When I heard that the publisher St. Matin's Press was professing a new young adult sub category, called New Adult (or post-adolesent) and was looking for submissions, I got excited...I mean real excited.
Let me explain why. Their criteria for New Adult would be a protagonist 18 years of age or older who deals with the issues spanning that age range (ya know, NOT high school or adolescence, but young adulthood).
Why is this exciting to me? Because I have been struggling with my protagonist's age as well as the age of his love interest from my DON'T TELL A SOUL novel. They deal with issues post high school (really sans H.S. ) and I had the feeling they somehow didn't quite fit into the perfect YA category.
In fact, this past week I had just this kind of discussion with my writer's critique group.
I have even been playing around with a copy of my WIP to see if making my protag a younger age would work.
The new book I'm working on (tenatively titled HANDS TOUCH or some such variation) is about fifteen year old protagonist in high school, so he would fit the YA criteria fine.
But I've always felt like there was something missing b/w the young adult and adult categories. For example, when Bella graduates from HS in the Twilight Series, is she still considered YA/Teen or this new category, New Adult? Regardless, many adults as well as teens read and loved the series. So it's only a matter of semantics...
I hope this new category catches fire!
Click HERE to read the article from St. Martin's Press and to enter their submission CONTEST.
I am curious to hear what fellow writers think about this new sub-genre.
AND whether the age of the protagonist matters to you avid readers out there.
8 comments:
This is interesting. As a reader, it doesn't matter as long as it's a good story, but as a writer I cna see the challenge.
Funny because reading the entire Twilight series, I never gave it one thought that it fell in any category. I just knew I was sucked in.
I think the new adult idea is great. For me, regardless of the age of the protagonist, it's the authenticity that separates the YA from the adult. Authenticity of the teen characters, I mean. YA pulls it off in a way the adult market currently hasn't. This hybrid genre could be a perfect blend of two worlds.
Read what you posted at my blog and had to stop by. Tell me more about your writing! Though I've only been working with Michelle a few weeks, I have plenty to gush about, if you want a bit of feedback. carolinestarr at yahoo dot com.
I have to disagree with Harmony. The first Twilight book felt very teen to me. I think the story and the writing progressed throughout the series and the ages transcended with the good character building she did.
how cool! i hope that it takes fire and that you go along for the fun!! i can't wait to hear more about your story!
I love that there are publishers trying to build lists for this demographic. I read so much in my twenties and it would have been great to have a category that really catered to my interests. Are you going to submit your MS??? EEk, I hope so!
Thanks for the head's up on this new genre! :) It sounds like it is much-needed. I kind of struggled with this when I graduated high school. It's like I went straight from YA to chick lit. Haha.
I am a reader and closet writer so these never really matter to me. What's important is the story and I'm sure yours is awesome. Cannot wait to read more about it. :)
-meream
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