Would this issue create problems for an agent?

KCT · Jan 21, 2016

To be more specific, the story line/plot to my novel divides into two periods separated by a twelve-year gap in time. The first half of the story involves the interaction between a girl and a boy who are both fifteen years old at the time. The second half of the story involves them interacting once more when they are now twenty-seven years old. The plot involves adult issues from the beginning, such as insanity, and the unraveling of a strange mystery regarding the murder of the girl's father.

I'm wondering if the bridging of the YA and Adult genres in this manner would create an inherent difficulty for an agent to market the book. In other words, would this spread of age issue alone send up a red flag and cause an agent to have second thoughts, or be more apt to reject the novel due to the difficulty of placing it in the proper genre?

I look forward to any comments you may wish offer regarding this issue.

kuwisdelu · Jan 21, 2016

Young protagonists aren't automatically YA.

There is plenty of adult fiction with teenage-or-younger protagonists.

The question is whether you see your book as YA or not.

An adult protagonist won't fly in YA, but young protagonists are perfectly fine in adult fiction.

Treehouseman · Jan 22, 2016

"The Girl With All The Gifts" had an adult and a child's voice.

I've spoken with my agent about this same thing, and as Kuwisdelu says, in your situation, it'll more likely be marketed as adult fiction.

KTC · Jan 22, 2016

What they said. I have two adult novels with teen and child narrators. Their age does not a ya make. (-:

Vanayssa · Jan 22, 2016

Well, I wrote a book called Pagan Flames and got it published by a publisher, although started getting it out there on Kindle myself. It didn't move well so I got a publisher and still, it does as well as I make it sell...the selling is my job. I'm learning. Point is, that book suddenly won the honour of being listed as one of seven Best YA reads of 2015 by a review blogger, Michael Thal. I was amazed and stunned. I had written it for adults. I never ever thought of writing YA. But there it is. It's a YA book. You never know. So I wouldn't worry about that...my editor discussed this with me, saying that adults tend to read YA books a lot. So there seems to be commonly a lot of blurring the lines in genre when it comes to buying a book.

Would this issue create problems for an agent?

KCT

New kid, be gentle!

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Treehouseman

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Vanayssa