Having a YA novel set in 2010...

Why would it be a problem?

chompers said:

Why would it be a problem?

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+1

If the whole novel is set during teen/YA years save a very brief bit*, why would this be a problem?

Incidentally, NA would technically be older than the usual YA age, more of the early college years rather than the tail end of high school. Since the bulk of the novel sounds like it's YA, that's how you'd probably be marketing it.

(* - I'm not sure why she "needs" to age along with real-time, here... are you going to update the manuscript every year, and the book itself if published, to add a birthday?)

Why 2010? Just curious. Because I see where the agents are thinking the potential readers won't have a reference for it. For YA it needs to be contemporary or historical (or, I guess, the future in sci-fi/fantasy), and unfortunately there's a kind of gap of time in there where it would be neither.

I've heard agents talk about that there has to be a legitimate reason for it to be set in the past. Farther in the past are okay for nostalgia and commentary, but I can't really see a reason for only six years ago versus now.

Sage said:

On another note, I bet that YA is more likely to be literary than NA.

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This. YA is a category that encompasses many subgenres, including literary. (An example would be something like G1rl in Pieces.) I'm not well read in NA, but I can't think of a literary title offhand. If the novel is literary and about a college-age character, I'd just call it adult literary (or maybe mainstream).

Sage said:

Hannah Moskowitz's Gone Gone Gone could be published in 2012 with a 2002 setting because it was centered around specific events that happened during that year.

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I'm also curious to know if there's a reason why it's set in 2010. Do you have to define the year at all to advance the story? If something meaningful happened in 2010 that impacts your character, I don't see why an agent would take issue with it. That being said, for readers in 2016 who are in the young adult age group, 2010 might feel like ancient history.

Interesting. My own novel Partings and Greetings is set in 2009-2010. It's not spelled out but you can work it out from references in the text. This is partly because I wrote the first draft in 2009 and set the novel in 2008-2009, advancing it a year when I rewrote it.

I could set it now, making my protagonist born in September 1998 instead of 1992, and those references would have to change, which could be done. There would be an issue if I did set it in 2015-2016 though: my protagonist is English-born of Polish parents (and I'm not changing that). I can't see any way of having a protagonist of that nationality in a story set in the UK now without dealing with Brexit.

mystere said:

It was both for cultural reasons (beginning of the Obama era) as well as the MC having to be a child when the internet was in its infancy. But what I've done is remove the year altogether.

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I think it would be okay to mention those things, and people would get that it took place in 2010, without actually having to spell it out. If it's an important part of the story, I don't see why it would be a problem.

Eleanor & Park takes place in the 80s. I think it'd be a different kind of story if it took place in 2016, with cellphones and computers.

This might sound a little pessimistic, but over time the fact that it's set 6-7 years ago will be less of a big deal and it WILL become historical. Right now it just sort of makes the book feel dated, like you wrote it 6-7 years ago... I come from a screenwriting background and people try to keep things current and if it's intended to be historical, they deliberately set it in the 80s like The Americans or Stranger Things for a clear reason. But think about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (is that what it's called?) It's a somewhat recent book set in the somewhat recent time of 9/11 yet to some kids it's going to feel old. 15 year old kids were just born that year. But that book worked fine because it was such a historical time that people have heard of it and it made sense to set it then.

mystere said:

Hi all, I'm new here and I'd be interested in your advice.

My YA/NA novel is set in 2010 when the protagonist was a teenager. She is obviously older now but the entire novel is set during her teens, ie there are no flashbacks except at the beginning.

I am guessing this is unusual for YA though it's used in adult fiction a lot. I thought I'd ask your opinions as to whether this could be a problem to agents.

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I'll be the pessimistic one and tell you that you're making this exceptionally hard on yourself with this set up. You're setting this up to be a story told by an older character, likely in an older and reflective voice. That's kiss of death territory for YA. Your protag is out of their teens, so you may - and in fact likely - have an adult novel with a teenage protagonist.

Teen does not automatically = YA.

I'd say don't LET her be old now. Just set it then. Write the character's teenage POV and let it be 2010.

Seconding cyia -- a reflective, older protagonist looking back on their teen years is not YA, imo. It lacks the immediacy that characterises the genre. Many coming of age stories are adult fiction (PREP, THE CHOCOLATE MONEY etc) -- it sounds likely that your novel is one of those stories.

I think I agree with most of the comments here that this doesn't necessarily sound YA, although I think I've seen a few stories where it's bookended by someone opening their diary and then commencing with a YA story (meaning that it's mostly absent the future version's thoughts and reactions). I don't know if I have enough info from your description to know where to place this.

That said, if YA agents are having issues with the fact that it's a period piece (and the relevance of what you said about the 2008 election makes it one, even if a fairly recent one) then it probably sounds like this is more of an adult novel that may not need to be YA.

I guess the bottom line is which is more important: the period elements, or the YA ones?