What is the YA age limit?

I would say that over 21 is pushing it (some will say anything over 18) BUT it might still be YA depending on how much focus is given to each character and how strong the underlining theme is.

I'm assuming all six characters aren't all given equal weight. Just because something is YA doesn't mean that all the characters have to be. My MC is a teen but one of her friends is about 22.

I wouldn't worry about age classification if it's going to affect how you write your story. Mine is about a 19yo (in the first book) but I've had letters from people between 9 and 74 about the book. So if I'd consciously written for a restricted age group I might not have had the wide interest in the book.

Epiphany said:

So I have this YA novel... well, I think it is YA because if it's not then the genre is non-existent. I have six main characters, two of them below the age of 18, but the other 4 between 18 and 25. Would this still be considered YA? Or am I treading into the waters of adult fiction? I feel as though there is still an underlying theme of growing up in the novel, which is why I continue to market it as YA.

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There have been a number of age of MC in YA book discussions around here - you might want to search around. But to sum them up, many people think an MC over 18 for an unpublished author would be a hard sell. Others think over 20...some say that in their experience, an unpublished author would have a hard time selling a YA with college-age protagonists.

I personally think that 18-22 year old MCs can work, but don't always, and the older the MC, the harder the sell.

I don't know of any YA debut novels with an MC over 18.

I can think of a few from established authors, but again, not that many, and I can only think of one with an MC over 21.

Not to say it can't ever be done, but it may make it a harder sell to agents and editors.

Are all of the characters equal MCs? If not, and if the older characters are not equal time MCs, then may be less of an issue.

But my take would be a debut novel with one or more MCs over 19-20 will have a much harder time selling as YA than one with MCs 19 and under. And the younger the MCs the more marketable it becomes down to about 16. 16-17 seems to be the optimum MC age for YA.

Now, that all assumes the themes, language and plot otherwise fit as YA...with one or more MCs over 20, I'm not so sure...

~suki

One interesting thing I've noticed is that with fantasy it seems books with younger characters (in the 14-25 yo range) are often marketed as adult fiction. Especially with epic fantasy. That doesn't mean young adults aren't picking those novels up and reading them, they are, but unless the content is HIGHLY geared toward coming-of-age or to girls or is more simplistic, then it gets put in general/adult fiction. I think about the Wheel of Time series here, where the MCs are all teenagers when it begins.

There's some talk about how boy YA readers go from MG stuff straight to adult fiction and bypass the YA genre (in general) but girls tend to read YA. A lot of those boys are reading fantasy, which, if you think about it, tends to follow the big YA coming-of-age requirement and so many of them start with teenage characters. Yet they are marketed as adult fiction and sell very well that way. Huh, an interesting dichotomy. Maybe the YA boy readers aren't exactly leaping over YA fiction, it's just being marketed as adult fiction (which is fine, since many readers of fantasy are adult, of couse). /tangent.

suki said:

I don't know of any YA debut novels with an MC over 18.

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Mumut said:

Mine is about a 19yo (in the first book)

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That was your debut novel, wasn't it, Mumut, and also YA (i critted a portion of the second novel in SYW a while back and i'm pretty sure i remember you stating it was a YA novel)? I know 19 isn't that much older than 18, but i guess it is a years difference

YA is about more than just age. It needs to have a teen protag, and involve problems relevant to teens, but you can have other ages as well. The Thief Lord has a grown up POV. So does Hoot.

The challenge with non-teen POV characters is that the problems facing them are typically adult problems, not teen problems, so they aren't relevant to the reader. But if the problems are relevant, then they can work.

They are re-publishing Eva Ibbotson's books as YA (Countess Below Stairs, Company of Swans, etc.) and her MC's tend to be either at the tail end of their teen years, or unspecified ages. At any rate, they almost always get married at the end. What I'm getting to here is that I think the genre is pretty flexible. I wouldn't put a hard-and-fast rule on it. I agree with Danthia: if the problems are teen problems, that's probably the best indication.

Isaac Espriu said:

That was your debut novel, wasn't it, Mumut, and also YA (i critted a portion of the second novel in SYW a while back and i'm pretty sure i remember you stating it was a YA novel)? I know 19 isn't that much older than 18, but i guess it is a years difference

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Excellent! I actually love getting corrected on this issue, because I'm one of those who think YA MC age-limits make less sense than focusing on the coming-of-age story, regardless of age...So, I love seeing YA books with older characters (Naomi&Ely, I am the Messenger,...) But the rub has been none that I knew of were US debuts. So I'd love to see a US debut YA novel with an older MC.

What is the title and publisher? and when did it come out? I'd love to add it to the my list of book references, and check it out.

~suki

I have three main characters. The POV MC is 21. The other MC is 21 as well, and his cousin is 19. I consider mine to be YA urban fantasy. I guess it's based on the fact that I consider young adult to be 18-22. Young adult, not young almost-adult.