Hi, everyone. 
After reading through this thread, I have a question. :oints to title:: I'm working on a science fiction series where the main character starts as a thirteen-year-old, but he'll be about eighteen when the series ends. I figured it was YA at first, but now, I'm not so sure because of my MC's age and my overall writing style. (According to MS Word, my first book is written at a 5-6 grade level.) However, there are certain themes I *really* want to keep and don't know if I could in a middle grade book. Here's a brief rundown on the parts that might cause contention:
There's a little bit of bad language. Not much and certainly no F-bombs, but a little. There's a fair amount of innuendo, including my thirteen-year-old protagonist's fascination with his favorite female teacher's breasts (hey he's a thirteen-year-old boy! *g* Last I heard, they notice these things), and although it won't be explicit, the topic of sex will present itself in later books. The violence level is a notch above Harry Potter. And... it may be revealed later on that some of my characters are gay or bisexual. Oh, yeah, and the first book is about 80,000 words. (Of course, thanks to J.K. Rowling, that may not be as much of a problem as it used to be.)
I also know there are exceptions to the YA age rules. The main characters of His Dark Materials are only twelve. I've also seen Ender's Game repackaged as YA because so many teens love the story, and Ender is only six for a good part of the book. But I'm thinking of what my best market would be, balanced against how much of the story I would have to sacrifice if I went with MG.
So... yeah. Do you think it's best to just present my book(s) as YA and let the agents/publishers sort it out, or would it be a good idea to consider the MG possibility instead?
Thanks in advance,
~JM.
After reading through this thread, I have a question. :oints to title:: I'm working on a science fiction series where the main character starts as a thirteen-year-old, but he'll be about eighteen when the series ends. I figured it was YA at first, but now, I'm not so sure because of my MC's age and my overall writing style. (According to MS Word, my first book is written at a 5-6 grade level.) However, there are certain themes I *really* want to keep and don't know if I could in a middle grade book. Here's a brief rundown on the parts that might cause contention:There's a little bit of bad language. Not much and certainly no F-bombs, but a little. There's a fair amount of innuendo, including my thirteen-year-old protagonist's fascination with his favorite female teacher's breasts (hey he's a thirteen-year-old boy! *g* Last I heard, they notice these things), and although it won't be explicit, the topic of sex will present itself in later books. The violence level is a notch above Harry Potter. And... it may be revealed later on that some of my characters are gay or bisexual. Oh, yeah, and the first book is about 80,000 words. (Of course, thanks to J.K. Rowling, that may not be as much of a problem as it used to be.
)I also know there are exceptions to the YA age rules. The main characters of His Dark Materials are only twelve. I've also seen Ender's Game repackaged as YA because so many teens love the story, and Ender is only six for a good part of the book. But I'm thinking of what my best market would be, balanced against how much of the story I would have to sacrifice if I went with MG.
So... yeah. Do you think it's best to just present my book(s) as YA and let the agents/publishers sort it out, or would it be a good idea to consider the MG possibility instead?
Thanks in advance,
~JM.
I guess I'm just not clear on what the subject limits for MG are or how many potential teen readers would just ditch the story as soon as they realized how young the main character is. Or would they read on anyway since, right on the first page, he's being interrogated for killing his stepfather?