Does anyone out there notice a certain distain for NA books?

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snowpea

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I've been writing/reading NA type books for years, before they were called NA. YA and NA are my favorite genres to write for, too. But I notice that a lot of people criticize the new NA genre. I find it similar to the criticism that Romance Novels get. It's sad, because let people read what they like, you know? Does anyone else notice this criticism? What do you think of it?
 

Fruitbat

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I have noticed criticism of just about every genre and also every length/form. I haven't noticed it about NA but I'm sure if I read or wrote much of it I'd become aware of it and yes, it would annoy me, too!
 

shadowwalker

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I get confused as to either being called a genre versus a marketing tool - mainly because there are genres within the age groups, yes? But I do admit to shaking my head a bit at the term/designation "NA" - what's next? "OP" (Old People) for those over 60/70/80? But then I grew up with the divisions being Children, Teens, Adult - so pay no attention to me. ;)
 

snowpea

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But I do admit to shaking my head a bit at the term/designation "NA" - what's next? "OP" (Old People) for those over 60/70/80?

haha! I dunno, I asked a publisher once about fiction directed toward college-age students, and they told me that it was a dead market (basically). I'm excited about the NA designation because it gives me a way to market my writing so that people know what they're getting into.
 

Fruitbat

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I love to read stories about people in my age group. It would be great if there was a way to easily sort them out.
 

Wilde_at_heart

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It could be because there's a lot of rather badly-written or poorly-edited self-published NA out there that is dragging everything else down. I don't know, really, though that's the first I've ever heard about it being a 'dead' category.
 

LJD

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I find it similar to the criticism that Romance Novels get.

Not surprising, since most of the stuff sold as New Adult appears to be romance at the moment. (Within the romance community, people aren't criticizing the existence of NA overall so much as complaining about a certain...sameness in many of the books categorized as NA. Personally I don't read a lot of NA--as in, I've read one book--because so many of them seem to be angsty-traumatic-pasts and it's not really my thing.)
 

LJD

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I don't know, really, though that's the first I've ever heard about it being a 'dead' category.

I assumed the publisher snowpea was talking about this said this before NA became popular (which was pretty recent)?
 

snowpea

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I assumed the publisher snowpea was talking about this said this before NA became popular (which was pretty recent)?
This was around 2008/2009 at a conference.
 

snowpea

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Not surprising, since most of the stuff sold as New Adult appears to be romance at the moment. (Within the romance community, people aren't criticizing the existence of NA overall so much as complaining about a certain...sameness in many of the books categorized as NA. Personally I don't read a lot of NA--as in, I've read one book--because so many of them seem to be angsty-traumatic-pasts and it's not really my thing.)

I can see that. I don't see a lot of NA fiction that involves college-age people that aren't basically college romance books. Although what I'm working on right now is not a romance. I dunno if that even classifies it as NA, since so many of it IS basically romance.
 

KTC

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You can hear haters talking about anything these days. Thank you, interwebz. I enjoy NA. My agent sort of specializes in it. I've been thinking I've trying my hand at it, actually. I don't listen to haters hatin'. With reading, I think readers should read what they want to read and not be ashamed about their choices. Don't listen to negativity.
 

elinor

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Not sure. I know I ran into the brick wall that apparently most people consider NA to be a subgenre of Romance, rather than its own category. Hoping this will change eventually.
 

lunasspecto

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I suspect that some of the disdain for new adult literature might be linked to a more general disdain for "emerging adults" as a social category. A recent movement in American academic psychology attempted to establish emerging adulthood as a developmental stage. Champions of this theoretical direction cited a lot of anecdotal evidence concerning college-age people they worked with whose concerns about leaving the academic world, securing financial independence for themselves, &c. seemed to preclude the personal crises that are associated with Erik Erikson's popular models of adolescence and young adulthood -- identity formation and discovering intimacy. People in academic psychology wouldn't say this publicly in so many words, but I feel that some of the opposition to the concept of emerging adulthood is rooted in the idea that "emerging adults" are actually just spoiled children unready for the real world. Anyway, my understanding is that emerging adulthood has failed to gain acceptance in mainstream models of development because empirical research has not supported the existence of this stage among American college students outside particular social strata. Ultimately I think emerging adult issues are real and deserving of literary exploration, but are probably better explained sociologically than psychologically.
 
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Shadow_Ferret

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I wonder if emerging adult has to do with the fact that many cultures has a "right of passage" to becoming an adult, some sort of cultural stepping stone that signifies the transition from child to adult. Modern America lacks that.

But its nice to know that this phenomenon has a name. I guess I've been an emerging adult for 40 years.
 

juniper

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When I was growing up, if I recall rightly, there were just two types of books: Children and Adult and we seemed to do really well with that. :D

Yeah, I grew up with that too. I think "The Outsiders" was the first book I read that was aimed at teenagers - today's YA. It came out way before I was in that age group - but was still quite popular when I was about 15.

After the children's books, we just went on to reading adult lit. Didn't understand all of it - I was reading Updike, Cheever, Mitford, etc and not grasping all the sociological/psychological aspects - but that's what was available.

I wonder if NA would have been a helpful transition between those groups? :Shrug:

And I agree with lunasspecto - interesting development among today's generations - I have friends who are struggling with their NA children and how to help them move onto "full" adulthood. But other friends have children who've moved through the traditional channels - high school, college, live independently - successfully, so it's not a universal phenomenon.
 
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JustSarah

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Well I'm currently reading a just dandy NA book. I usually don't take critics of YA or NA very seriously.

I personally love NA, and want to see more of it. I was initially apprehensive about any "target audience" in general, as to me it's just books. There are good books and bad books.
 
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Littlebit66

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I mainly heard of YA fiction but I'm glad to hear that there's also NA fiction. This morning I decided to scrap the plot I was working on for a story that begins when the characters are 20 and ends when they're 25. Plus there's no villains, no dystopian societies, no vampires so I was wondering where I could fit this in.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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I'm having some issues with this, I guess. What is the difference between YA and NA. Is YA younger or older than NA? Maybe New Adult is pre-teen (thus, new to adulthood, just starting out) and Young Adult would be teenagers. Then what? TA for Transitioning Adult, one who moved from their teens to their early 20s? Then FA, for Full Adult, which would be 30s and 40s? Then MA, for Middle Aged Adult, those in their 50s. Then SA, for Senior Adult as they move into their 60s. Then EA, for Elderly Adult, which would be 70s and beyond?


;)
 

Ken

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Poetry is also disdained according to posts/threads I've read on AW. So is genre fiction, and literary fiction, and erotica, etc. It seems as if every genre in existence is disdained. Sad state of affairs to be sure.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I don't hate "NA" novels or writers. "NA" was a clever ploy by publishers, but there is nothing whatsoever new about the books, or about most of the readers. It's just more of the same with a new designation, a typical marketing ploy that usually works well for a relatively short time, and then dies off.

I do know the actual "new adults" in my family find the designation silly, and even somewhat insulting.
 

lunasspecto

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I do know the actual "new adults" in my family find the designation silly, and even somewhat insulting.
As someone in the target demographic, I worry a little that categorizing novels about us that way is a means of dismissing the stories' merit, much as the terms chick lit andchick flick are sometimes abused to dismiss stories that focus more or less exclusively on women. Though I think the latter practice is much more egregious.
 

Laer Carroll

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New Adult is just a fairly new marketing label for a kind of story that's been around forever.

Some of the disdain (IF there even is any) may be from people who dislike such a nakedly silly marketing effort, not because they disdain those kind of stories.
 
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