Link Press

The goal of Link Press is to bridge the gap between middle grade and young adult fiction that is so necessary in the marketplace but so often forgotten. With the aging up of young adult fiction over the past couple of decades, teen readers are increasingly being left out. Parents, teachers, librarians, and especially readers walk into bookstores and find they are wedged between two sections that are often too young or too old. To complicate matters, young readers tend to “read up.” So, to the shock of parents, their 12-year-olds are stuck reading very adult stories with 17-year-old protagonists. Anyone can tell you, life is very different from the ages of 12 to 17. Therefore, writers need to bridge that gap. But the publishing industry is just as confused as the readers. What do you do with a 13 or 14-year-old protagonist? Sadly, the current answer is nothing. Publishers are reluctant to print those stories. The simple suggestion is to change the age of the protagonist. The result is that the formative, all-important years between middle school and high school are obliterated in fiction just because an age range doesn't fit into a mold. While writers of children's literature should always be encouraged to pen the stories that move them, tweens and teens should be part of that movement. At Link Press, young readers are always the primary focus. As an author with this innovative press, Kelly Swan Taylor is passionate about filling that middle grade-young adult gap and bringing these stories back to the readers. Link Press believes there is an indelible connection between these reading age groups that forms a strong bond for strong storytelling.