How do you know if you're writing YA?

Check out the sticky threads at the top of the YA forum. Those should give you some ideas about what differentiates YA

It isn't too uncommon. I've read posts from a couple people suffering from the same problem. My best advice it to query it as a YA since you feel that's where the focus is. When an agent picks it up, they can help decide which market it would fit best in. I agree, a lot of books fall in that in between area. But that's a good thing. You're market is a wider range. Sorry, I couldn't help more. lol.

Um... I'd say that if you have mainly teen protagonists, it's YA. Trust me, there's no such thing as too edgy anymore. "Violence and darkness and emotional upheaval" is DEFINITELY okay. You mentioned adult POV scenes, but if teen POV is the majority then it's YA.

pookel said:

The tone doesn't seem YA to me, but teen beta readers love it. So I'm still confused. LOL

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Lots of the teens who beta read probably also enjoy adult books, so just because they love it doesn't mean it's YA. If the tone's not YA, the book's most likely not either.

my three requirements for a YA novel:

1. protagonist roughly (roughly) between the ages of 14 and 21

2. deals with issues relevant to the teenage experience

3. has an element of coming of age (in one way or another, the main character is older at the end of the story than he was at the beginning)

I just checked out the excerpt you posted on SYW, and in my opinion, it really does seem like crossover YA. About what percentage of the POV is teenage?

Very nice writing, by the way. I'm working on a post-apoc YA myself.

Judging by the sequels, then, I'd say not YA.

Shady Lane said:

Judging by the sequels, then, I'd say not YA.

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Yeah, me too. It could still cross over, but in the other direction. I'd query it as adult (just call it your post-apocalyptic novel) and if an agent or publisher wants to nudge it in the other direction, it'll be up to them.

pookel said:

I know a lot of the time the boundary is pretty clear. But I'm still not 100% sure if I'm writing YA novels or adult novels with teen protagonists. I usually have teen characters in adult worlds and situations, with adults as secondary characters. The trilogy I'm working on now, I originally thought of as more likely YA, but then I wrote the second book and found that I was doing a lot of POV scenes with the adult secondary characters, so maybe not. And I have a lot of adult themes - not explicit sex, but lots of violence and darkness and emotional upheaval. I know that YA allows a lot more edgy stuff than it used to, but I'm not sure where mine fits into the spectrum.

Any advice?

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I've had my books read by 9year olds thru 74 year olds - al liked them. The main problem is where will they be placed in the library. I've tried to convince the libraries to buy two copies and have one in Historical Fantasy and the other in YA. They're not going to do this. I suppose I'll have to research which location is attracting most readers (some libraries have them in one place, some the other).

So your question is very pertenent and makes a lot of difference in how many people read the books.

I have a similar situation - the protagonist starts out at 17, but the story spans several years and there will be drug use, prostitution and a sexual relationship with someone who is very much an adult in the later books (although I'm not planning on making it explicit).

I have two teenaged sons and except for the ones assigned by teachers, neither of them have read 'young adult' books since they were 13 or so. They prefer to read straight adult fiction; one likes horror, one likes fantasy. (And ironically word count IS an issue. The fantasy fan tells me he wants a longer read and more involved story than is found in YA fiction.)

Why don't you try marketing it as an adult book - there are many good books that feature young or teen-aged protagonists that are NOT YA. David Brin's Glory Season, Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age. They have young protagonists and they're coming of age stories, but they are definitely not YA books.

pookel:
I usually have teen characters in adult worlds and situations, with adults as secondary characters. The trilogy I'm working on now, I originally thought of as more likely YA, but then I wrote the second book and found that I was doing a lot of POV scenes with the adult secondary characters, so maybe not. And I have a lot of adult themes - not explicit sex, but lots of violence and darkness and emotional upheaval. I know that YA allows a lot more edgy stuff than it used to, but I'm not sure where mine fits into the spectrum.

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To be honest, the issue of whether your book gets placed on the YA shelves or the adult shelves is one that's resolved by the marketing people at your publisher. I know a couple of authors who wrote books with coming of age themes and teen characters who went round and around with their marketing people as they tried to work out whether to push it as adult or YA. The conclusion seemed to be that there was no hard and fast rule for how they reached their final decision (in one case - the book was marketed as being for adults, in the other, it was decided to do it as a cross-over with adult and YA covers).

Best way to work out whether you've written something that could have YA appeal is to check out the YA shelves in your local library or book store and see if your work would fit on those shelves. I started out with a number of preconceptions about what could and could not be in YA, only to have them shattered when I started reading what was out there (and I've read YA books with cherrywood dildos, incest, the c-word, genocide, extreme violence, self-harm, apocalyptic nightmares and rape over the last couple of years).

If when you've finished the research and you're still not sure, then query it as both for adults and for YA. If nothing else, it gives you more agents to choose from and they should be able to give you more of a steer.

MM