Another "Is It YA?" Thread

Liosse de Velishaf · Mar 15, 2013

The MC is 18-19, but she's in her freshman and sophomore years of college.

I feel like the voice and themes are YA, and the story itself could probably relatable for readers in high school. But maybe I'm stuck in NA or adult?

Basically, it's slipstream/literary/paranormal. The MC has a sort of stalker. Not Edward/Patch-level, but more like awkward with some boundary issues, does a lot of puppy-dogging, maybe white-knights a bit.

The guys dies saving her life, and gives a death monologue about how he'll always protect her. The paranormal part is he wasn't kidding, and whenever she has a near-death experience, or some traumatic event, she sees him/his ghost smiling at her, the implication being he keeps saving her. There's also some other stuff going on in her life, emotionally. She falls into a pattern of relying on the ghost to solve her problems, and the rest of the story is basically her putting her life back together and not relying on him anymore.

Kerosene · Mar 15, 2013

I would say NA, but it really just sounds like adult fiction.
There just doesn't seem to be a personal discovery/change going on. Just a story with a young man.

breaking_burgundy · Mar 15, 2013

I would call it NA.

wampuscat · Mar 15, 2013

Yup. I'd try NA.

Liosse de Velishaf · Mar 15, 2013

Can I even sell it as NA? I don't think it has enough sex in it.

rwm4768 · Mar 15, 2013

Just call it by its genre. As I see it, NA isn't a big enough category yet. Most agents don't list it as something they represent. In fact the search tool at AgentQuery doesn't even include it.

maybegenius · Mar 15, 2013

Is the novel finished or are you still writing/editing? If you're still in the middle of your process, I'd say see it through until you're at the finished product and then try to figure out what to call it.

If it IS finished, I'd say this definitely doesn't sound like YA. Aging a character up to actually being a college student pretty much automatically ages it out of YA. That said, I wouldn't get too set on putting it into a pre-labeled box. I'd query a variety of agents who might be interested in such a novel and just call it a "paranormal/urban fantasy" novel with a literary bent. Possibly mention it may appeal to the NA market if the agent/editor has expressed an interest in NA.

Not gonna lie, in-betweener genre stuff can be hard to place. But you can also find that it's just the right combination of fresh and familiar that someone's looking for.

Liosse de Velishaf · Mar 16, 2013

So it's the college-ness/character age that makes it not YA in this case?

Liosse de Velishaf · Mar 16, 2013

WillSauger said:
I would say NA, but it really just sounds like adult fiction.
There just doesn't seem to be a personal discovery/change going on. Just a story with a young man.

You mean like 75% of all YA ever? Especially best-selling YA PR?

SpinningWheel · Mar 16, 2013

Liosse de Velishaf said:
She falls into a pattern of relying on the ghost to solve her problems, and the rest of the story is basically her putting her life back together and not relying on him anymore.

That could be a story of personal discovery/change.

I agree that the age/college setting might be a problem. The Morganville Vampires book I'm reading at the moment has a heroine in college but she's young to be at college.

maybegenius · Mar 17, 2013

Liosse de Velishaf said:
So it's the college-ness/character age that makes it not YA in this case?

College-age and over-18 characters are really difficult to place in YA. Not impossible (I AM THE MESSENGER by Markus Zusak and Gayle Foreman's recent JUST ONE DAY come to mind), but hard. It's difficult to come out of the gate as a debut author with a hard to place book, which is why you usually see them come from already-established authors (both Zusak and Foreman already had other published YA books under their belts before they released these).

The_Ink_Goddess · Mar 18, 2013

maybegenius said:
College-age and over-18 characters are really difficult to place in YA. Not impossible (I AM THE MESSENGER by Markus Zusak and Gayle Foreman's recent JUST ONE DAY come to mind), but hard. It's difficult to come out of the gate as a debut author with a hard to place book, which is why you usually see them come from already-established authors (both Zusak and Foreman already had other published YA books under their belts before they released these).

Exactly. Messenger, I think, was kind of a cult book (despite being Printz-shortlisted) until Zusak had a huge hit with THE BOOK THIEF, and, to be honest, I think Messenger is more of an adult book. It's just that Zusak was established as a YA writer, it was first published in Australia which has more of a cult market which is more flexible and not so regimented or established (BEAUTIFUL MALICE by Rebecca James is more NA, too, but marketed as YA despite being a debut novel). Foreman is an insanely special case because she had the huge double whammy of IF I STAY/WHERE SHE WENT. She could probably write a book about an 80-year-old war veteran and marketing would try to snag her teen readers.

This seems to be asked on all the NA threads, Liosse, but is there a special reason she can't just be in her senior year of high school?

Windcutter · Mar 18, 2013

SpinningWheel said:
I agree that the age/college setting might be a problem. The Morganville Vampires book I'm reading at the moment has a heroine in college but she's young to be at college.

But it is considered to be YA paranormal, isn't it?

Another "Is It YA?" Thread

Liosse de Velishaf

Kerosene

Your Pixie Queen

breaking_burgundy

wampuscat

Recovering adjective addict

Liosse de Velishaf

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW

maybegenius

might be a giant

Liosse de Velishaf

Liosse de Velishaf

SpinningWheel

maybegenius

might be a giant

The_Ink_Goddess

we're gonna make it out of the fire

Windcutter