College aged protagonist in YA

[Jake G]

Hello all,

I remember reading awhile ago on these boards that it is detrimental in the eyes of agents (or maybe even YA readers) to have a college aged protagonist. The argument was that most YA readers are high school kids or younger and it is difficult for them to relate to the college character.

Is this true? If you write a YA novel with a college aged protagonist, does that make the novel not YA?

Thanks.

[kaitiepaige17]

I don't think so. Most teenagers want to read about protagonists OLDER than themselves, not younger, so I don't think that's a bad idea. Personally, I've never had an MC in college, but most of them are seniors in high school or are about to go away to college.

And I would still constitute it as a YA, because most college-aged kids are still considered YAs. But others may feel differently about this.

[ArcticFox]

I was in a thread talking about this and I can't remember what it was. My MC is college age as well, but I am aiming for YA. Yes, it is harder. The trick is voice. It has to be on a level that the YA crowd can understand. It'll be more likely to be YA if you have a college freshman just trying to figure things out than a college senior. Why? Because the MC will be discovering things and trying to feel their way around college life and a HS student CAN relate to that. It all depends on the approach.

[Ryan_Sullivan]

Yeah, there was a thread not so long ago. Basically, college kids can afford/have less time to read, and therefore aren't the best market. There is a publisher that is experimenting with college age books, but not sure how well it's working. That said, it's always worth a try.

[Xvee]

I remember reading a post here about that too. College age is supposed to be a super hard sell cos you're caught between YA and adult, and both camps shy away from it. Check the stickies, maybe the post is still around.

[kaitiepaige17]

Personally, I'm a sophomore in college and agree with the above; there really is no time for reading. BUT: you may not be aiming for college kids just because your MC is college aged. I loved reading books based in college when I was in high school. But I could see how this might be a problem with agents. If you really aren't sure, don't worry about it. Just don't list it as YA in your query. Your agent will figure out where it belongs.

[DrummerGirl]

Here's a debut author with Psych Major Syndrome (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5941380-psych-major-syndrome) a YA that came out last year, protag in first year of college. I have heard it's really good :D

Apart from that, I've read a couple of gap year YA stories, where the protag has just graduated high school but isn't going to college.

The other books I've read with college aged protags have all been shelved in the Adult Fiction section @ my library.

[Sage]

It is extremely hard to get an agent with a novel with a college-age protag. It's not really considered YA usually (although teens read up, so this confuses me), but I know some 20-something protags sometimes end up in the adult section.

One publisher has tried to start up a genre called New Adult for 20-something protags, but I'm not sure what happened with that, since I haven't heard anything about it in a while. However, most vocal agents still say that there is no place for college-aged protags.

BUT there are a few agents on agentquery who mention wanting 18- to 30-year-old protags, so there is still hope, and of course if you write a brilliant book, anything goes.

It's just a little harder.

[Kathleen42]

There's Psych Major Syndrome (which I've only ever seen shelved in the YA section) and St. Martin's press is also trying an endeavor its calling "New Adult".

I don't think having an MC in college makes it not YA, but it does make it a harder sell.

[suki]

The old adage is that it's much, much harder to get a YA published with a college-aged protagonist. And I still think it may make it harder, but there are some YAs with college-age protagonists, and even a few debuts with college-age protagonists (I think). It's just not the sweet spot for YA, so it may make it harder.

And the key will still be the character's conflicts and struggles and voice. If the main character is facing impending graduation and getting a job, it will be harder than if the main character is a first year college student, dealing with changes/increased freedoms/etc. as still very much a teenager.

~suki

[ArcticFox]

Also as the wonderful agent Mandy Hubbard just said in chat 95% of college settings can be changed to boarding schools and you get the same effect. Be very sure you need the college aspect.

[Sage]

Also as the wonderful agent Mandy Hubbard just said in chat 95% of college settings can be changed to boarding schools and you get the same effect. Be very sure you need the college aspect.I've done that.

[suki]

Also as the wonderful agent Mandy Hubbard just said in chat 95% of college settings can be changed to boarding schools and you get the same effect. Be very sure you need the college aspect.

Excellent point!

~suki

[Jumpy2]

The only college-aged book I've seen in the YA section of the book store was "Exit Here" by Jason Myers, so i guess it's possible. Just make sure it's absolutely needed. When I started my WIP the characters were college-aged but I made them younger after I realized it'd be possible to still maintain the story while doing so.

[Shady Lane]

I know there's a YA book called 21 about a character's 21st birthday that's shelved with YA.

it's a very very hard sell. YA is, in very broad strokes, about high school.

ETA: speaking only of realistic, comtep YA of course.

[emma_kate]

Here's a debut author with Psych Major Syndrome (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5941380-psych-major-syndrome) a YA that came out last year, protag in first year of college. I have heard it's really good :D

Apart from that, I've read a couple of gap year YA stories, where the protag has just graduated high school but isn't going to college.

The other books I've read with college aged protags have all been shelved in the Adult Fiction section @ my library.

Mine is taking a gap year...and personally, I would love to see more of these kinds of ages in YA. Mostly because when I was in primary school, I remember reading about people in high school and was SO excited to go to high school because of this...in high school, I would have liked to read about people making the transition from school-workplace/college, too. I agree with the idea that readers like to read about people older than them (although I don't mind protagonists as younger, either :))

[Jake G]

Thanks a lot guys. I really appreciate the information.

[Sage]

I did read that some agent or editor (I forget which) was looking for books set the summer between high school and college, though. So there is also some hope for that age

[Mayfield]

Interesting topic...one of my stories follows the MC from senior year to first term in college.

However, as someone who went away to boarding school as well as college, I have to say the experiences are very different. Different age, different issues, different cultures, different conflicts.

I guess if the only reason for a college setting is to not have parents around and to have peers living in dorms, then the college-into-boarding school thing might work, but I don't think it's always a good fit.

[ArcticFox]

I guess if the only reason for a college setting is to not have parents around and to have peers living in dorms, then the college-into-boarding school thing might work, but I don't think it's always a good fit.

As I said above you have to be sure you need it. If the focus of your book is something you can ONLY get from college than do it. However, as Mandy Hubbard said, 95% of college set books she sees can be turned into boarding schools.

[Mayfield]

As I said above you have to be sure you need it. If the focus of your book is something you can ONLY get from college than do it. However, as Mandy Hubbard said, 95% of college set books she sees can be turned into boarding schools.

No, I get what you're saying. It just seems a shame, especially since so few people actually do go to boarding school. To switch a story to that setting seems as if you are limiting the environment to a certain socio-economic status (and probably a concurrent lack of diversity). But if the college stories she's seeing wouldn't matter on that level, then it's a moot point.

Then the problem becomes that there isn't a place for the books that are about the qualitatively distinct experience of going to college (and also, that those books aren't being written). Hope that makes sense!

[Sandy Shin]

I don't think so. Most teenagers want to read about protagonists OLDER than themselves, not younger, so I don't think that's a bad idea.

That's what I'd imagine as well. When I was in junior and senior years of high school, I was fascinated with college life and would have loved reading about it. However, I've read somewhere that whenever a publisher takes a chance on a college-aged protagonists, the responses aren't very high. Thus, they're wary of taking on more.

[Jumpy2]

Just came from the book store and saw that Cecily Von iegesar's new book book Cum Laude is set in college, so you never know. Maybe establishd authors are allowed to take gambles like these, though.

[JustLaurie]

I can give you a little bit of a personal experience on this. I've been querying a college-aged protag book (actually, a sophomore in college, which is an even bigger no-no than a freshman). I've had eight requests, roughly a 15% request rate (but two of the requests were unqueried). So you can get requests...what an agent would say when they actually offered, I have no idea. I also had an agent tell me to query her again if I moved it to high school. I don't know what any of this means to you, but take it for what it's worth. It's an uphill battle, for sure.

[ceenindee]

I've read a couple books with college-aged protagonists (Scott Westefeld's Peeps was the first thing that came to mind), but not where they're actually in college. That could make a difference. The difference between 18 and 19 or 20 in a high fantasy doesn't have be such a life-changing thing as it is in a modern day setting.

[shaldna]

YA covers such a broad age range, and personally I would love to see more novels about college age people, there doesn't seem to be much of that in either YA or adult novels.

[Katrina S. Forest]

I'm going for an 18-year-old protag that just graduated high school but isn't going to college. To me, as long as the story feels relevant to the readers, that's still YA and no easier or harder to sell than a story with a 16-year-old protag.

[folkchick]

One publisher has tried to start up a genre called New Adult for 20-something protags, but I'm not sure what happened with that, since I haven't heard anything about it in a while. However, most vocal agents still say that there is no place for college-aged protags.

Sage, what's the name of the publisher? My MC is seventeen with the story occurring the summer before college. I'd love to have a lead on this, if you have any more information. Thanks.

[YooprGurl]

Any thoughts about sequels and the protagonist aging? Is there a better response to that? MC starts off at 16 in 1st book, 18 in 2nd book, 20 in final book, etc.

[inkspatters]

Folkchick, it's St. Martin's Press. But I think they go in for eighteen and over protagonists, in general, or at least that's what they prefer (could be wrong, haven't looked into it too thoroughly) who are actually facing college concerns.

Seventeen and the summer after high school is pretty easily categorised as YA, imo :)

[folkchick]

Okay, thank you!

[NNSakusha]

Hello all,

I remember reading awhile ago on these boards that it is detrimental in the eyes of agents (or maybe even YA readers) to have a college aged protagonist. The argument was that most YA readers are high school kids or younger and it is difficult for them to relate to the college character.

Is this true? If you write a YA novel with a college aged protagonist, does that make the novel not YA?

Thanks.

I'm running into the same thing. The short answer: different agents have different ideas about that (some have a character age cap for YA, others don't).

For example: S. Townsend: "YA readers are technically 14-to-18-years-old...The protagonists are usually 16-to-18. Not older than 19 (http://confessionsofawanderingheart.blogspot.com/2010/06/mer-bear-guest-blog-ya-query.html)."

I've seen others say up to 21 is okay (sorry, I can't seem to find that link off hand).

Still others call it YA with crossover appeal.

When researching this, I found that some agents repped and later sold novels as a YA with a college freshman (even as old as 19), provided the character was a freshman and the story was about being a freshman. Others went the opposite way and the pub picked it up as an adult novel because the character was in college (mainly because of the story content though).

That said, though my students (all English teachers who work with teens) say their kids love the college-aged stuff in books and on TV, for our pre-publishing purposes, we also have to think about the shelving aspect. JJ from St. Martin's Press writes some good stuff about this. (http://sjaejones.com/blog/2009/new-adult-shelving/#more-3140) Here is another good one (http://www.dianapeterfreund.com/on-new-adult/).

Either way, through it all, you might get all the way through the writing, agenting, and submitting stage with it all figured out as a YA or adult but then need to change it at the pub stage. I've read a few authors' blogs who've said that their novel characters changed after it got to the publisher (wherein they were asked to either make the characters younger, older, etc.).

The best advice I read online was this:

Don’t worry about the classification; worst case scenario: send it to both YA and adult and let the agents decide. (http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/Agents+Tell+All+In+DC+Paige+Wheeler+Shannon+ONeill +And+Suzie+Townsend.aspx)

If the agent likes the story enough, he/she can then advise you on the character ages. Case in point: I just had an agent reply to a query and tell me that my manuscript might be adult, not YA, and that she'd need to read more and think about it...it didn't stop her from requesting though.

I wrote the story that was in me to write and then sent it out. In the responses I've got from agents on my query, some have told me it's YA, others have said it's not...but none of them threw email rocks at me for sending them a YA query for a college freshman protag yet. However, I have heard that a few agents really really don't like receiving them so I highly advise you do your research on them first. ;)

Hope that helps. Good luck!!! :Sun:

[NNSakusha]

Sage, what's the name of the publisher? My MC is seventeen with the story occurring the summer before college. I'd love to have a lead on this, if you have any more information. Thanks.

St. Martin's Press
Here's a link to the editorial assistant's blog (http://sjaejones.com/blog/2010/whom-do-i-query/) regarding subbing New Adult.

Good luck!

[NNSakusha]

Folkchick, it's St. Martin's Press. But I think they go in for eighteen and over protagonists, in general, or at least that's what they prefer (could be wrong, haven't looked into it too thoroughly) who are actually facing college concerns.

Seventeen and the summer after high school is pretty easily categorised as YA, imo :)

Totally agree with everything written here! :D

[MisterNMissy]

Ah-ha! I found the reason why College-books in YA never seem to existed. There are some, but I remember Sweet Valley High did something in college? idk that's a long time ago. Uh, there are some few books about College.