Books, the managing editor walked me down the hall to view an art show of newly arrived paintings for a picture book then in production. I stood among a bustling crowd of editors, designers, production people, marketing gurus, and inventory, financial, legal, and support staff — all of whom had dedicated their careers and personal passions to creating entertaining and enlightening books for children — and it hit me: I’d found my people. I discovered that day what I’ve come to love about the writers and producers of children’s books: They are a true community that cheers, collaborates, and works its knuckles to the bones in support of literature for young readers. The enthusiastic participation of the writers, agents, and editors who have contributed their expertise to the information you hold in your hand reflects that.

I extend immense thanks to the inspiring writers and teachers who’ve lent their voices to this book: M. T. Anderson, Kathi Appelt, Karen Cushman, Jennifer Donnelly, Jean Ferris, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Darcy Pattison, Mary E. Pearson, Gary Soto, Deborah Wiles, and Jane Yolen. Add to their voices those of my trusted children’s book agent Erin Murphy and my friend Senior Editor Kate Harrison.

Then there are those whose words are not directly quoted in this book but whose insight and expertise fill its pages: former publisher and all-around publishing visionary Rubin Pfeffer, editorial veteran Diane D’Andrade, vice president and editorial director Jeannette Larson, author Bruce Hale, author and copyright/free speech attorney Randal Morrison, publishing attorney Lisa Lucas of Lucas LLP, and publicists Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy of Blue Slip Media and Antoinette Kuritz of Strategies Literary Public Relations.

And just as no story would be complete without its grand finale, I extend my deepest appreciation to my agents for this book, Matt Wagner and Anna Johnson, whose idea it was to turn me into a dummy; to my editorial team: acquisitions editor Tracy Boggier, technical editor Barbara Shoup, copy editor Danielle Voirol, and especially project editor Vicki Adang, whose humor pervades this book as much as my own; to my husband, Michael, who champions me with absolute abandon, and my three sons, who inspire me to embrace every day as a new adventure; and last but far from least, to my mentor and friend Robin Cruise, the managing editor who ushered me into that art show on my very first day in publishing.

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor:Victoria M. Adang

Acquisitions Editor:Tracy Boggier

Senior Copy Editor:Danielle Voirol

Assistant Editor:David Lutton

Editorial Program Coordinator:Joe Niesen

Technical Editor:Barbara Shoup

Editorial Manager:Michelle Hacker

Editorial Assistants:Rachelle S. Amick

Cover Photos:© iStockphoto.com/DNY59

Cartoons:Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator:Katherine Crocker

Layout and Graphics:Corrie Socolovitch

Proofreader:Nancy L. Reinhardt

Indexer:Valerie Haynes Perry

Special Help:Jennette ElNaggar, Todd Lothery

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele,Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe,Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Ensley Eikenburg,Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan,Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings,Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Do you remember the first time you, as a child, really fell into a book? When you turned the first page, you were sitting there on the sofa or lying on the floor or trapped in the back of a car with screaming siblings… and then a few more pages flipped, and you were no longer aware of pages or words or hair-pulling. You found yourself someplace else: standing on a mountaintop, sneaking through an underground lair, or curled up inside a hollow tree. You were completely lost in another world. It’s an amazing sensation.

Our early experiences reading books can be intense. Every day, children are spirited away from bedrooms and kitchens and classrooms and the seats of buses. Toddlers demand the same book night after night, until they can recite each page and shout out each rhyme before their dozy parents can. Very few people are as passionate about books as children are. Kids devour books — in some cases, literally.

If you write to stir the emotions of readers, to move people deeply, to change people’s lives, then you should consider writing for young adults. Who else will read your book 12 times? Who else will try to steal a copy from the library? Who else will sleep on top of your book? Who else will make a diorama of your book with the main character played by a Styrofoam cup? Who else, in short, will invest themselves imaginatively in your world like a young person will?

Young readers are still constructing their understanding of life. They do not yet know the ways of their species nor the ways of the world. As they read stories, they learn about justice and injustice, happiness and sadness, glory and delight and sorrow.