Young author capitalizes on Internet generation

Kaleb Nation fits squarely into the Internet generation. The young writer is all about tweets and posts and blogging. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

Nation, who penned the Bran Hambric series, "The Farfield Curse" and "The Specter Key," is connecting with readers on a different level than most authors, but for him, it's the most natural progression.

Twitter, blogging and YouTube are similar in a lot of ways to an old-school book club newsletter, Nation says. But instead of corresponding with few fans through letters, Nation can reach tens of thousands in a few minutes.

Kids today are so connected through social media, Nation said. It's easy to respond to 200 tweets. And social media allows fans to gain a sense of an author's personality.

"I'm so close to (readers') ages that I'm not creepy, you know, not an old creepy author," he said. "I can almost be their pseudo friend."

Just by being online, Nation is marketing his work, and he believes most of the people who have discovered his books, have discovered them on the Web.

Nation, who also creates and produces videos for YouTube, was in the middle of two book tours — that of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl ("Beautiful Darkness") and his own — when he spoke with the Deseret News from his hotel room in Denver.

In addition to signing his own books, Nation was livestreaming, filming and interviewing Garcia and Stohl on many of their stops.

While Nation is utilizing the Internet in ways many authors have never considered, it's his own personal story that makes him stand out.

Nation began writing when he was 9 years old. Not because he wanted to, but because his mom made him. As a homeschooler, Nation was required to produce one page of creative writing each week. After a while of writing these kind of stories, Nation found he actually liked it. Soon, he said, instead of being forced to write, there were rules limiting the amount of writing time.

"It was a giant flip from hating it to taking over my whole life," Nation said.

It was so much of a flip that before he had even reached his teens, Nation was calling the top book editors in New York City, trying to pitch stories. Those calls almost invariably ended with being transferred to security, but Nation was not deterred.