New Adult genre?

Status
Not open for further replies.

CrystalCierlak

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 17, 2012
Messages
178
Reaction score
8
Location
California
Website
www.crystalcierlak.com
I figured this would be the best forum to put my thread in. I'm still new so if any moderator feels this would be best suited for another forum, please be my guest to move it.

I'm curious to know more about the "New Adult" genre. To be honest this is a genre that is new to me and I believe my WIP fits my understanding of what New Adult is. If my characters were ten years younger (give or take) the story would likely be considered YA, but I'm trying to write for readers my own age (I'm 29) who like some elements of YA but prefer a story that is a bit more mature with characters who are older and have a bit more life experience.

Does this sound like what the general definition of New Adult is?
 

amschilling

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2012
Messages
1,045
Reaction score
151
Location
In my head.
Website
www.amschilling.com
From what I've heard, a lot of agents don't even recognize New Adult as an actual genre. So I have a feeling it's going to be difficult to determine exactly what it's supposed to be. My understanding, though, it that it's based more on college aged MCs? 29 is pretty solid into "adult," so mid to late twenties for the MCs probably wouldn't qualify.
 

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
4,810
Reaction score
413
Location
The sovereign state of Baja Arizona
By the time I was 18, I was reading the same books my father read. It looks like an attempt to market to an age range (18-25) that already has the ability to find and read anything they want. In fact, a lot of 'adult' books seem to be targeted at this age range, a time when people are choosing mates, choosing careers, and putting down roots (or not).

A bas les genre-splitteurs!
 

lagdonk

Registered
Joined
Jun 19, 2011
Messages
11
Reaction score
5
Yea, 29 is firmly adult. And if there's a YA voice to it I would be concerned.

"But Jonathan from Marketing totally punched my shoulder before the 10:15 and I told my boss, Rachel, and she said it means he likes likes me!"
 

Sage

Currently titleless
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
64,562
Reaction score
22,368
Age
43
Location
Cheering you all on!
Thank you. Believe it or not I did search for that topic and didn't find it. Guess it's time to clean my glasses.
Yeah, "New" is too short for the search engine to find. The Google search at the bottom of the page is better for searching sometimes.

Is this what's considered "upper" YA. I've seen that term bandied about.

tri
Nope. That is for older teens but still firmly in YA. New Adult is not being marketed as YA at all.
 

jjdebenedictis

is watching you via her avatar
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
7,063
Reaction score
1,642
I think New Adult is supposed to appeal to those who were voraciously ripping through Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games just a few years ago, i.e. New Adult exists as a term because the publishing industry said, "Hey--we need to hang on to those readers. They were lucrative."

Then again, maybe it came about because some YA books were getting very, ahem, grown up (i.e. smexy, smexy, ooh la la), and this meant they no longer appealed as strongly to the original target demographic. Thus, agents and editors had a glut of good books, written for young people, that weren't resonating with the traditional market for such books.
 

Debbie V

Mentoring Myself and Others
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
3,138
Reaction score
290
Location
New York
A show like Felicity might qualify as New Adult. The genre is about finding your way into the adult world from the teen high school world. You're over 18, can vote, serve in the military, and drink in some states; but you still have no clue about the real world of jobs, marriage, and life on your own. You are managing your own money for the first time. This is what characterizes the college years, but not every new adult goes to college. I'd guess the age group covers from high school graduation until 25, no older. This is the target sweet 18-25 year old market for movies.
 

Phaeal

Whatever I did, I didn't do it.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
9,232
Reaction score
1,897
Location
Providence, RI
A bas les genre-splitteurs!

I agree. Though I'd say category or age-market splitters.

As a child, I read everything from Winnie the Pooh to my mother's BOMC picks.

As an adult, I read everything from middle grade up, with an occasional well-wrought picture book thrown in there as a garnish. Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games all have huge numbers of adult fans. I have little doubt there are legions of teens and tweens now reading 50 Shades of Grey and hoping adults don't really behave like that (the niece of a friend of mine says she's now afraid to look in Mom's medicine cabinet lest she come across some buttplugs.)

Readers are nowhere near as sensitive to age-barriers as marketers seem to think they are. I don't see the need for new speedbumps on the age spectrum. You got some 20-25 year old characters? Shove 'em down to YA if the book has a less mature feel, up to Adult if it has a more mature feel.
 

jeffo20

Tyrant King
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Messages
1,747
Reaction score
176
Location
Central New York
Website
doubtingwriter.blogspot.com
Actually the term was invented by St. Martin press.
I stand corrected. Thanks!


I agree. Though I'd say category or age-market splitters.

As a child, I read everything from Winnie the Pooh to my mother's BOMC picks.

As an adult, I read everything from middle grade up, with an occasional well-wrought picture book thrown in there as a garnish.

Readers are nowhere near as sensitive to age-barriers as marketers seem to think they are. I don't see the need for new speedbumps on the age spectrum. You got some 20-25 year old characters? Shove 'em down to YA if the book has a less mature feel, up to Adult if it has a more mature feel.
I tend to agree with you on this. I feel like this world is getting increasingly compartmentalized, and I don't know that this is a good thing (this is not a knock on NA so much as it's a knock on over-compartmentalization in general). Do people ages 20-25 wander around the bookstores saying, "There's nothing here for me?" Do they read jacket copy describing a book's MC as a middle-aged man and say, "eh, it sounds great, but this guy is too old" and stick it back on the shelf? I don't toss aside books just because the MC is an octogenarian or a nineteen year-old, but I'm not every reader.
 

Miss Plum

Sockpuppet
Banned
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
1,570
Reaction score
187
I don't toss aside books just because the MC is an octogenarian or a nineteen year-old, but I'm not every reader.
Apparently there are readers who shop that way, though! It's why I've figured my book isn't YA, but rather Literary Fiction or General Fiction that just happens to have teenaged MCs. I can't imagine that people who cruise into the YA section of a bookstore would ever consider my book the thing they were looking for.

Marketing wins again.
 

Lady Ice

Makes useful distinctions
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
4,776
Reaction score
417
Chick lit has a lighter, more YA tone. 29 is definitely not New Adult. Chick lit is probably the closest thing to New Adult as the characters normally face the problems an 18-year-old to 21-year-old faces: moving out of the family home, getting a steady job, worrying about money.
 

CrystalCierlak

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 17, 2012
Messages
178
Reaction score
8
Location
California
Website
www.crystalcierlak.com
A show like Felicity might qualify as New Adult. The genre is about finding your way into the adult world from the teen high school world. You're over 18, can vote, serve in the military, and drink in some states; but you still have no clue about the real world of jobs, marriage, and life on your own. You are managing your own money for the first time. This is what characterizes the college years, but not every new adult goes to college. I'd guess the age group covers from high school graduation until 25, no older. This is the target sweet 18-25 year old market for movies.

I feel like a lot of this covers me personally. It took me a long time to get to university and I didn't graduate with my BA until 2009 when I was 26. And as is now normal for the Millennial generation, I lived at home with my family until very recently - last September, in fact.

In my mind, New Adult accounts for the Millennial age range, which I'm still (although just barely) "qualified" for. There are adult themes in my WIP but nothing like paying the mortgage and having kids. It's a later-in-life coming of age, I suppose.

My work is sci-fi/fantasy/romance though. It's not anything like Chick Lit. I suppose I'll have to do some further thinking on this. I don't want to miss any opportunities to market it properly.
 

CrystalCierlak

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 17, 2012
Messages
178
Reaction score
8
Location
California
Website
www.crystalcierlak.com

pgermanos

Prima Donna Girl
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 29, 2012
Messages
325
Reaction score
8
Location
East Coast
Since my protagonist is 20 years old and she's dealing with the "growing up" part of life, should I mention in my query that it's a NA novel or should I just avoid that since it's not a really known genre yet?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.