Today I read three pieces that presented an interesting juxtaposition. First my Google Reader feed delivered Joel Bruns’ snarky-but-funny post at The Hub: DIY YA. With a Mad Libs style fill in the blank form, Bruns provides you with the template for creating your own YA bestselling paranormal romance. Bruns was riffing on a blog post by Nikki Grimes, The Trouble with YA Literature Today. She, too, lamented the preponderance of books being published today that seem to be variations on either Harry Potter or Twilight. (BTW: Does anyone know if you’re supposed to italicize series titles? This is the second time it’s come up today).

Next I headed over to Boston. com where I found “Young adult novels heating up the charts.” All those paranormal romances and boarding school fantasy novels? They’re pretty much saving publishing. Continue reading →