Buyers of YA are 65% adults

Laer Carroll · Apr 10, 2015

There's an interesting article about John Green's long-time editor, Julie Strauss-Gabel, in today's New York Times. She's also the publisher of Dutton Children’s Books, which has been putting out many of today's YA bestsellers. She's given credit for finding and editing many of those bestsellers. She has much to say about YA fiction and its future.

Early in the article there's a six-paragraph discussion of current YA. Here's part of one of the paragraphs.

Adults aged 18 to 44 made up 65 percent of young adult book buyers in 2014, according to a recent Nielsen Books & Consumer survey, and men accounted for 44 percent of young adult book buyers in 2014, up from 31 percent in 2012. And 65 percent of adults buying young adult books reported that they were purchasing the books for themselves rather than for children.

If you do the math, 65% of 65% is %42. So almost half of YA readers are adults.

Why is this? I'd guess one reason is that today's YA is as well-written as most adult fiction. Not just at the lowest levels of description and dialogue, but the higher ones of characterization, plot, and theme. I've noticed this excellence for the last decade or two since I began reading YA again.

Another is that discovering oneself and one's place in the world is a universal theme, not just for teens but for everyone, even those in their twilight years. And this discovery process is a big element in most YA.

But not all. Much of today's YA features themes and problems everyone faces, not just teens. Some of them are pretty dark, but some are more complex and interesting.

I highly recommend this article to every writer who writes or wants to write YA fiction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/b...-the-best-sellers-of-young-adult-fiction.html

Osulagh · Apr 10, 2015

This isn't really new; it's been known for years that around the majority of YA readers are adults from previous reports.

Laer Carroll said:
Why is this?

The same reason why adults play children's games: They're all accessible from the top down. While children are told not to read Adult books, adults can read whatever they wish. Children's stories aren't exclusive to adults, and then some have a large range of audience--especially when most mainstream YA novels have less adult themes but still adult-ish situations, you widen the reader range.

I'd guess one reason is that today's YA is as well-written as most adult fiction.

Why shouldn't Children's fiction be well-written? And why shouldn't it have been?

sunandshadow · Apr 10, 2015

I think part of the reason is that YA and NA fiction has done a much better job of incorporating the anime, manga, TV, and videogame influence many readers are looking for than 'older' novel genres.

inthewritemind · Apr 10, 2015

There's also the idea that the Harry Potter books kind of brought reading back into style for a lot of kids and young adults. Now that the Potter generation is above 18 now, that might account for some of the numbers.

The_Ink_Goddess · Apr 11, 2015

They're absolutely still accessible. Adults read PBs (I do...I'm 20). But, also (and I'm not trying to diminish the point of "adults read YA books" buuuut), many YAs don't have independent income. Many have jobs, many don't. We can't assume that all of these adults are necessarily buying the books for themselves (rather than kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews). When I'm in YA sections, I actually see more adults looking for their teen relations (or saying they are :tongue

). I've overheard many a conversation like, "My niece enjoyed [x], and it's her birthday in a week, what do I get her?"

Parataxis · Apr 11, 2015

They actually addressed that point. 65% of the adults were buying the books for themselves.

bethany · Apr 11, 2015

One thing I like about YA is the lack of divide between commercial and literary, in that I can read something and feel the language wash over me at the same time I'm turning pages to see what happens next.

An issue for me, but a plus for many others, is the short length of YA novels. I often by an entire acclaimed series (or trilogy) after it's completed...I do acknowledge that sometimes a good short book is excellent--right now I'm teaching, writing a book, and taking a college class, as well as being a mom--but as a reader my first love has always been epic fantasy and I do like to immerse myself when I can. So short length plus reasonable quality is a cornerstone of YA.

I do think, without a value judgement that in a world of fast paced entertainment and multi-tasking, that the faster paced, pared down description, and dialogue heavy nature of many YA books has an appeal and that appeal transcends age.

Another factor may be our society's obsession with youth and beauty. When you imagine the cast of a YA novel, more often than not you are probably picturing characters in their early 20's, not true high schoolers, in the same way that the cast of YA movies are often older (there are legal reasons that it's more difficult to shoot movies with teens, but honestly, as a person who is with teens on a daily basis, I doubt most audiences want the true teenage experience, they just want a dose of youth...

The_Ink_Goddess · Apr 11, 2015

Parataxis said:
They actually addressed that point. 65% of the adults were buying the books for themselves.

Sorry, should read the link! (or, even, y'know, the complete part of the bolded. I'm an idiot.)

Becca C. · Apr 11, 2015

Since this survey only really talks about buyers of YA, I bet the percentage of adults vs. teens who borrow books from libraries is different. I went to the library a LOT more as a teenager, and read a ton of YA from there. Now that I have my own income and space (and less time -- can't finish some books in the three weeks the library gives), I tend to buy my books rather than borrow them.

Laer Carroll · Apr 11, 2015

bethany said:
An issue for me, but a plus for many others, is the short length of YA novels.

A goodly number of YA books are on the short side. Witness those by John Green. But nowadays plenty of YA books are longer. The Hunger Games is in the middle, about 100K words for each. Plenty of others are on the long side, such as the Twilight and Eragon series and the later Potter books.

bethany said:
... the faster paced, pared down description, and dialogue heavy nature of many YA books has an appeal and that appeal transcends age.

Plenty of YA books are written more simply than books intended for adults. But there has been considerably evolution of the literary sophistication of YA books, especially in the last dozen years or so. Some YA is the equal of most adult books. This I suspect is one of the reasons that many adults read them.

blacbird · Apr 11, 2015

I read YA fiction. A lot of it is very good, and works well for adult readers.

caw

Ravioli · Apr 11, 2015

Yeah well, have you seen teenagers with books lately? Me neither.

zanzjan · Apr 11, 2015

Laer Carroll said:
Plenty of YA books are written more simply than books intended for adults. But there has been considerably evolution of the literary sophistication of YA books, especially in the last dozen years or so. Some YA is the equal of most adult books.

This is a bit insulting, IMHO. YA is not a subset/diminution of adult books, and much as one would be missing the point trying to solely judge the quality of SFF by Litfic standards, one shouldn't be trying to judge YA by different genre's yardsticks either.

zanzjan · Apr 11, 2015

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:
Yeah well, have you seen teenagers with books lately? Me neither.

Seriously?

Just as it'd be nice not to be dismissive of YA books, can we also not be completely dismissive of actual young adults too?

Fuchsia Groan · Apr 11, 2015

bethany said:
One thing I like about YA is the lack of divide between commercial and literary, in that I can read something and feel the language wash over me at the same time I'm turning pages to see what happens next.

Yes. This is a big plus for me, too. Of course, there are plenty of adult genre books with great prose, and many adult lit fic novels with excellent plot and pacing. But it can be a little harder to find the combination in adult than it is in YA. And if you also love high concepts and high stakes, finding all three of those elements in adult lit can be even tougher.

At least half the books I read are still adult. But when I read something like BONE GAP, I don't feel like I'm reading below my age level. I just feel like, hey, here's a piece of magical realist lit fic whose author did not feel a need to fill 400 pages with thick, self-consciously "literary" prose, because YA gave her license to tell the story more economically.

Maybe that's another way of saying that I think density has been overvalued in lit fic for quite a while, and taken as a mark of "seriousness." There are some fine 700-page densely written novels, but there are many more that would have benefited from restraint, IMHO.

When I was writing my latest book, I read adult novels -- Jim Thompson pulps from the '50s. They helped me enormously with the immediacy and economy of first-person YA, weirdly enough, because classic pulps waste no words.

eyeblink · Apr 11, 2015

I'm a fifty-year-old adult, and I read YA. I also read adult. I'll read anything if I think I'd get something out of it, especially if someone whose tastes I trust recommended it.

Becca C. said:
Since this survey only really talks about buyers of YA, I bet the percentage of adults vs. teens who borrow books from libraries is different. I went to the library a LOT more as a teenager, and read a ton of YA from there. Now that I have my own income and space (and less time -- can't finish some books in the three weeks the library gives), I tend to buy my books rather than borrow them.

I have bought a lot of books in my time, but with storage and (over the last couple of years) cashflow being issues, I've used the library more often, and that's fine for something I might want to read just once. As I know an increasing number of published writers, I might want to buy their works (support your friends, it's good karma and they might support you themselves) especially if I can get them to sign it. And there are certain writers I do collect.

Also, in the UK, borrowing a book from the library is more author-friendly than buying used (if you don't buy new) as you're contributing to their Public Lending Rights earnings.

Laer Carroll said:
A goodly number of YA books are on the short side. Witness those by John Green. But nowadays plenty of YA books are longer. The Hunger Games is in the middle, about 100K words for each. Plenty of others are on the long side, such as the Twilight and Eragon series and the later Potter books.

There are longer MGs as well. Frances Hardinge is classified as such, though she definitely has an adult crossover readership. (I'm not sure what she's on, but I'd like some.

) Gullstruck Island is 130k and most of her novels are over 100k.

There are quite a few shorter adult novels, particularly in literary fiction as there's a place for the perfect miniature there - Jennifer Johnston is a favourite of mine and I'm not sure any of her novels are over 60k. A lot of adult genre fiction has publisher-led wordcount requirements. You would be lucky to sell a SF novel to a major publisher in the UK under 90k or thereabouts and never mind that many of the genre classics I read growing up are 50-70k. Lavie Tidhar's Osama (World Fantasy Award winner) is an exception at 70k words, but that was first published by an independent, PS Publishing.

Laer Carroll said:
Plenty of YA books are written more simply than books intended for adults. But there has been considerably evolution of the literary sophistication of YA books, especially in the last dozen years or so. Some YA is the equal of most adult books. This I suspect is one of the reasons that many adults read them.

There may be an evolution in recent years, but it was always the case and the best children's/YA writers have always had adult readers. I'm thinking of Ursula Le Guin and Alan Garner in the 60s and 70s, for example.

cornflake · Apr 12, 2015

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:
Yeah well, have you seen teenagers with books lately? Me neither.

Yeah, I have. I know teens who read, and I've seen teens at book signings, openings of movies based on books, and perusing the stacks in libraries and shelves in bookstores.

eyeblink · Apr 12, 2015

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:
Yeah well, have you seen teenagers with books lately? Me neither.

cornflake said:
Yeah, I have. I know teens who read, and I've seen teens at book signings, openings of movies based on books, and perusing the stacks in libraries and shelves in bookstores.

And posting on AW as well.

Ravioli · Apr 12, 2015

zanzjan said:
Seriously?

Just as it'd be nice not to be dismissive of YA books, can we also not be completely dismissive of actual young adults too?

Just making an observation. Not my fault that the past 20 years have seen a massive change from young people sitting in trains with books or magazines, to young people sitting in trains with smartphones. Not gonna do the "But not all are like that!" thing as it's obvious and doesn't need stating.

Haven't seen anyone trip or bump into things with a book blocking their view in a long time. Smartphones on the other hand... gotta crush that candy, y'know? Let's just face it. Yeah, there are young people who read. But if we're gonna talk percentages, my money is on smartphones, and NOT referring to smartphone ereader apps.

Samsonet · Apr 12, 2015

eyeblink said:
And posting on AW as well.

I don't have a smartphone, but I do have an iPod and like a gazillion ebooks. None YA though -- most are middle grade, with a few adult thrillers.

Usher · Apr 12, 2015

As a child I read picture books, junior fiction, adult fiction, YA fiction. That never stopped. I didn't grow up with "ooh you must not read that" and made my way through the book collections of my great-aunts, uncles, grandparents as well as that of my parents.

By the time I was 8 or 9 I was reading the Chalet School and Hardy Boys alongside Agatha Christie, Bronte sisters, Dickens, Victoria Holt etc

Thirty years on I still read the Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton alongside other books.

A good story and great character appeals to most readers.

jtrylch13 · Apr 12, 2015

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:
Yeah well, have you seen teenagers with books lately? Me neither.

Of course there are teens who read and those who don't. I bet 50 years ago kids didn't carry around books either, and there were no smartphones. It wasn't cool then and it isn't cool now, so I don't see the difference. Most teens read in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Especially considering they're reading coming of age stories about things that feel personal to them. They don't want prying eyes seeing them do this. And that's not a cool thing, that's teens connecting personally with a book and wanting to keep that experience for themselves. I'd say it's more likely that smartphones and video games have separated kids from playing sports, on a team or just for fun, or from being physically active and social, than from them reading. Yes technology has captured the attentions of teens and adults alike, but I wouldn't say that doesn't mean teens read. Your statement was kind of a blanket, offensive remark that makes people upset. It wasn't very nuanced into all the aspects that go into how teens read, what they read, how much they read, etc. and that sets people on edge, hence the many replies to the contrary. And I can make a long list of kids I know who read.

Usher · Apr 12, 2015

I'm not a teenager but I no longer carry a book around - that's what I have Kindle and a smart phone for. (And I always carried a book or two as a teenager).

zanzjan · Apr 12, 2015

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:
Not my fault that the past 20 years have seen a massive change from ~~young~~ people sitting in trains with books or magazines, to ~~young~~ people sitting in trains with smartphones.

Fixed it for ya.

That you felt the need to single out and denigrate young people alone speaks more to your biases than any objective reality. And given that a lot of AW members *are* teens, your "observation" crossed the RYFW line, IMNSHO.

bethany · Apr 12, 2015

Laer Carroll said:
A goodly number of YA books are on the short side. Witness those by John Green. But nowadays plenty of YA books are longer. The Hunger Games is in the middle, about 100K words for each. Plenty of others are on the long side, such as the Twilight and Eragon series and the later Potter books.

Plenty of YA books are written more simply than books intended for adults. But there has been considerably evolution of the literary sophistication of YA books, especially in the last dozen years or so. Some YA is the equal of most adult books. This I suspect is one of the reasons that many adults read them.

Twilight, Harry Potter, And Eragon are exceptions to the rule and are short compared to what I'm talking about. I just reread the Wheel of Time series, clocking in at 3million 304k words. The 8 outlander books (around 7k pages, Steven King's Dark Tower series 1million 295k words aprox). The longest YA series do not come close in length to a middling adult fantasy series, and I don't see that changing. I love YA, but I'll always love the more involved longer series for losing myself in a book. That's just my thing, as an adult reader who reads and buys YA on a weekly basis, but who has read adult books since middle school as well.

As for sophistication- YA has its own type of sophistication, namely combining a myriad of plots with the bildungsroman/coming of age theme that is generally at the core of a YA novel. Writing more words doesn't equal sophistication. There is nothing wrong with simplicity.
Stylistically, YA does tend to have certain characteristics, including heavy dialogue. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.

Buyers of YA are 65% adults

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