When is new adult romance not new adult romance?

Pisco Sour said:

Hi

I wrote my debut novel and then sold it to a publisher who classed it as 'new adult'. I'd never heard of this genre before. Their parametres for this specification were like all of the other publisher guidelines and descriptions I've seen since. Over my summer holiday I decided to read other new adult romances to get a feel for the genre. Most of the blurbs seemed to be about the same sort of issues: first serious relationships, angst at university, striking out on your own for the first time, first jobs ...more 18 - 25 year old angst...etc.

So my questions is, if you write romance novels with characters who are between 18 - 25, with none of the above issues, is it still a new adult romance? Or is it just 'adult romance'? On the one hand, the answer seems like 'yes, it's a new adult just because of their age' but it seems to me that there's more to it than age group. The books I looked at are all about (roughly) the same issues. So it also seems like it has to do with the particular problems that these protagonists face, no?

I'm trying to sort this out in my head, as I'm beginning my next romance with a protagonist who is 20 and a hero who's around 25, and from what I've read of new adult, my book only falls into this category because of the age group. So if I were to pitch this to a different publisher, I'm wondering if I should pitch it as new adult, or not.

Sorry so convoluted, any insights welcome!

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I consider new adult anything happening to people 18-25 no matter the circumstances of the plot. But this classification seems to be different for different people. Even the age range changes for some people.... Some say it's 18-25, some say it's 18-23, others say it can be up to 30 if the subjects tackled are New Adult.

New Adult is just a classification, not a genre, so I don't think you should worry about it too much. It's just another way of marketing your novel. Anyway the face of NA is so new that I think it is easily malleable.

I'm so glad you started this discussion, Pisco Sour! I'm new to the idea of NA, as I have just recently started hearing the term, and was really wondering what it was. Is this something that spun out of Young Adult, same issues in an older set of characters? Sounds like that to me

Just within the last few days, agent Maria Vicente tweeted about this subject here. Her opinion is it requires more than age; the tropes are necessary, too. This is one agent's view, and I think there is a hope that the boundaries of NA expand, but right now, the tropes you mention, Pisco, are the ones I've seen associated most often with NA.

Pisco Sour said:

NA romance usually has sex in it though, whereas in most YA that's not allowed. I'm very new to writing, but have been astonished that for some reason many publishers believe the under 18s do not have sexual organs or think sexy thoughts or experience more than chaste kisses. They think these readers cannot possibly cope if their bookie has nookie. But suddenly, at 18, these same readers discover their nethers and then there's no tethers. Bring on the bonking. Same problems, with orgasms. LOL.

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I might suggest that the issue is with age of consent - many countries, states, etc. have rules about how old you have to be to consent to sexual contact. Your publisher(s) need to be concerned about this otherwise it's in a very, VERY dodgy area. Underage sex is a very no-go area for a variety of reasons.

That's why they have to be careful.

YA is a classification, but it has certain requirements. Characters have to be in high school, or at a life stage that corresponds to high school in their culture/world if it's a fantasy or SF. Characters have to be emotionally and mentally transitioning from childhood to adulthood. They have to be in a certain age range, usually 15-18 (for *characters*; reader range for YA goes down to about age 12 in the view of most publishers). There has to be a "coming of age" vibe, a "learning about life" sort of thing.

A book with a 15-year-old main character is not necessarily YA, unless it meets the above criteria. The novel The Lovely Bones has a 14-year-old main character, but is emphatically not YA. It's an adult novel that has a teenage main character.

NA is also a classification with certain requirements. Main characters are transitioning from high school to adulthood. They're experiencing first "true love" as something that might last beyond prom. They might be having their first sexual relationship. They're moving out on their own, away from parents and family, by either going to college or getting a job and their own place. They're still learning how to be adults; they're not completely there yet. Characters are in the 18-25 year old age range.

A book can have an 18-year-old main character and not be New Adult in the same way one can have a 15-year-old main character and not be YA. New Adult has to include the above requirements.

New Adult is still a new designation within the publishing community, though. It's grown out of self-publishing, where the category really took hold, and some publishers and agents aren't really recognizing NA as a "thing" yet. A romance I had released over the summer definitely fits the NA category; the heroes are 22, still getting the hang of living on their own, trying to juggle work with the rock band they're trying to push into the big time, and trying to figure out how being in love with each other is going to work with all the other stuff. But the publisher of that book doesn't *have* a New Adult category. They have adult romance under that imprint, and another imprint that publishes young adult fiction. So my book is considered adult romance even though at another house, it would be NA.

So... long answer there, but Pisco, I would say no, character age alone is not enough for a book to be considered New Adult. Your publisher may--and apparently does--disagree, but in general, I think a book has to meet more of the NA criteria than merely character age in order to actually be NA.

Pisco Sour said:

I'm very new to writing, but have been astonished that for some reason many publishers believe the under 18s do not have sexual organs or think sexy thoughts or experience more than chaste kisses. They think these readers cannot possibly cope if their bookie has nookie. But suddenly, at 18, these same readers discover their nethers and then there's no tethers.

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It's because parents, librarians, and publishers are sensitive to kids "reading up." We all know that under-18s are exposed to various levels of sex, violence, swearing, etc, but fiction must appeal to the "average" under-18 reader, ergo keeping YA fiction a bit chaste for the twelve year old who grabs a book at the bookstore or their library. This is also why New Adult (which began its life as "Mature YA/Upper YA) has the disclaimers for 17+, Mature Readers Only, and so on in their descriptions.
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Pisco Sour said:

I think NA didn't necessarily 'spin out of YA' but it does cover some of the same issues (if the characters are closer to 18 than 25). NA romance usually has sex in it though, whereas in most YA that's not allowed.

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Whoa, I didn't know about this fact. I read some of Simone Elkeles' work when it was in WIP-Land, and her YA stuff has plenty of The Deed in it. So much so, that when the books came out, I didn't buy them for my kids. Yeah, I'm a little old fashioned that way.

This one example told me that YA may not have the same parameters it once did. I think it means my tastes and I are getting old.