The now-familiar tale of the middle grade market has many alarming plot strands, including declining sales, encroaching censorship, unstable school and library funding, and dips in children’s reading scores, as well as kids’ time spent reading. Industry-wide discussion and analysis of the falloff continue as publishers and booksellers look for ways to reverse the downturn. As part of that exploration, we asked agents about trends they are seeing and how they are navigating various challenges to sell projects in a soft middle grade market.
Hook ’em
Agents say that the projects currently receiving the most attention on submission are those with distinctive hooks—something publishers can effectively hang marketing campaigns on. Kelly Sonnack, president and owner of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, hears editors say they want “shorter attention-grabbing middle grade that is going to hit that high-interest, low-reading level.” She notes that some editors no longer want texts that are more than 50,000 words, which is significantly shorter than an average middle grade fantasy. “One editor recently told me they’re looking for books that are ‘easy entry,’ that any kid can pick up and easily enter the story. And maybe that means the concept is broad and very general and commercial.”
Tricia Lawrence, senior agent at Aevitas Creative Management, says, “Anything that’s very plot driven seems to be what editors want right now. It’s got to be something that is easy to translate to a sales team and maybe the shelf talkers at the bookstore.”
Sara Crowe of Sara Crowe Literary welcomes editors’ current wish lists as a positive development. “Middle grade has been having a hard moment, we all know,” she says. “But we are very excited about what we are seeing come out of the hard moment, playing with format, length, high concepts.”
Some agents report novels in verse gaining ground due to their shorter texts. “I’m hopeful that that style is growing,” says Allison Hellegers, literary agent and foreign rights director at Stimola Literary Studio. “If middle grade readers who have lower attention spans see a book that has fewer words, they might be more excited to read it. But these books also have high-quality writing and can get kids excited about poetry and words, and they don’t have to feel overwhelmed.”
Increasingly, publishers that can’t find the kind of book hooks they’re looking for externally come up with them in-house and then solicit help to flesh them out. “A lot of editors are creating their own intellectual property and looking more for ghostwriters,” Hellegers says.
Sonnack has had a similar experience. “We are definitely seeing a lot of IP projects coming through, where editors are developing these ideas and hiring an author to execute,” she says.
Divisive politics and world events may be indirectly shaping book demand, as well. “Readers are looking for escapism,” says Charlie Olsen, agent at InkWell Management. “Even if kids don’t understand what’s going on in the country as a whole right now, they know something’s up with their parents, and they know something is off. With that feeling of pessimism, things that are lighter in tone, including humor and puzzles, are what young readers are interested in.”
One category where demand has remained incredibly high is middle grade graphic novels. There’s been little slowdown there, and even areas of expansion, including for younger middle grade readers and a new surge in manga, an adjacent graphic format. “The graphic novel market for middle grade readers is still very, very strong,” Sonnack says. “And if you count that, the middle grade market is really steady.”
But according to Hellegers, graphic novels are not a sure thing across the board. “They are definitely in demand,” she says, “but at the same time, editors are looking for either a completely different, new voice, or they’re looking for someone who’s already been published and has those strong sales figures.”
Because graphic novels take a long time to produce, Hellegers notes, they present more risk for publishers. As a result, editors are now holding out for projects they can fall in love with before they buy. And many acquired during the go-go pace of the past couple of years haven’t even come out yet. “We’re seeing a lot of people say they just don’t have room on their list, which is always frustrating,” Hellegers says, “especially when you find a new creator you’re excited about.”
Unfortunately, many editors are not seeking out the kind of quiet character- and relationship-driven books that have traditionally been a mainstay of the middle grade category. “What is taking a particular hit are the contemporary, more literary things that you would have hoped would be going into the school and library markets in a strong way,” Sonnack says. “We are sending out projects where editors are saying, I love this. I read it overnight. The writing is so beautiful, but I don’t know how to publish this right now. Those kinds of gutting responses are happening in a way that we haven’t seen before.”
Polishing the pitch
Agents say they have shifted gears alongside their authors in order to meet the market’s moment and are finding ways to make deals. “We’re taking even more time with our middle grade authors to develop their projects pre-submission and try to make them rejection-proof,” Sonnack says. “And in this case, that means figuring out how to maybe elevate the commercial side of the project and orient them toward success in a slightly different market.”
Marietta B. Zacker, co-owner and literary agent at Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency, says the soft market is “forcing all of us—creatives, editors, agents—to continue to be innovative about the way we present material to the middle grade audience.” An example might be a conversation about what kinds of illustration make sense in a novel. “Obviously, there are plenty of graphic novels and illustrated novels, so it’s not like it’s new, but, in what new way can we present the story so that middle graders can latch on and not let go? Artists are looking at the greats who have done it, like Brian Selznick, and trying to figure out how they can create with that in mind and also push it even more.”
Zacker says she has a client who recently suggested blending the verse novel and graphic novel formats. “It certainly feels very fresh,” she adds. “Why not have a combo?”
Hellegers notes that these days it’s a lot harder for newcomers to break in. “We’re always looking for diverse voices, and we’re never going to stop looking for that beautiful middle grade voice. But when we’re looking at our submission lists, we have to be even more selective
and only take on things that we feel are award-worthy or a commercial idea that’s going to really wow people.”
Olsen worries about a lack of new voices as well. “I think the most substantial problem that middle grade is facing right now is book banning,” he says. “There’s a culture of suppression. Librarians and teachers are working their tails off every day, but they’re constantly having their resources cut, and they’re having the best voices pulled off their shelves.”
The loss of those works sets off a dangerous chain reaction, according to Olsen. “A novel is an empathy machine,” he says, “and the more that those kinds of books are removed from shelves, the harder it becomes for children to understand one another and for us to understand each other. And that is a terrible shame. It has a huge effect on children’s love of reading, which has a huge effect on the market. And it also changes how publishers cozy up to new ideas.”
Regina Brooks, president of Serendipity Literary Agency, is among those who believe better communication between various middle grade stakeholders can improve market performance. “Publishing is one of the few industries that doesn’t really know its consumer well,” Brooks says. “But readers will tell you what they love, and what they don’t, if you ask. Some publishers have started building consumer insight groups, but there’s still room to go deeper. Focus groups, particularly with young readers, could be invaluable in shaping the kinds of stories we publish and how we present and market them.”
Lawrence also appreciates the value of embracing what young readers want. “We have these ideas about what kids are supposed to read, but I think in the middle grade space, why don’t we just get them to read?” she says. “We can be a little flexible and say to kids, We’re okay giving you fully or heavily illustrated, really fast-paced, fun books. If that’s how they want to read, then let’s make that happen for them, because that makes them lifelong readers.”
Hellegers agrees that all the various players in the industry need to be heard in order to find solutions. “Editors and agents communicating more is a big thing,” she says, noting that some of them are doing just that, in a middle grade support group put together by Josh Sippie, an editor at HarperAlley.
Like many agents, Lawrence believes that some of the market’s biggest issues lie in, well, marketing. “The old channels that used to work to market books are just not there anymore,” she says. “I think that across the board in publishing editors are wondering how you market in this world where so much media is changing on a daily basis.”
Crowe shares that view. “It is going to take publishers rethinking how they’re marketing middle grade and doing more,” she says, “because the ways that we’ve done it in the past are only working for certain really well-known authors, but not for new authors.”
But Brooks notes that at least one old-school marketing effort still delivers anytime it can be employed: author visits. “One of the most effective investments publishers can make is in getting authors in front of students,” she says. “When readers can see, hear, and engage with the person behind the words, the story world expands beyond the covers, becoming an experience they carry with them.”
There are no easy fixes for the problems that have led to middle grade’s current rough patch, but the agents surveyed hold great hope for the market’s eventual rebound and are taking actions toward that goal, driven by persistence and passion. “Continuing to be bold about publishing books where every kid can be seen, heard, and understood is our only way out of any kind of conundrum that we reach in publishing,” Zacker says. “Kids absolutely read in order to find their place in the world, and that’s how they grow up to be adults who have empathy.”
Sonnack also sounds determined, positive notes about the road ahead. “I’m never not hopeful,” she says. “I do believe that things are cyclical. There are editors who feel that it’s just going to take some time for this to come around, and you need to have the books ready for when the school and library budgets are bigger again, or they’re buying with more enthusiasm.”
Of course, some of the cyclical nature of publishing comes down to demographics. “We’re always going to have readers in this category who are looking for content that brings to life the world that they’re living in and the issues that they’re dealing with,” Sonnack says. “Those things change, so there’s always a market for writing for those readers.”
Read more from our middle grade feature.
