Cliques, hooking up, gossip and the "it" indie band of the moment are what most teens and tweens on MySpace.com are talking about, and no one knows this better than YA novelists. Canadian-born Sarah Mlynowski—who's penned a number of chick lit and teen titles including Bras & Broomsticks and Frogs & French Kisses (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)—was turned on to the teen networking site by fellow writer John Green (Looking for Alaska, Dutton Juvenile). After finding the site a great tool for connecting with her readers, Mlynowski quickly realized she could use MySpace to talk to her peers.
With that in mind she started the Teen Lit group (http://groups.myspace.com/teenlit), intending to build an online community for YA authors. The group now boasts some 500 members, roughly 45 of whom are published YA authors.
The Teen Lit group proves that MySpace can be something writers probably never considered: a valuable networking tool as well as a promotional one. "Writers don't have traditional colleagues, so [the group provides] a great environment for talking to other writers," Mlynowski said. And since many writers are chained to their laptops, Mlynowski noted, the online group allows easy access to other people, even if it is just virtually.
For Mlynowski the group has even led to some potential new projects. Right now she's looking into a collaborative effort with fellow YA authors (and Teen Lit members) Emily Lockhart and Lauren Myracle.
David Levithan, the editor of Scholastic's edgy YA imprint Push and the author of several books in the genre (as well as one of the first writers to join the group), said it seemed logical to start talking to other writers online instead of focusing solely on readers. Though Levithan said he acts more as a writer than editor in the group, he echoed Mlynowski's thoughts about the value of having a community of your peers. "There are such idiosyncratic issues that pop up for authors of teen books, and being able to share experiences and advice makes it much easier."
