I didn’t plan to write for kids. My first middle grade novel, Little Beast, began as a book for adults. After a few years it turned into a YA novel, and a few years later, it dropped to middle grade. Since thinking about publishing and marketplace concerns paralyzes me when I’m writing, I didn’t research what agents and publishers were looking for in middle grade. But here are a few things I wish I’d known before I started. First—Middle grade fiction is not written for middle