Pruning a Trunk - novel, that is

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Cobalt Jade

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I hope this is the right place to put this.

I have an older trunk novel I am thinking of revising for publication. It's an SF semi-dystopia set on earth, there are young people that fall in love and lust, two of which are half-alien and genderfluid, and a revolution. It's gritty, the romance is troubled. To me it sounds like a good fit for YA or NA. But it could also make a good SF romance. There would be M/M and M/F sex in the book, plus the aliens are hermaphroditic (one of the inspirations for writing it was to see if I could write a being that comprised both genders without coding it as male or female)

Pros for YA/NA:

- Young people
- Cheerful dystopia
- Sexual first times
- Action and Revolution

Pros for SF Erotic Romance:

- Sex, genderfluid flavor
- Adult themes
- Developed world building
- Intricate plot

Cons for YA/NA

- Would teens want to read about hermaphrodites or bisexual characters?
- Ditto, for sexual exploration of same?
- There's graphic torture, abuse, drug addiction
- There would be a jaundiced view of the characters' mistakes

Cons for SF Erotic Romance

- There's be more plot than sex
- Again, would romance readers want to read angst, torture, abuse, hermaphrodites, and bisexual characters?
- Not a happy ever after

Could go either way:

Story set in a ruined future NYC
There are robot attack dogs
The final message is one of tolerance and acceptance, and rolling with the punches.
 

Filigree

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Does it need pruning, or expanding? Frequently, I have to do both with my trunk pieces...if I decide they're worth reworking.

I just gave in and mentally reclassified my Wattpad trunk novel as NA, because it technically fits that description.

Filigree, from an era where they didn't have YA or NA, just fantasy and science fiction.

Re: yours. If it doesn't have a Happy Ever After or Happy For Now ending, it *cannot* go into romance. Editors and agents won't take
it for that genre, and if you self-pub as romance you may have pissed-off readers. Adult Erotic romance is going to need as much sex and/or sexual tension as story.
 
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DoNoKharms

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If you're looking to trade publish, YA Dystopia is an incredibly hard sell right now. I'd move "cheerful dystopia" to the top of the YA cons section.
 

Jamesaritchie

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If you're looking to trade publish, YA Dystopia is an incredibly hard sell right now. I'd move "cheerful dystopia" to the top of the YA cons section.

Everything is an incredibly hard sell right now. Everything was an incredibly hard sell fifty years ago, and will be fifty years from now.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Nothing matters except which you would have the most fun writing, and which you can write Forget about market placement. That's a sure way not to write a good novel.best.
 

DoNoKharms

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Everything is an incredibly hard sell right now. Everything was an incredibly hard sell fifty years ago, and will be fifty years from now.

With all due respect, James, this is either openly contrarian or willfully naive. Publishing is a business, and like any business, it is driven by the demand of consumers. If you want to write the best goddamn 300k worder about two snails crawling silently through a train station, you can, but it's silly to claim it'll sell as easily as a tightly-written political thriller. When you have a subgenre like "YA dystopia" where a significant amount of top agents in the field are actively saying "Please do not send us this", it's reasonable to advise publication-oriented writers to take that into account.
 
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Sage

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Cheering you all on!
Everything is an incredibly hard sell right now. Everything was an incredibly hard sell fifty years ago, and will be fifty years from now.
Yeah, but there's a difference between an incredibly hard sell and a genre that is reported dead by agents and editors alike.

As for the OP, go check out the stickies in the YA forum. Read a lot of YA & NA to see what is "acceptable." Many agents and editors are asking to see more MCs on the QUILTBAG spectrum.

Is the sex erotica? If it's erotica, it can't be YA. It can be NA. Are the themes, tone, and age right for YA? If not, it's not YA.
 

Cobalt Jade

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Is Quiltbag LBGT? If so, there is quiltbag a plenty in the book. But no dystopia according to the definition.
 

Tottie Scone

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I had not heard the term "quiltbag" before, but on looking out up out seems to be similar to LGBT, but I feel like I may be missing a subtle distinction. How would you describe it?
 

Cobalt Jade

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I am going to go for it. I can't resist the challenge. That had been true of me all my life.
 
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