Question about New Adult Genre

LDParker · Mar 26, 2014

Hello all,

The novel I am writing is mainly about twenty something females (and presumably would appeal to the 18-32 crowd). Obviously it's not a YA novel so I would most likely consider it New Adult.

The objective of this book is not to create the next 50 Shades of Grey, however. While it does deal with mature themes such as sexuality, I am not intending this book to be primarily about titillation but more about character development and themes, but dealing with twentysomethings. I don't necessarily see it as a thriller either, and because it takes place on a world similar to our own, its not a fantasy or paranormal book.

Perhaps this is my own ignorance about the genre, but a lot of New Adult books seemed to be in the Romance sub-genre. I am trying to fit my book into the right genre so that one day when it is complete I can query the right agents. Are there other popular sub-genres of New Adult outside of Romance?

I should add that my writing is more a labour of love than a business venture and thus if I ended up publishing and selling to only ten people., I would likely still be satisfied. But that being said, I would prefer to be as successful with this novel as possible.

Anyone with insights?

Aerogurl · Mar 26, 2014

I'd complete the novel before thinking of what genre it fits into. After it's done you will have a clear idea of what genre it belongs to.

agergen53 · Mar 26, 2014

I've read FANGIRL and THE ATLAS OF LOVE, both which I consider to be NA. While both of them contained romance, that wasn't their main focus. Ultimately they were about the MC's growth and change. I guess I'd call them 'Contemporary NA' but that's just my opinion. Check them out to get a better feel for what's out there.

BrightSera · Mar 26, 2014

New Adult isn't a genre.

Sage · Mar 26, 2014

Right now, NA does seem to be focused on romance. NA does better in e-publishing, which romance also does well in, so this may be a chicken-egg kind of thing. Over in YA (where we talk about NA quite a bit because there is no NA forum), we've discussed whether non-romance-focused books can make it NA. Right now they're a tough sell, but it could just take one to break for it to become more common.

NRoach · Mar 26, 2014

BrightSera said:
New Adult isn't a genre.

To be honest, I'd say this about YA too. They're little more than checkboxes for marketing, generally meaningless in other contexts. Everything is read by anyone, anyway; probably the only genres that see very little of demographics other than the intended are Erotica and Children's books.

So don't worry about it until it's done.

Sage · Mar 26, 2014

They're not genres, but they are marketing categories, and if you want to write within one, you should know that while writing or at least during revision because, just like with genres, there are expectations the books should meet.

OTOH, the problem with NA is that it's so new that by the time you finish your book, it could really have completely different expectations. Once upon a time, all us YA writers who wanted to write college students for all genres thought that NA was going to give us the opportunity. But it's transformed into being mostly romance. Who knows what it will actually be next year?

jjdebenedictis · Mar 26, 2014

NRoach said:
To be honest, I'd say this about YA too. They're little more than checkboxes for marketing, generally meaningless in other contexts.

Yes, I think YA (and NA) are categories, not genres. A category can contain books of almost any genre.

And yes again -- generally, all these labels are just funnels to take people to the right bookshelf in the store whereupon they may find the sorts of books they enjoy.

cmi0616 · Mar 27, 2014

Aerogurl said:
I'd complete the novel before thinking of what genre it fits into. After it's done you will have a clear idea of what genre it belongs to.

This. Although people on the forums have strongly disagreed with me on this point, so I guess take it with a grain of salt.

Just because your characters are "new adults" doesn't mean you're writing new adult fiction anyway. Eugenides published a novel about college grads just a few years ago, didn't he? And I believe David Foster Wallace's first novel had a college student as the main character. And yet, I don't think either of those books would be categorized as "new adult." They certainly weren't marketed as such. So you see how flimsy a foundation genre idyls actually provide for novelists.

Just write the best novel you can. Research markets, query agents, etc. afterwards.

Night_Writer · Mar 27, 2014

InitiaNova said:
The novel I am writing is mainly about twenty something females (and presumably would appeal to the 18-32 crowd). Obviously it's not a YA novel so I would most likely consider it New Adult.

The objective of this book is not to create the next 50 Shades of Grey, however. While it does deal with mature themes such as sexuality, I am not intending this book to be primarily about titillation but more about character development and themes, but dealing with twentysomethings. I don't necessarily see it as a thriller either, and because it takes place on a world similar to our own, its not a fantasy or paranormal book.

Perhaps this is my own ignorance about the genre, but a lot of New Adult books seemed to be in the Romance sub-genre. I am trying to fit my book into the right genre so that one day when it is complete I can query the right agents. Are there other popular sub-genres of New Adult outside of Romance?

I don't think this is New Adult at all. If the target audience is people 18-32, that's just regular Adult fiction. If the intended audience was 18-22, then I'd say New Adult. But up to 32? People that age have children, jobs, mortgages, stock options, IRA accounts, and car payments. That's pretty adult.

I say call it adult fiction, in terms of its category. Genre sounds like Contemporary.

LDParker · Mar 28, 2014

Thanks for the feedback, all very helpful.

Epiphany · Apr 12, 2014

It really depends on the style and tone I think of the book. NA tends to read a lot more like YA with content geared toward people in their twenties.

There is currently a blip within the market for NA that isn't romance centered. In fact, I'm published with a big five house for my NA speculative thriller series. BUT who knows if the category will expand to continue to allow these books to be published. It depends on if people buy what's out there or not. The market determines everything.

Cel_Fleur · Apr 14, 2014

Epiphany said:
I'm published with a big five house for my NA speculative thriller series. BUT who knows if the category will expand to continue to allow these books to be published.

That's true. An agent I follow on Twitter recently tweeted that there's no such thing as NA Sci Fi-Fantasy, since general sf/f tends to include teenaged and NA-aged characters anyway. I remember she also remarked that it could one day become a proper classification, but, at the moment, it's very hard to market and sell.

Dave Veri · Apr 14, 2014

Make your own genre

Write a book so thrilling, it creates its own genre. It's a fine thing to aim high. Go for something different, something only you could create. Who wouldn't want to read such a book? Have the newbies say, "I want to write a book like InitiaNova."

Epiphany · Apr 14, 2014

Cel_Fleur said:
That's true. An agent I follow on Twitter recently tweeted that there's no such thing as NA Sci Fi-Fantasy, since general sf/f tends to include teenaged and NA-aged characters anyway. I remember she also remarked that it could one day become a proper classification, but, at the moment, it's very hard to market and sell.

I had an agent tweet the same thing to me after I got my deal. I was like "Exsqueeze me? Then how does my book exist and why is Penguin marketing it as NA?"

It doesn't seem like anyone is on the same page.

Cel_Fleur · Apr 15, 2014

Guh, I know. That's one thing I hate about finding myself naturally gravitating towards the NA category: it's almost 'unstable' at the moment because agents, publishers and writers are all looking at it with differing opinions.

Torgo · Apr 15, 2014

Cel_Fleur said:
Guh, I know. That's one thing I hate about finding myself naturally gravitating towards the NA category: it's almost 'unstable' at the moment because agents, publishers and writers are all looking at it with differing opinions.

I don't think it's really a thing until you see it printed on the top of a bookshelf in Waterstones.

Epiphany · Apr 16, 2014

They have a NA category in several major bookstores, but it's all college contemporary romance.

Cel_Fleur · Apr 18, 2014

Bloomsbury will publish Sarah J Maas' NA Fantasy series in 2015, but she's already proven herself as a Fantasy author, so she seems to be one of the lucky exceptions to the rule.

I hope it's not going to be that bookshops keep to NA contemp. Romance and online retailers end up being the ones trying their hardest to push out the non-contemp. NA. Has anyone here been keeping up with the recent pitch contest NestPitch? I think there were six or so pitches that got through listed as NA and only one was the typical virgin-rich-girl-meets-recovering-addict-bad-boy. One could take that as a hopeful sign. Maybe.

Question about New Adult Genre

LDParker

Aerogurl

agergen53

BrightSera

Neurotic Supernova

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

NRoach

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

jjdebenedictis

is watching you via her avatar

cmi0616

Night_Writer

It's all symbolic.

LDParker

Epiphany

Don't kill the bar, Dude.

Cel_Fleur

Braving the query mountains

Dave Veri

Epiphany

Don't kill the bar, Dude.

Cel_Fleur

Braving the query mountains

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

Epiphany

Don't kill the bar, Dude.

Cel_Fleur

Braving the query mountains