YA + Adult = "New Adult?"

News, trends, and the future of publishing
Post Reply
User avatar
BransfordGroupie
Posts: 98
Joined: December 6th, 2009, 6:10 pm
Location: Australia
Contact:

YA + Adult = "New Adult?"

Post by BransfordGroupie » December 8th, 2009, 3:28 pm

Nathan,

Came across a blog by Adrienne Kress http://ididntchoosethis.blogspot.com/ addressing the "crossover" from YA to Adult issue of shelving and such. Do you see this actually happening? Could it open up the market for those hard-to-place projects that may not have been picked simply because they didn't fit into a single category?
So several weeks ago St. Martin's Press ran a contest looking for what they termed "New Adult". This is what they said they were looking for:

"We are actively looking for great, new, cutting edge fiction with protagonists who are slightly older than YA and can appeal to an adult audience. Since twenty-somethings are devouring YA, St. Martin’s Press is seeking fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult—a sort of an “older YA” or “new adult.”"

Basically the genre has been invented by St. Martin's because of the obvious crossover appeal we've been seeing with such books as Twilight, and heck, even Harry Potter
.
Image
REVELATION: The Book of Angel - First draft complete :-)
Facebook

jnduncan
Posts: 15
Joined: December 7th, 2009, 1:08 pm
Contact:

Re: YA + Adult = "New Adult?"

Post by jnduncan » December 17th, 2009, 5:46 pm

The problem I see with this is the general slide of all categories into a general fiction, which we already have. I don't think stores could successfully shelve books by the age of the protagonist. It would make it too hard to find things, as I think that categorization would be rather huge. I don't like searching through the general fiction section as it is because it is too difficult to find what I'm interested in. I like the idea of lumping types of books under one umbrella though. For instance, I'd prefer that stores put all mysteries, thrillers, and suspense type books into one section, even the more literary types. I'd like everything with a strong romantic element in one area. Thing is you get crossover almost no matter how you slice up the pie. Bookstores really don't like having to put books in more than one place. One alternative I think might be interesting is to see stores shelve by publisher or imprint. In the days of yore, apparently this is how books used to be shelved. I'd like to see publisher branding. The various imprints generally publish similar types of books. It would give different sorts of options for marketing and promoting. I don't know that something like this needs to happen necessarily, but I think it's interesting food for thought.

User avatar
Nathan Bransford
Posts: 1552
Joined: December 4th, 2009, 11:17 pm
Location: Pasadena, CA
Contact:

Re: YA + Adult = "New Adult?"

Post by Nathan Bransford » December 17th, 2009, 5:53 pm

BransfordGroupie wrote:Nathan,

Came across a blog by Adrienne Kress http://ididntchoosethis.blogspot.com/ addressing the "crossover" from YA to Adult issue of shelving and such. Do you see this actually happening? Could it open up the market for those hard-to-place projects that may not have been picked simply because they didn't fit into a single category?
Yeah, I was actually also asked about this in the Ask Nathan thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4&p=425&hilit=in+touch+with#p425

I'll be interested to see how this works. By reputation 18-29 year olds aren't known for being voracious readers, but if there's anyone who knows how to reach this market it's Dan Weiss. I'm looking forward to seeing how the venture goes.

jnduncan
Posts: 15
Joined: December 7th, 2009, 1:08 pm
Contact:

Re: YA + Adult = "New Adult?"

Post by jnduncan » December 17th, 2009, 7:12 pm

Kind of wonder what the thinking is to attempt to appeal to such a narrow age group. One would think they would be wanting to find stories that the teens will read up to, as well as the older ones reading down to. You know, like Harry Potter goes to Wizard College.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Majestic-12 [Bot] and 5 guests