Middle Grade, Young Adult, Adult: How do you categorize your novel?

One thing I've noticed is the difference between US and UK definitions of YA. For example, I recently read a wonderful novel called, "I Am Not A Serial Killer". In Europe it's YA, in the US it's sold as an adult novel, despite the protagonists age (he's a freshman in high school). Apparently, this is because it deals with the character's attempt to avoid becoming the serial killer he knows he's destined to be. It is a wonderful novel, without any sex or swearing and and really less graphic violence than some of the Harry Potter books. Maybe the graphic descriptions of him working in the family morgue, or the intensity of his internal conflict, but it was apparently felt too much for American teens to handle.

Personally, I'm struggling with my own books. The first is a fairly standard YA. The next couple are more edgy YA (one has a protagonist in a seriously abusive relationship, the other deals with topics of sexuality and sexual identity, including at least one graphic sex scene). I'm just wondering how it will work as a series with such different ranges. Then again, JK Rowling got away with it...

I think the placement of books in bookstores can sometimes be fairly arbitrary. There are some stores where you'll find Lord of the Rings in the YA section and The Book Thief in the adult section. It really depends on the individual store, and because the lines between audience crossover are becoming blurred when it comes to YA, I think some people just aren't sure where to place a book.

I think sometimes it can be as simple as content -- does the individual bookseller feel that the book is aimed at teens or not? And sometimes it can be misplacement, or mature themes, or age of the protagonist, or whatever. It's interesting to see the different placements in different countries.

Thank you, this was very helpful.

Trying to figure out what genre my novel is has been a big challenge for me. Thank you for posting this.

Having an interest in writing books where the protagonist is as young as 11 or as old as 17, and aiming at a younger-minded audience in the latter case, I also have issues with deciding what type of novel I'm writing as far as age group "classification" is concerned.

I recently came across this: http://www.write4kids.com/feature6.html

from which this excerpt comes: "Many publishers have created a new young adult category for ages 10-14, for books that bridge the gap between middle grade and young adult, and have designated novels with older themes as ages 15 and up"

My books seem too mature to be labelled as "Middle Grade" (even though the protagonist in my published novel is 11), but are not dealing with a 15+ world in terms of themes etc.

To me, there needs to be another named category between Middle Grade (if that's even used in the UK!) and YA. Would this be a "crossover" or "kidult" novel? Is that the correct name? Or is it "younger YA" and "older YA". What is the correct term?!

Thanks!

Young Adult, and I am one.

There are ranges in both MG and YA. You could be writing an upper MG novel, which is pretty much the same thing as a lower YA novel. These novels appeal to both groups, which is a good thing. And you have the flexibility of calling it upper-MG or YA depending on the agent or publisher you're querying.

My book is YA, regardless of others who try to tell me it should be MG or I should raise my characters' ages. The MC is 13, so age-wise it could be right on the line, but plot-wise it's YA.

I really like the first post with the requirements. It fits with what I believe about MG and YA too. I have heard people say YA is only 15 or 16 and up and I'm not sure where they have gotten this information!

katiemac's definitions are as good as anything I've read on the subect. I'm not a teen anymore (sigh) but I write for that audience (12 to 17 years of age) because I remember the uncertainty I faced as a teen, and yet try to put somewhat of an adult's perspective on the whole thing. I also try not to be too "preachy" because the one thing I learned, then as now, was that the younger age groups absolutely HATE being preached to. Showing by example or a few well-written sentences can do a whole lot more than just "telling" them this or that is bad/wrong.

I never really thought about this. Gulp! My main character starts out at eight years old. But in the books that follow the main characters are teens to young adults. Will the first book with the eight year old deter the older audience?

I agree with many of the earlier posts. The YA/MG distinction seems to be a bit about the age of the protagonist (ideally a year or two older than the target audience), a bit about the length (though kids seem to be reading longer and longer books), and a lot about the overall tone and content of the book. In other words, how are schools and libraries going to treat it? Is it something that can be freely given to a 5th grader no problem, or does it need to be carefully dissected/discussed in a lit class?

One website that I haven't seen posted in this thread that I've found interesting is the Renlearn search. It's a site aimed at educators, but you can see how they classify things, which gives you some insight. There are several "Interest Level"divisions: Lower Grade, Middle Grade, Middle Grade Plus, and Upper Grades. Word counts are also listed, which I like to see.

I think my book is right on the cusp of MG/YA. My character is 11 in the beginning of the book and then turns 12. Also, my book is 50,000 words. I don't want to classify the book incorrectly when querying but I truly believe it can go either way. When querying an agent, can I specify it as "upper middle grade?"

Thanks Sage. The theme and voice are closer to MG than YA so I guess that makes it MG.

interesting subject!

Good to know that I've been categorizing my novel correctly. Thank you for the in depth look into YA genres and how to label your YA novel.

What do you guys think about Adults who read YA? There is adult fiction, but I've noticed that there is often a thin line between that and erotica. Do you feel the line is just as thin with YA and AF? When is a novel categorized as YA with the potential of moving into AF? Is it reader preference?

For example, Melissa De La Cruz, who wrote the YA series, Blue Bloods, continued to write a series called Witches of East End. I read her entire Blue Bloods series and enjoyed the story. Her character, Freya, I was particularly fond of, and when she came out with a series based around Freya and her family, I was eager to snatch it up. Upon reading volume 1, I realized that her AF was largely based around Freya and her struggles to control her desires. Just curious on your thoughts.

Word count, age, and plot I think (it is relatable to YA?)

I have heard people talk about about the emerging "tween" category. Do you think I could use that word to describe my book to agents or is it too new?

My protagonist is 12, turning 13, but the book is 74,000 words. Definitely not edgy YA, but not as silly as a lot of the MG stuff. It's also light science fiction, if that helps, I've heard that you can get away with longer word counts with scifi (long for MG, right on track for YA) I've sent it to a few agents as a YA but gotten rejections, wondering if it's time to remarket, any advice?

It has realistic ages.

Interesting backstory.

Realistic physics, injuries, recover time, abilities.

Mystery.

High octane action.

Only one category can hold back the riveting strength and terror.

Badass.

summerb said:

I have heard people talk about about the emerging "tween" category. Do you think I could use that word to describe my book to agents or is it too new?

My protagonist is 12, turning 13, but the book is 74,000 words. Definitely not edgy YA, but not as silly as a lot of the MG stuff. It's also light science fiction, if that helps, I've heard that you can get away with longer word counts with scifi (long for MG, right on track for YA) I've sent it to a few agents as a YA but gotten rejections, wondering if it's time to remarket, any advice?

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I think you could classify it as Upper MG. I've heard that term thrown around a lot for more mature 11-14 year old MCs and their fiction.

A 60k+ word story would raise agent eyebrows if just MG, but Upper MG is definitely viable for that wordcount.

katiemac said:

I've had a few requests to post this as a sticky.

A little background: When I interned at a literary agency a few years ago, I wrote this outline as part of my final project. Keep in mind the results of this project are not "an agent's view" of the differences between YA and MG, but a compilation of my research.


[/FONT]
[/LIST]In addition to the themes and ideas I address above, one of the biggest factors (if not the biggest) in determining where your novel stands is VOICE.

For example, I mention above Yann Patel's novel LIFE OF PI as an example that appealed to both young adult and adult readers. The protagonist of the novel is a teenager, but the narrator is the teen as an adult. This style addresses the second bullet point under "Adult Fiction"-- adult fiction puts teenage years in perspective of the character’s entire life. The voice is that of an adult, with perspective and distance from the events as they happened to him as a teen.

So, among everything else addressed here, make sure to take your voice into account.

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That's very interesting...but so true. It really doesn't matter the age of the main characters in the book, but what the main VOICE they are trying to speak through. Very thought provoking...thanks!

It makes me nervous because I'm writing a YA story with pretty "literary" language. There is some very dark horror in it, so a few people I've spoken with about it think it is really adult. My main character is 16 so I think that I can get away with doing it that way and still calling it young adult, though. But still. Gah!

Hm. I've written a 50k story with a 16-year-old protagonist. Exciting but not deadly things happen: the most danger anyone runs is of being turned into a book, which is unpleasant but not fatal or necessarily permanent. I'd been thinking of it as YA, but maybe I was writing MG all along?

After putting the first few pages aside for months, I'm back to working on a YA Ghost Story. The last couple of weeks I worked on character development and plotting. This week I rewrote the first chapter. I'm really excited about this one and hope to submit parts of it over at SYW for some feedback when I have enough posts (and enough guts for that matter). What's bugging me is I don't have a title for it yet. YAGS is not just not working for me.

nonasuch said:

Hm. I've written a 50k story with a 16-year-old protagonist. Exciting but not deadly things happen: the most danger anyone runs is of being turned into a book, which is unpleasant but not fatal or necessarily permanent. I'd been thinking of it as YA, but maybe I was writing MG all along?

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If your character is 16, then the book would be YA. If you changed the age of your main character, then it would be MG. Do you feel like the story would work the same if your protagonist was younger? What are some of the themes in the book? That might also help you decide if the book should be written as YA or MG. But if you're going on just age alone, 16 is YA.