“Well-established literary authors will need to step it up. Let's stop there. I'm going to offend some of the people I know.”
Kojima defended the young adult mystery wave (Holly Jackson, Alice Feeney, The Maid), saying young adult novels are great and that there are many women writing them. He said what sells today is books that are easy to understand, interesting, and that tickle your fancy. He added that it is possible to write an outstanding book using difficult words and that this is fine for books, but it is no longer the trend. He observed that the number-one sellers today are young adult novels and digital books and that his generation is old and might be expected not to like them, but that is not the case because they are very well written. He concluded that well-established literary authors will need to step it up, then stopped because he would offend people he knows.
“Young adult novels are great. […] Books that are popular nowadays are easy to understand, interesting, and tickles your fancy. […] These days, young adult novels and digital books take the number one prize, and my generation is old, so you'd think we wouldn't like books like that. But that's not the case. It's really well written.”