I would still love to hear why you read, so if you didn't participate in last week's discussion be sure to click over to it and let me know.
What do you think about New Adult?
We have children books, middle grades or juvenile literature, young adult and adult. Now a new target audience label has been "created" - New Adult. It is meant to be coming of age stories for 20 and 30 somethings. Many of themes are the same as those for older young adult, but with older characters facing more adult situations. According to Wikipedia, the term was first used in 2009 by St. Martin's Press.
I would argue that it isn't really a new target audience, just that more genres are targeting this audience. If you think of most chick-lit novels, they are coming of age stories and the characters are usually in their 20s or early 30s. They were quirky and made light of the stressful situations these new adults were facing - finding jobs, finding love, establishing themselves as adults.
So what do you think about New Adult? Do we need this "new" label? Have you read New Adult fiction? Are authors taking advantage of this "hot" market and mis-marketing their book?
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I love NA. Yes, I have many books pubbed in the category, so I might be biased. LOL. Seriously. When I started writing, I was always told by agents/publishers/fellow writers that my characters were too old for YA but too young for Adult. I never fit anywhere, but I didn't want to change my characters. So, I'm very glad NA is now accepted.
ReplyDeleteI write romance, but I don't write the hard core adult but my romance is still a little too steamy for readers under 16. I finally feel like I fit somewhere. LOL!! :)
I think new adult became popular because they were books that read like YA, in terms of overall feel, but they were about 20ish people and involved steamier romances. While YA is OK with Hunger Games violence, steamy sex scenes are just too much. So, the title filled that niche. As the category has gotten a foothold, I think its expanded beyond just books that have scenes that are too sexy for YA but don't quite fit as Chick Lit. It's growing and developing, and because of that, I think we're seeing sone authors trying to put their book in the category in hopes they can help define the boundaries.
ReplyDeleteI like the new adult category and hope it goes strong.