Writing a Novel for the Young Adult Market

As an English Creative Writing major, I wrote, revised, and edited a novel for an honors thesis at my university. At approximately 78,000 words, All of This is a young adult Christian contemporary novel that includes real teen issues, a relatable protagonist, and a unique cast of characters, all working together to tell a story with themes such as forgiveness and trust. Because I completed my thesis over the course of two semesters, I developed time-management techniques to ensure I met my deadlines, such as setting daily word count goals and meeting weekly with a faculty advisor to chart my progress. I also practiced various techniques to brainstorm ideals for the story, outline the plot, and put all of the pieces together to form a cohesive storyline. Additionally, the project also included revising multiple drafts of the story, followed by editing, polishing, and formatting the final draft so that it would be ready to submit to literary agents and publishing houses. In order to understand the young adult fiction market, I researched the publishing industry and where my story fits into the market as a young adult Christian novel. I studied the content of a variety of popular young adult novels, particularly those within the Christian genre. I spent a significant amount of time researching literary agents, as I had to learn not only who represented my genre, but also who was reputable in the industry. I then researched various publishing houses that represented books within my genre. Finally, I researched how to write a query letter with which to pitch my book to literary agents. Using this knowledge, I wrote and began submitting query letters, with the hopes of acceptance, agency representation, and eventual publication. Through this research, I gained the knowledge I need to market myself as an author and introduce my book to the world of young adult fiction