I'm thinking about offering my book in two versions, YA & MG.

Sage

Currently titleless
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
64,562
Reaction score
22,369
Age
43
Location
Cheering you all on!
I think this will make it more difficult to market, not easier. Instead of picking one market and sticking to it, you have to always be worrying about what version you're marketing, not to mention what version the buyer is buying.

I also think that the difference between YA and MG is dependent on more than whether there are curse words or not.
 

CoffeeBeans

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,499
Reaction score
433
With search & replace, I can swap or delete the curse words easily.

So, the only difference between what an MG version of your book and a YA version of your book would be in the swear words? What about the age of your MC, the challenges your MC will face, etc?

Mostly, I'm guessing what you'd really make was a PG and PG-13 (or PG13/R depending on what's in there other than language) version of your book, because the book target-wise, will not change it from YA to MG with find-and-replace alone.
 

Loverofwords

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 11, 2015
Messages
701
Reaction score
143
Taking out curse words doesn't make your book MG.

MG and YA have separate themes and age groups. Usually what's popular in one category isn't the same in the other. Maybe you should do a wee bit more research.
 

TECarter

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 30, 2016
Messages
184
Reaction score
24
Website
tecarter.com
My novel was pitched as crossover YA/adult. However, I'm worried that's going to hurt it in the end. It's pretty dark for YA, but adults may be turned off by its marketing as a YA novel. I think a clearer market is easier on everyone, but again, some books don't work that way. Book Thief was originally listed as MG, I think, and now is YA, but is really relevant to any market. Still, the fact that it's in the kids/teen sections of bookstores can be an issue for some people.
 

Fuchsia Groan

Becoming a laptop-human hybrid
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 27, 2008
Messages
2,870
Reaction score
1,399
Location
The windswept northern wastes
My novel was pitched as crossover YA/adult. However, I'm worried that's going to hurt it in the end. It's pretty dark for YA, but adults may be turned off by its marketing as a YA novel. I think a clearer market is easier on everyone, but again, some books don't work that way. Book Thief was originally listed as MG, I think, and now is YA, but is really relevant to any market. Still, the fact that it's in the kids/teen sections of bookstores can be an issue for some people.

I have the same issue, or thought I did. But a reviewer called my book "tame," so maybe YA actually gets a LOT darker than I thought. :) Then again, different things register as dark and disturbing for different readers.

Wrt the OP, my guess is that if your book involves MG-aged kids and a lot of curse words, it might actually be more appropriately marketed as adult fiction. But that depends on the nature of the story. It's very rare, in the kid lit categories, to see a book whose category is NOT dictated by the age of the MC.

I can think of one recent exception: Unscr1pted Joss Byrd, which comes out in August. The MC is 12; the book is YA. But there's a specific compelling reason: The MC is a child actor who spends most of her time on sets with adults. So not only is there salty language, but she's older than her years and dealing with problems few tweens encounter.

Anyway, while swearing is indeed a problem in MG, age level is determined by a lot more than swearing.
 

francist44

Tenacious to a fault
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2011
Messages
582
Reaction score
21
Location
Spotsylvania Virgina, not the vampire place
Website
www.writerfrans-cave.com
Thanks for replies everyone.
My Problem is, adults have read it and enjoyed it as well as teens and preteens.
Note: the circa is 1958
My characters do not curse for sake of it:
Damn, my arm fuckin hurts. I looked up at Walt, “I don’t know?” With dread for what I might see, I held my breath and looked at my right arm. Sure enough, I saw blood, a lot of blood. “Wholly crap! Walt, can you see this?”
Walt’s jaw dropped. “Oh shit, that looks freakin bad.”


The sex below is about as hot it gets, which is hardly warm:
Later, the sight and sounds of a Roman chariot race held my utmost attention. I was thus, only vaguely aware of Sue’s fingers in my hair, or that her other hand had discovered the small tear in my pant leg near my crotch. When the chariot scene ended, I faced Sue. “Did you find that as exciting as I did, Sweetie?”
An odd smile appeared on Sue’s lips. “Probably more so than you, Mister Oblivious. Kiss me and make me tingle.”
Mister Whom, and
tingle? What the hell? Naw, don’t ask. I kissed her, upon kissing Sue again, I felt her fingers in that tear and gasped. I looked down I saw my number 16 sweatshirt on my lap and Sue’s hand were under it. “What the fuck are you doing?” I whispered.
“Just making the movie more exciting.”
“Stop that, you’re getting more than the movie excited!”
“Sue frowned, “Um, but I never felt a real roll of money before. Can I hold it for a minute, please; it's dark; no one see will see or know?”
“No, behave yourself.” I lifted her hand from my leg. “Watch the damn movie.”

Coffeebeans suggestion of PG13 may be the way go?

 
Last edited:

cornflake

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
16,171
Reaction score
3,734
Who's read it or liked it has nothing to do with what age it's targeted to. I enjoy Beverly Cleary -- doesn't make Ramona a book for adults. I've read stuff without a lot of swearing or sex that's really not for an MG audience.

As noted above, sex and cursing aren't the sole determinants.

Also, I don't think Coffeebeans was referring to an actual plan, but to what you seemed to be suggesting. Those are movie ratings and even the MPAA, stupid as it is, doesn't combine them.
 

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
12,977
Reaction score
4,513
Location
USA
Website
brightdreamersbookreviews.blogspot.com
Thanks for replies everyone.
My Problem is, adults have read it and enjoyed it as well as teens and preteens.

How is that a problem? That means more potential buyers. Plenty of grown-ups browse in the YA (and even MG) section of the bookstore. As others have mentioned, cursing and/or sex alone aren't the deciding factors. It's actually a bit blurry, where the dividing lines are, when you zoom in close. I would suggest either reading some comparable titles in different age categories to see how close your book "feels" to them, and pitching appropriately, or posting a section in the SYW part of the forum (password-protected) and asking others.

FWIW, I'm getting more of a YA vibe from the bits you posted, but that's just MHO and based on very little evidence. (Also, the nitpicker in me can't help it: Wholly crap - should probably be "Holy crap," if you're going for the curse word. If the situation is 100% excrement, then it would indeed be wholly crap, but it seems like an odd phrase to exclaim under the circumstances. Could go toward characterization, though... ;) )
 

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
18,618
Reaction score
4,032
Location
Brillig in the slithy toves...
MG / YA / Adult are marketing categories based on A LOT more than language usage. Tone is king. There's "major" language in the Miss Peregrine's novels, some that many parents would rush to cover their kids ears if they heard it in a movie, but it's MG.

The age of your characters matters, and the tone of the piece matters. You can have an 11 year old in a MG novel, but you can also have a book for adults with an 11 year old protag. These two books will be so different that there would be no way to interchange them.

However, you could write a MG about the younger version of your characters.
 

Putputt

permanently suctioned to Buz's leg
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 10, 2012
Messages
5,448
Reaction score
2,980
MG / YA / Adult are marketing categories based on A LOT more than language usage. Tone is king. There's "major" language in the Miss Peregrine's novels, some that many parents would rush to cover their kids ears if they heard it in a movie, but it's MG.

Miss Peregrine is MG?? Good lord. When I read it, I thought it was very firmly YA. Lately, the line between MG and YA seems to have blurred for me. I just finished Frances Hardinge's A Face Like Glass (brilliant book with amazing worldbuilding) and I thought it was very clearly MG in terms of tone and themes, but when I Googled reviews of it, it was apparently marketed as YA. So I don't even know anymoooore *world crumbles around my ears*.

Anywhooo, for the purposes of this thread, based on the excerpt, I think your book is most probably YA. And another vote for "Holy crap" as opposed to "Wholly crap". :D
 

kenpochick

I should be writing, not on AW.:-)
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
602
Reaction score
128
Location
in my head mostly
Actually it should read "Holy crap." :) I think you already have your answer but yeah, YA and MG are totally different beasts. :)
 

CoffeeBeans

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,499
Reaction score
433
Coffeebeans suggestion of PG13 may be the way go?

Yeah, I wasn't suggesting that as a solution, more as a comparison of what the changes you'd be making would mean for the novel. The MS is still appropriate for whatever target audience the story is for, not the language is for. The line might be blurry between MG and YA in some ways, but that's not one of the ways.
 

RaggedEdge

I can do this
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 20, 2013
Messages
1,427
Reaction score
762
Location
USA, she/her
Miss Peregrine is MG?? Good lord. When I read it, I thought it was very firmly YA. Lately, the line between MG and YA seems to have blurred for me. I just finished Frances Hardinge's A Face Like Glass (brilliant book with amazing worldbuilding) and I thought it was very clearly MG in terms of tone and themes, but when I Googled reviews of it, it was apparently marketed as YA. So I don't even know anymoooore *world crumbles around my ears*.

Yeah, the lines are blurring and it's making me feel all jaggly and this-is-hopeless-I'll-never-get-it-right.

Here's a recent article about how MG is getting more mature, tackling darker subjects.
 

Lord Hierarch

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
200
Reaction score
9
Thanks for replies everyone.
My Problem is, adults have read it and enjoyed it as well as teens and preteens.
Note: the circa is 1958
My characters do not curse for sake of it:
Damn, my arm fuckin hurts. I looked up at Walt, “I don’t know?” With dread for what I might see, I held my breath and looked at my right arm. Sure enough, I saw blood, a lot of blood. “Wholly crap! Walt, can you see this?”
Walt’s jaw dropped. “Oh shit, that looks freakin bad.”


The sex below is about as hot it gets, which is hardly warm:
Later, the sight and sounds of a Roman chariot race held my utmost attention. I was thus, only vaguely aware of Sue’s fingers in my hair, or that her other hand had discovered the small tear in my pant leg near my crotch. When the chariot scene ended, I faced Sue. “Did you find that as exciting as I did, Sweetie?”
An odd smile appeared on Sue’s lips. “Probably more so than you, Mister Oblivious. Kiss me and make me tingle.”
Mister Whom, and
tingle? What the hell? Naw, don’t ask. I kissed her, upon kissing Sue again, I felt her fingers in that tear and gasped. I looked down I saw my number 16 sweatshirt on my lap and Sue’s hand were under it. “What the fuck are you doing?” I whispered.
“Just making the movie more exciting.”
“Stop that, you’re getting more than the movie excited!”
“Sue frowned, “Um, but I never felt a real roll of money before. Can I hold it for a minute, please; it's dark; no one see will see or know?”
“No, behave yourself.” I lifted her hand from my leg. “Watch the damn movie.”

Coffeebeans suggestion of PG13 may be the way go?

OMG. By beautiful, special eyes. They've been tainted!

Oh nooooo!



From what I know of the divide between MG/YA, its mainly the theme and the ending (MG is usually optimistic, YA can be downers).