Today’s guest for a special interview is Elle Cosimano, whose debut thriller NEARLY GONE was a 2015 Edgar Award Finalist, and winner of the ITW 2015 International Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel. Her novel HOLDING SMOKE was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award and the International Thriller Award. Her novels have appeared on several statewide school and library reading lists.
Elle’s next release is an adult mystery, titled Finlay Donovan is Killing It.
You moved from a career as a YA author into the realm of adult fiction. Did you find a new method of writing, or did your process not change along with the audience?
I think there’s a common misconception that books written for teen audiences are vastly different from books written for adults. In my experience, and in my books, I don’t find this to be true. Whether I’m writing about young adults or mothers of young adults, my process of exploring their character is the same; I ask all the same questions of them—who are you now? Who are you becoming? What’s standing in your way? What are you afraid of? What do you yearn for? What’s at stake if you fail? None of these questions feel age-dependent to me. The only difference is the lens of life experience through which these questions are answered. My job is to tell that character’s story as authentically as possible, in a voice that feels true to them. The process of discovering that voice and telling that story, for me, is very much the same.
How about marketing and promotion? Did you have to re-think how you reach readers across platforms? Which ones do you find most useful for connecting with teens, and which ones are a better fit for adult readers?
This is a great question, and one I’m still wrestling with, because my experience marketing my books for adults is still so new. I am not a big fan of Twitter for promotion; I don’t spend much time there. I find most of my YA readers are engaging with me on Instagram, and I love it! Bookstagrammers are creative, talented, and enthusiastic, and their passion for authors and fandoms is awe-inspiring. The more time I spend on IG, the more I feel at home there, and the more connected I feel with my readers. I’ll be very curious to see if my experience with my adult readers is the same as we get closer to the release date. As for Facebook, this seems to be where most of my friends and family keep up with my bookish news. I don’t find it as effective for outreach, since posts on business pages don’t get much exposure. Mostly, I use Facebook as a time capsule to archive anything related to my books and to post updates for those who keep close tabs on my bookish news.
Beyond social media, I’m excited to get back to writing essays and op eds. I’ve written for Huff Po and TIME, but I don’t think the subscribers to those outlets necessarily translated to YA readers. Now that I’m writing about an adult heroine—a single mom of two young kids who’s struggling to balance her career and parenting while embroiled in a murder investigation—I feel like those parenting and career essays might find an audience with the same readers who would potentially enjoy my books. It feels like a great way to connect my own voice as a working mom with women who might share some common ground with me and the characters in my stories.
Do you think that your YA audience will crossover to your adult titles, or are you looking to reach a whole new age group?
I hope so! It’s hard to believe it’s been almost seven years since Nearly Gone, my first mystery for young adults, was published. The teens who fell in love with Nearly are now graduating from college and becoming established in their adult lives. Occasionally, I’ll hear from one of those teen readers, and it blows my mind that they’re all grown up! Recently, I received an incredibly moving email from a woman who had sent me a fan letter years ago, when Nearly first came out. She had been in her last years of high school back then, and she had been fascinated by the forensic and crime elements of the books. Now, she tells me she’s an intern at a crime lab, embarking on a career in forensic science—a career she pursued after those books kindled a curiosity in her. I think readers who enjoyed my mysteries as mature teens will find a lot of similarities in my mysteries for adults. And I hope they love them just as much.
What about branding? Do you keep your adult brand distinct from your teen appropriate titles? Or is there enough similarity for you to apply the same techniques?
I haven’t really felt compelled to separate my brands, maybe because I’ve never really felt like I actually *have* a brand. All of my books are so different from each other. I’ve written contemporary mysteries, paranormal horrors, romantic fantasies/urban fantasies, and now dark comedies. The one tie that binds them together is that they’re all thrillers of one flavor or another, so maybe you could say that Thrillers are my brand. Right now, I’m promoting them interchangeably. I don’t know that this is the most effective way, or the way my publishers would encourage me to market them. But for now, it feels right. My books for adults, content-wise, aren’t vastly different from my books for teens. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that there are more F-bombs, intense violence, and intimacy in my YA books than in my adult series. For me, these choices don’t take age into consideration so much as voice and authenticity of character. And I like to think that my YA books offer as much, if not more, thematic meat and deep themes to chew on.