Pick a genre, any genre!

What do you want it to be? I mean - when you got the rejects, which ones disappointed you more, the ones that said it wasn't YA or the ones that said it was too vanilla? What excites you more, the idea of teening it up or the idea of darkening it?

Your username has me lolling, btw =D

It depends which genre you are more interested in writing for.

Also which revision will keep the original idea of the story. Can the violence be reduced for YA and keep the original intensity of the story? Will ramping up the violence and sex be in keeping with the story or will they read as unnecessary additions?

I've always been advised to write the story you want, then find a market that suits it.

Harry Potter was marketed with two different covers. A children's version, and an adult's version; they had the same text.

What genre did you set out to write?

I have to admit to being a little confused, I have several deaths in my work, some violence, and almost a torture scene, and it's Middle Grade (8 - 12). I know of YAs that are rather violent, and YAs that have sex in them. So I'm thinking that maybe you might just need to find the right agent for your work, and not try to please everyone. It's obvious violent YAs do get published.

But I think seun is right in asking, what genre did you set out to write? Once you answer that question, then make that your goal.

This is a tough one, especially if you write something that is slightly outside the norm of the chosen genre. You aimed for YA, and then they told you it wasn't. What do you do now?

And how many rejections are we talking about? If only one or two agents have criticized it as too violent for YA, maybe they're wrong. Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to jump ship?

It is possible that you can rewrite it to fit better into one genre or another, but I think that is a risky move -- that you may be pushing it to be something that it's not. I think you need to read it again with objectivity and figure out what the story is really about. Then decide on a genre.

When I first query my novel, some agents thought it was a romance and of course, they had a shock to find that, no, it was not and the protagonist wasn't even that likable. So I made sure in the future queries to shy away from the romance angle and emphasize on the mystery/family angle as a mainstream/contemporary fiction instead. And it sold.

I think you do have to manage expectations to some extent -- the tighter the genre definition, the less room you have. But you still need to sit down and understand for yourself what genre you really wanted to write.

I agree with Toothpaste and Sage. You probably just queried the wrong people.