Dumb question of the day...

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elindsen

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Okay so I think my WIP may be YA, but may be adult. My MC is 19 and in college, so which would it be?

Also (Here's the dumb question) my beta told me it should be paranormal romance. When I look up agents there is no paranomral. What do I search under?

Dumb questions are over with. Thank you.
 

Jamesaritchie

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It's just about impossible to tell without reading it. An adult novel can have a child as a protagonist. It's the story you tell that matters, that makes a book YV or adult.

"Paranormal romance" is usually a sub-category of ordinary category romance novels, so you look for agents who handle romance novels.
 

Ryan_Sullivan

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There's a bunch of threads about college-aged protags on the YA board. :)
 

suki

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paranormal is a subgenre of fantasy. Some agents will say fantasy and others will list paranormal.

But the best way to figure it out is to look at the books they represent, and what kind of books they are - ie, high fantasy, light fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, paranormal romance, etc...

And if you are curious about these distinctions - research! read threads in YA, in SF/Fantasy, in Romance...

Google the terms....

Look up books similar to yours and check out what they are considered...

ETA: What I'm saying is...read the threads, research, etc.

~suki
 
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job

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Okay so I think my WIP may be YA, but may be adult. My MC is 19 and in college, so which would it be?

Also (Here's the dumb question) my beta told me it should be paranormal romance. When I look up agents there is no paranomral. What do I search under?

In YA, protagonist age is likely to be within a couple years of the age of the reader. Coming-of-age issues are big. I don't see many YA books dealing with college-age.

Romance has a Happy Ever After at the end and the book remains firmly focused on the developing love story.

Agents who handle Romance or YA are likely to handle paranormal Romance and parnormal YA as a matter of course.

If your writing is going to go towards the Fantasy elements, you might seek out an agent who handles both your core market and SF/F, to give you a foot in both doors. If you know writers who do work close to what you're doing, you could submit to their agents.
 

Lady Ice

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In YA, protagonist age is likely to be within a couple years of the age of the reader. Coming-of-age issues are big. I don't see many YA books dealing with college-age.
.

There was a series called Sweet Valley University (maybe having had SVH beforehand helped). Freshman year I'm sure would still be interesting (remember, kids like to read about protagonists either their age or a bit older)
 

suki

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There was a series called Sweet Valley University (maybe having had SVH beforehand helped). Freshman year I'm sure would still be interesting (remember, kids like to read about protagonists either their age or a bit older)

Yes, but that was a spin off of a hugely successful series - and prepackaged.

And there are select other books in YA dealing with the first year of college - but they are few and far between, tend to be either from already successful authors or have been published abroad first, or deal not so much with college, as with that first 6 months after high school.

So...as a debut, I won't say it is impossible to sell a debut with the MC in the first year of college - but it's harder than if the MC is in high school or in that summer between high school and college.

Now, I think that we may begin seeing more first year of college stories - and they do seem a little more common in books with lgbt content.

But, at least for now, the first year of college setting makes it a much, much harder sell as YA.

So...what that means IMO is that the writer needs to be sure that the college setting is essential to the story - ie, that the story can't work just as well in a summer program, summer before college, or boarding school setting. And if the writer decides it must be college, then just know it may be a harder sell as a debut novel.

~suki
 

Alitriona

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My MC starts out at 18 a few days after her birthday. She's almost 20 by the end of the book. I started the manuscript as a YA, then submitted as a paranormal romance because of the age issue. My publisher has decided to market it as YA.
 
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