Setting Novels in Recent History

Whenever you choose a particular setting, or move something to a particular setting, there should be a point.

You don't stage Romeo and Juliet in San Diego because you're from there, if you see what I mean. You stage it someplace particular, do it for a reason.

What would be the reason to set a book 10 years in the past, which isn't far enough to change much of anything, but is far enough that, for a YA audience, it'd be out of their experience?

If it was a book that revolved around a teen losing her parents in 9-11, that's a reason to set it then. If it's a book about something that could reasonably be set in contemporary times but you're moving it because you went to h.s. 10 years ago and thus want to set it 10 years ago, then I think you don't have a great justification.

You can do whatever you want, obviously, but if there's no obvious point, and especially if it's YA and thus the audience won't have experience of it or have learned of it, it will also look clearly, like you did it because that's when you went to h.s.

startraveller said:

As far as I can tell, there is no true nostalgia for pop culture from 2007.
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So, I ask: Do books set in recent memory put you off? Should they revolve around specific historic events? Are they too nostalgic?

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Your questions contain the answer. If there is no true nostalgia for pop culture from 2007, what would it matter if you just change band names to contemporary ones, or whatever? It's not a memoir, you can make things up.
It's not exactly off-putting but it gives an odd feeling of reading an old book and publishers would be asking why. Teens are very sensitive about things that have gone out of fashion, it just seems aaaaages ago. It's not "nostalgic", it's dinosaurs. Also, you should ask yourself why you want to give your book a dated look.

And does your book revolve around specific historic events from 2007? I can't remember anything groundbreaking that could not be changed to a contemporary or a fictional event/person. Even if your MC was influenced by a real event that happened in 2007 and cannot be moved, you can always use that, only the MC will not be a witness to the event. They may, for example, simply learn about that event now, or start thinking about it, again, now. The result will be the same, the event might still be influential in their life.
Or, it would make sense if your book ends with the character reminiscing about specific events from their past, like this one time when they went to a Michael Jackson concert and met their future spouse and now they are married and are naming their kid Concert Ticket Jackson.

If you have your heart set on writing something in 2007, is it possible to take the YA aspects out and make it a full-on adult piece? If that's not something you want to do, I'd definitely shift it to the present or even further in the past, since there's not much of a market for recent past stories.

I have some first hand and very current experience with this. My most recent completed manuscript is a YA set in the recent past. I got an agent attached and her first and biggest note was to bump it up to the present. I just finished the rewrite updating it to present day. It lost absolutely nothing and in fact became a stronger manuscript as a result. I realized that the only reason I set it in the recent past was because, like you, that's when I was the age of the characters I was writing about. It just felt easier to set it there, in my comfort zone. But like others have said, unless there's a real reason for it to be set in the past - like for example a story set around a major event like 9/11 or something - then why do it? In my case it was just laziness. I didn't want to do the little bit of research needed to learn the current pop culture references or what social media ap the kids are mostly communicating with today, etc. Don't let your own personal nostalgia hold you back from writing the best (and most marketable!) version of your story. At least them's my two cents.

I have a MG set in 2003. It's set there because that's when I did the initial research before putting the manuscript aside. There is a medical issue in the book that would be resolved today without the consequences that make the book what it needs to be. Fourteen years is a long time in medicine. I might go further back, but it can't go forward. The technology is a reason to keep it in the past. If I go too far back, the tech would change again, so I have to be careful to keep it in a window or lose the story. That, to me, is a legitimate reason. The reason is based on/in the story.

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I have a MG set in 2003. It's set there because that's when I did the initial research before putting the manuscript aside. There is a medical issue in the book that would be resolved today without the consequences that make the book what it needs to be. Fourteen years is a long time in medicine. I might go further back, but it can't go forward. The technology is a reason to keep it in the past. If I go too far back, the tech would change again, so I have to be careful to keep it in a window or lose the story. That, to me, is a legitimate reason. The reason is based on/in the story.

Find a story-based reason for your setting.