What specific differences are there in writing for the teen and tween market?
The first thing that comes to mind is the scope of a project—a book I write for the tween audience may be 2,000-3,000 words, whereas my books aimed at teens have been 16-18,000 words. To date, I have only been published in the non-fiction arena, which has less of a marked difference in my opinion. Age-appropriate content or “edginess” seems to come into play more for fiction writers, whereas on the non-fiction end, the reading level and topics of interest seem to be what differentiate projects for tweens and teens. With your lifestyle, entertainment, and dance background, you appear to be the epitome of diversification. How does that work for you? How do all your elements of expertise work together? It works beautifully, although it is a lot of hard work and many hours! I feel lucky that many of my projects truly ARE passion projects; I get to explore topics that fascinated me as a girl and still do: Judy Blume, cheerleading, gymnastics, dance, fashion, etc. For me, being a full-time f
