Very interesting news from the Christy Awards. They will have two new categories for 2007. (1) Young Adult—written for the 12-17 age range, and (2) The “Lits” category, classified as follows: “Light in tone, [Lits] novels are colloquial in voice and culturally relevant, featuring characters struggling with ordinary issues of life. Subgenres include chick lit, mom lit, lad lit, and lady lit.”
The Lits have been around awhile, so it seems to me the Christys’ new category is a reflection of our current CBA marketplace. The young adult category surprises me somewhat. I know this is a much needed genre in CBA. I also know new lines at publishing houses are being developed. But as of yet, doesn’t seem there are many books out there for young adults—at least not in the older age range of 15 and up. Two years from now, there will be many more, however. Good to see this category of the Christys being established now.
The other Christy categories will remain the same: General/Contemporary Fiction (Stand-alone, full-length novels); General/Contemporary Fiction (Sequels, novels in a series and novellas); Historical (including biblical, biographical and western); Romance; Suspense (including mystery); Visionary (including allegory, fantasy, futuristic and science fiction); and First Novel.
Submissions to the Christys are due from publishing houses December 7. Winners will be announced next July during the Christy banquet in Atlanta.
13 comments:
Good Morning Brandilyn! We're back from the East Coast!! Olyvia is back in her element, although, she seemed to enjoy all the attention as long as mommy was visible or holding her. lol I've not updated our blog yet, but hopefully by sometime tomorrow, I'll have new pics up.
I'm trying to catch up on all my favorite blogs in between Olyvia's naps and cleaning house, etc.
That's cool that they added the 2 new categories to CF.
Glad you were able to finish your book before Thanksgiving Day!!
You said, "...doesn’t seem there are many books out there for young adults—at least not in the older age range of 15 and up."
K: Perhaps it's because young adults already read us (ICRS market). With our G rating, we appeal to all.
Interesting to see how the market is changing and the Christy's reflect that.
Unrelated question here BC: You've done two blours for books of yours with the Christian Fiction Blogging Alliance. Did you notice any meaningful differences? I know the Technorati rating goes up, but do you see better sales on Amazon?
I enjoy doing the CFBA, but I wonder if it is worth the expense to the publisher/author of sending out copies to be read.
Jason, I didn't think to check before and after amazon ratings for my blour books, so I don't know about immediate sales.
However, much of marketing doesn't result in immediate sales. And really, much of marketing therefore can't be quantified as to its success. Marketing is like constant drips in the bucket. Marketing allows people to see the author's name and name of the book. Through the Technorati ranking, esp. if the book hits #1 and the cover is right on the Technorati Most Popular page, many people who wouldn't hear about the book do hear about it. They see the cover, they see the author's name. Maybe the next time, or the third or fourth, someone hears this author's name, he/she will think to look up the book in a store. Maybe buy it. So I'd say the Technorati exposure is good. Publishers send out lots of free books. For them, this is the cheapest marketing. The books don't cost the publisher that much. And, in fact, real books are cheaper than ARCs (because of the print run number.)
Eden, glad to see your family's back!
Kristy might have a point about the kids reading the adult fiction due to the "G" rating. But that is changing and I am not sure I will be comfortable with my own children reading some of the more gritty, realistic fiction out there when they are in Junior High. It's good a genre more relevant to them is emerging.
Brandilyn, thanks for sharing this type of news with us. It's good to learn about it.
Tina F.
Tina made an excellent point. I taught teens in Sunday School for several years, but I specifically told my young friends who were avid readers that certain ones of my novels were not yet for them. I write adult faith fiction, and even though the gospel message is obvious the road to get to the Truth is often ugly and promiscuous.
Interesting topic.
I'm glad you had a good Thanksgiving.
Mmmmm.....I must say I have a lot of difficulty finding books for my almost 9 year old daughter. She is an advanced reader (say easily reading at the level of 12-14 years)but have difficulty finding appropriate books. A big frustration for me is so many books for girls, even in the CF market, focus on boyfriends even with characters aged around 12. Call me old fashioned or maybe in Australia the culture is a little different but I don't want to encourage that any earlier than necessary!!
I'm glad to hear about the new YA category. I'll have to see if my publisher will be entering my newest book.
For "rel", my nine-year-old daughter sounds like yours. She is an advanced reader, but I keep a careful guard to filter out those "boyfriend" stories.
A shameless plug--your daughter might enjoy my books, the Dragons in our Midst series and Eye of the Oracle, the first book in the new series, Oracles of Fire. My nine year old loves them.
I forgot about your marketing background. I'm glad to hear that the blog tours seem to you to be a positive thing. As I said, I enjoy them a lot, but I wondered if it is something worthwhile for the authors.
So bring on the blours!
A note to commenter, Jason, who asked about the effectiveness of blours:
Reviewers like me get asked every day by publishers and publicists (and authors )if we can review a certain book. I can only review between 5 to 10 books a month in my column for a Christian women's ezine.
I got an email a couple of weeks ago from a publicist about a certain book -- and I'd heard of it ecause I'd read an author's interview on a blog tour. So I told her to send it on. Well, I read the book right away, and it's made it into my column for January. This ezine targets the perfect group of readers --getting several thousand hits a day.
Although the blour might not have directly impacted sales, a good online review can impact buyers for months (maybe years?) to come.
Another website I write reviews for sends out a list of about a hundred new books from which reviewers can choose one or two. Guess which ones I choose? The ones I can't wait to read because I've heard something about them. :)
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