The Magic of Creating a Middle-Grade Novel
I’ve noticed that many of my friends and colleagues in the writing community broadly fall into one of two categories, both equally powerful in their skill and love of writing: Those who have been writing since before they could really remember, and those who started later in life. I happen to fall into the former category, in part because I was completely addicted to reading and fell in love with so many amazing middle grade novels.
(7 Tips for Developing a Middle-Grade Premise.)
I’m not exaggerating when I say that many of the middle grade books I read and loved had an immeasurable impact on my life. Not only were they a gateway into my passion for writing, but they also shaped how I saw the world and the childhood memories I made.
That’s why it’s especially meaningful to me that my debut novel will be my middle grade novel. I often hear the phrase “book of my heart,” and I think it’s such a lovely way to describe how many authors feel about these worlds and characters we create. Kaya of the Ocean is the “book of my heart” for so many reasons. One, it was partially inspired by the amazing and courageous children in my life who have fought and won a million battles with anxiety. Two, it weaves in threads from my familial and cultural history. Kaya is more than the “book of my heart”—you can find pieces of my heart throughout the story.
While I’ve been writing since I could first hold a pencil, I’ve obviously been active in the publishing industry for a far shorter amount of time. I started by publishing my short stories—adult literary fiction—in literary magazines. This experience was invaluable in preparing me for taking the leap to publishing novels. One way it helped ready me was by forcing me to build some emotional armor.
Submitting short stories to literary magazines was a crash course in the difficult aspects of the publishing industry that every writer eventually needs to confront: Namely, that responses will not usually be quick, and you will need to face rejection in different forms before you are published. Another way that publishing short stories supported my evolution to publishing novels was by sparking new ideas. For me, at least, many of these short stories become the seeds from which novels later sprout.
When I transitioned to writing novels, I realized that unlike with short stories, I would first need to send out queries to secure the interest of a literary agent. Like almost everything else in publishing, the general rule is that this is not often a short, direct journey, and you may work with more than one agent before finding the relationship that works best.
This was definitely true for me, and I eventually landed with my amazing agents at Transatlantic. I am grateful to them for so much, including helping to bring Kaya into the world. They are excellent editorial agents who provided crucial feedback that helped polish Kaya before it was submitted to editors. I was lucky in that it quickly found a home with Holiday House.
This was early in 2023, and here I encountered another very common aspect of publishing: the lengthy time between selling your book and the book hitting shelves. Kaya was sold early in 2023 with an anticipated release date in 2025. I knew this was usual from my author community, but this definitely came as a surprise to my non-writing family and friends!
Between these two points of time, there have been multiple other stages: signing the contract; edits based on the editor’s notes; line edits based on a proofreader’s notes; copyedits based on a copyeditor’s notes. Each stage of edits improved different aspects of the manuscript, and I am so thankful to this team for all their work in making Kaya the best book it could be. There were also super fun milestones as well (not that editing isn’t fun in its own right), including receiving proofs for the cover, blurbs for the book, and writing the dedication and acknowledgments. These are often bucket-list items for a debut author, and they definitely were for me.
A few months before the book release date, advanced reader copies were sent out. As a wonderful surprise part of that process, I was humbled to learn that Kaya had won two recognitions: It had been selected as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, and it had been chosen as an outstanding debut by the American Booksellers Association for their “Indies Introduce” list. I’m so excited for Kaya to be shared with all the readers I held in my mind as I created Kaya’s story, so thrilled for children to meet these characters who have become like real people to me.
I can’t emphasize enough what an amazing journey it’s been, and how meaningful it is to have Kaya of the Ocean coming out to join the canon of middle grade novels. I sometimes think back to the child version of myself, curled on the couch with a book in her hands as she’s whisked into different imagined worlds. I think she would be happy to know that one day, she would also get to create some of those worlds.
Check out Gloria L. Huang’s Kaya of the Ocean here:
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