Publishers Weekly on the future of YA
Posted: October 4th, 2011, 12:10 pm
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-t ... f-age.html
Highlights (all wording is from the article linked above):
Highlights (all wording is from the article linked above):
- Teen titles dominate publishers’ fall lists, and those books overwhelmingly feature menacing creatures, forbidden romances, and apocalyptic versions of this and future Earth.
- Suzanne Collins, author: "This is a population of young people who don’t remember a time when the country was not at war."
- Alessandra Balzer, HarperCollins VP: "There are no more taboos; YA covers every category."
- Barry Goldblatt, agent: "In spite of what is said about reading in our country, we have an audience that is constantly hungry for content."
- Jennifer Laughran, agent: "Since bookstores moved the teen section away from the kids’ department, YA books lost the stigma that they were somehow inferior."
- Ginger Clark, agent: "Almost all the editors I saw said they are not buying new paranormal. There was some agreement that readers might not yet have paranormal fatigue, but a lot of editors do."
- The “next big thing” has already arrived—dystopias.
- Rosemary Stimola, agent: "I have been to the dystopian mountaintop, and if the agent who sold The Hunger Games is going to advocate for another dystopia, it’s going to have to be completely special."
- Ginger Clark, agent, has high hopes for a “straight-up science fiction” series... and a historical novel about two girls working in Britain’s Royal Air Force during WWII.