Author needs your help

I have a 10 yr old boy who won't read much fiction. I spend a lot of time looking for books that he might like. At the first sight of Bare Bum I thought great a book he might consider. DS is a very bright boy who will read fact/science books till they come out his ears (did you know a goldfish will turn white if you keep it in a dark room) but fiction is a real challenge. I gather this is common for boys.

He loves the Wimpy kid books and captain underpants. More boys may be attracted to a book with the word Bum so I am not sure you should drop it. I am off to research it for DS.

(Also surprised they let it through as 'bum' is not transferrable for US market.)

Yes, the bare bum is a real turn off. Is it relevant or intrinsic to the gang or just a cheap trick to draw in the Underpants crowd?

I'm surprised Random House ran with it, actually. Someone must have been asleep that day. It's a shame because I'm sure the stories are fun.

Was your editor very young?

Hassled at your son having enough of Horrid Henry.

Guess what my two pounced on in the library-Sat yup two massieeeeeeve volumes of HH stories. Thankfully dd wasn't around. I quickly jumped in with "you've read all those" but alas on closer inspection they bloody well hadn't-how many has that woman written?????? Just when you think you've reached the end another 10 come into circulation. They appear out of the cracks everywhere 2nd hand shops,libraries,book sales. Surely she must be thinking of retirement soon [clutching at straws emoticon]. To add insult to injury they weighed a ton, I had to lug them home in my rucksack.

For the op my son adored Secret Seven/Famous 5,they also love things with facts hence the popularity of The Magic Treehouse/Dinosaur Cove.

Totally agree with Roisin there is nothing for young fluent readers. I had to buy The Magic Treehouse books from Amazon. There are Corgi Pups/Young Corgi,Dinosaur Cove,Jeremy Strong and a few Roald Dahls too and not a lot else.

If you could write quality non Rainbow Fairy type books for young readers with a smattering of pictures and concepts that a 5 or 6 year could easily understand they'd bite your hand off. The parents of children such as these are often left to sort their books out(ie buy in a lot of cases as libraries have a short supply at this level).Schools are a little bemused and generally focus on the children still on scheme.

roisin is absolutely spot on - there are quite enough of the "let's get the boys who'd rather swap Match Attack cards reading" books out there.

My 7 year old is determinedly slogging through the Artemis Fowl books - he gets the gist of it, and it seems to be a matter of pride that he finishes them (mostly because older brother is a fan), but he doesn't understand most of the vocabulary. Loads of it is going straight over his head - but he's had quite enough of Horrid Henry and that sort of thing, so I can see why we've ended up in this mess.

Sorry, should have read - When he is at that stage of reading, I would not buy them.

My DS is only 5, but I would not buy these books for him for many of the reasons already stated above.

For me, it is not just the 'bum' in the title, it is the fact they those bums appear to be 'bare'! It immediately conjures up images of a group of half naked boys. Freaks me out!

So sorry, but I can totally see why your books are not selling.

I've just showed my 7 yo son the cover on amazon and in his opinion they 'look rubbish' and 'the name is stupid'.

Sorry if that is a bit harsh but looking at the other posts on here it seems to be the general consensus.

I know that I wouldn't buy this book for my child and if your target audience are saying that that book looks 'rubbish' 'sounds awful' and 'looks weird' its maybe time to go in a different direction.

Sorry again if this coming across as nasty but you have asked us for our honest opinion.

I don't know why you chose to write for this market, but if you are looking for a hole in the market there is one area that comes up repeatedly on mumsnet.

That is advanced, challenging books for fluent readers, who are very young. As MilaMae says many books are bought by parents or relatives of such children.

If your child learns to read relatively early, it can be hard to find age-appropriate material. They may be capable of reading Harry Potter or Alex Rider, but it doesn't mean that's the best thing for them.

Your new books are aimed at reluctant readers and - whilst that might be laudable - I think it's an over-saturated market at the moment.

Have had a look at website now and people are right - the illustrations are reminiscent of Viz and given the title, I am amazed frankly that it got anywhere near publication.

It also doesn't explain the reasoning behind title...so, so not good. I would ditch this if ds even picked it up in a shop.

(I know this might be harsh but you bypassed the media fee so you deserve honest critique!)

Sorry but the title you mention would make me go because it basically sounds like it would be attractive to people who like children in completely the wrong way.

Sorry. i know it's the stupid kind of name kids think up in real life, we had many such gangs as children, but honestly - they belong in the secret context of an exclusive club, among children, and not leaving the confines of the bedroom/garden shed/ wherever, even to be spoken of to parents. Definitely not as the title of a book. Can you see the difference?

It's way too explicit.

Just looked on Amazon,don't have a problem with the covers but why didn't you call the dog one "The Battle of the Dog Snatchers"? My boys would have been mighty interested due to "battle" "snatchers". I wouldn't have thought twice.

I wouldn't buy it because it looks like its trying to hard. Why are they called the bare bum gang?

I asked my ds and he said the children in the picture looked cross and 'like meanies' (it was the football book) and he didn't like the title because it 'sounded awful'. He is only 6 though and not quite up to speed with toilet humour. When I was showing him on Amazon he saw the Charlie books by Hilary Mckay and asked if we could get those because they 'look really, really good and excellent'. He can't tell me why though. I agree with hassled's ds that the children look like idiots. I wouldn't buy it for my own child partly because the name sounds both rude and trying to hard and partly because I do judge a book by the cover and I def wouldn't buy it as a gift because I wouldn't know if the other parent would find it inappropriate.

I buy a lot of books and I'm an ex-teacher and literacy co-ordinator. I have twin boys 6 who are both free readers so I organise a lot of what they read. I haven't read your books so forgive me if I presuming them to be something they're not.

I have to say I avoid like the plague anything such as you have described-Captain Thunderpants,the Yuk books etc etc. The reason for this is not because I want to shelter them but because I have to live with the aftermath. Horrid Henry is about as much as I can take and he's currently on dangerous ground. My boys have renamed their teddies Mr Kill, were calling each other 'worm' and if I hear the bottom song once more I might just burn their entire Horrid Henry collection.

Books such as these are great if your ds/dd won't read and it's all you can find to entice them but if you have prolific readers like my two who'll read anything there is no need to put yourself through the agony. I'm suspecting most schools wouldn't order them by the crate load for the same reason.

I'm suspecting the people that buy most children's books are people like myself who have prolific readers as enthusiasm breads enthusiasm. I suspect their ds's/dd's read a huge variety too so said parents would also pick alternatives books by preference.

If my sons actively asked for the books I'd buy them(after trying to steer them onto something else)as don't like to 'ban' any books and I'm all for enthusiasm as regards reading but I personally wouldn't go out of my way to buy them. So I'd ditch the title then parents like myself would be none the wiser.

The cover designs are naff and I agree that Bare Bum would put off parent/grandparent and school library buyers. You're the writer, you think of something better .

OK looked on Amazon, The Bare Bum Gang looks ok but the covers of your other books would put me off, they look scary and unsuitable for 7 year olds.

OK, I showed the covers to my 7 year old son and asked if he would choose it if he saw it in a shop. He said no, because the children look like idiots.

Hope that helps .

Bum Hero too homoerotic

Could it be a cover/illustration issue rather than the Bum issue?

The point re grandparents not buying them is a good one - grandparents do buy a lot of children's books, so covers/titles would have to be pitched to be acceptable to them.

It's relatively seldom that I take my kids into Waterstones and say "pick a book" - if I did, my 7 year old would probably spot and want a bum-related book . Grandparents or me on my own, less likely.

I would avoid a Bum book for my 7yo (parents are they buyers at this age normally)

I'm surprised tbh, there seems to be more and more toilet related book titles (IYSWIM). I have 2 DDS aged 12 and 8 and have never heard of your books, I mostly look on Red House/Book people.

DD says change it to The Bum Hero Gang Feel free not to use that

ds2 (10) just came downstairs, so I showed him the cover on Amazon and asked if he would read it.

He said "Hmm... It looks weird"
Me: Weird good or weird bad? Funny weird? Would you pick it up in the library and read it?
Him: Well, it depends what the blurb said. I think I would spend 15 mins looking around in the library, but if I couldn't find anything else, I guess I might read that.

Sorry.

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