Nathan Bransford - The Forums

One of the members of my writing group is getting ready to start querying her first novel. It's YA, paranormal and although it's very much a stand alone book it has series potential. I know my way around the querying process and have been helping her with that but since I write women's fiction and erotic romance I'm kind of at a loss in terms of recommending sites to her where she might learn more about YA agents or meet some fellow YA authors. I know a lot of Bransforumers write YA so I thought I'd ask you all for your two cents about where I should suggest she go for more info. Thanks in advance.

She could try the YA Rebels, a diverse group of 9 or 10 active YA authors. I'm not sure if they have a website, but they're @yarebels on twitter and they're active on youtube. It would probably be a good jumping-off point.

Thanks! I'll tell her to check them out!

I don't know any forums, (although I would bet Absolute Write has a YA section) but I might send her to some blogs of YA writers. I think YA writers tend to hang out on each other's blogs. Kristen White comes to mind. She has a lovely blog.

I should go there too, though I'd probably feel out of place as a YA author and a guy. Seems the market is more girl oriented.

AbsoluteWrite actually has a really active YA group. Their QLH section (query letter...) also has a lot of YA authors who'll help critique. Your friend will need 50 posts on the site to put a query, synopsis, or a chunk of writing for critique, but you can get those pretty fast if you join in the conversations. I tend to hang out in QLH quite a bit, since I'm getting ready to write my own for my book.

And there's a lot of guys over there doing YA, Mark. So feel free to pop in.

Thanks for the advice. I'll pass it all along to my friend. I know she appreciates the input from everyone.

She could try some YA blogs like:
YAtopia: http://yatopia.blogspot.com
YA Confidential: http://yaconfidential.blogspot.com
YA Highway: http://www.yahighway.com/

WriteOnCon: http://writeoncon.com/ The site isn't active right now, but during their August conference, the YA forums are the busiest. They also have events and articles featuring YA agents and authors, so the archives from last year's conference might be of some help.

I've also met a bunch of YA writers through Rachel Harrie's Writer's Platform Campaign. http://rachaelharrie.blogspot.com/ I'm not sure when the next campaign starts but the YA groups always outnumber the other genres.