The Book from No Man's Land

• When I started writing TAoCBS, I thought it was a middle grade novel.
• When I brought the first chapter to my critique group, they said, “Oh no. This is too sexy for a midgrade. It has to be young adult.”
• When I had a first page analyzed at the SCBWI-MI fall conference, the panel members were aghast that I called it a YA. “This voice is obviously midgrade.” They spoke at length about this designation, implying that the author didn’t know what she was doing. (Thanks.)
• When I entered this novel in a query contest, I referred to it as “upper midgrade.” (hedging my bets)
• When I got the rejection letter, it said, “30k is really not long enough for today's YA market.” (Yes, of course, but I thought it was a MG.)

Currently, I am revising TAoCBS in hopes that someday it will be bigger and better. But when I resubmit, I don’t know how I’m going to classify it.

Chuck Sambuchino did an interesting interview with literary agent, Erin Murphy, in which she refers to the MG/YA distinction as more of a “scale than a line.”