Cover Story: A Whole New Playbook
BB: Are there different expectations of a YA author in terms of sales?
MQ: The type of YA I write is called “realistic YA.” Basically it’s not wizards or vampires or anything fantastical. Realistic YA does not sell as well as your Twilight series or your Harry Potters or your Beautiful Creatures. It’s good and bad. The bad is that you don’t make as much money — it’s not as easy to get those books out there and they don’t have the ad budgets those big fantasy books get. The good part is that I have a little bit more freedom to take risks. What my publisher hopes to do is build my career by getting my books into classrooms. In this country, teachers and librarians have a huge role in determining the success of YA. The hope is that I will win awards. Boy21 [was] a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for YA. That’s a huge win for my publisher. Sometimes it’s frustrating when people say, “You must have gone to YA to chase the money.” The money I made from YA is probably not even 10 percent of the money I’ve made over the years. The money has come from Silver Linings and Hollywood. YA, I love doing it, but I couldn’t support myself on it. Not a big money maker yet. I do it because I love the books that I’m writing.