Is NA normally just grouped in with YA?

Vivairi

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I've noticed that there isn't usually an NA section on a lot of writing forums, but there's almost always (or, in fact, always) a YA section with a few posts about NA. However, I understand that YA and NA are different categories (such as, you aren't technically supposed to have a YA character be over the age of 18, and each category has their own themes that tie into them). I suppose my question is, if I'm posting about something that's NA, should it be in a general genre section (such as Romance or Sci-Fi) or would I just go to the YA section?
 

Laer Carroll

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My understanding is that it's a category that some publishers and agents tried to get to take off as a separate category, but which has (so far) failed to do so. Books about 18-25ish characters usually get put in one of the adult categories, but almost never in YA.

It's a favorite of mine. My favorite work which would fit into this category is the movie (not the book on which it was based) The Devil Wears Prada. In it Meryl Streep made a seemingly-monstrous fashion editor character similar to Anna Wintour complexly believable and sympathetic.
 

thereeness

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NA was an age category/genre that tried to take off into something, but sadly got regulated to a subgenre of romance, because all of the NA being released when it was tentatively trying to become a thing was (you guessed it) contemporary romance. Now, if you have characters in the 18-25 range, you either need to age them down (YA) or up (Adult) to fit into a category or you self-publish.

This is particularly vexing to me as I'm aging out of writing YA, I feel, and would rather write about young 20-somethings than teenagers. But that's just me.
 

Albedo

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Why do characters 18-25 need to be aged up, though? Can't you just publish the work as adult fiction with characters aged 18-25? Do older adults really not read books about people in their 20s?

'New Adult' has always seemed to me to be a marketing category in search of legitimacy as a genre*. The themes might be worthy, but I don't personally understand how that makes New Adult a distinct genre. When I was a 'new adult' I wasn't limiting my reading to books about characters my age becoming adults, though there are plenty of examples (Laer gives a good one). I was reading everything. And personally I would have steered well clear of anything marketed that way, had it existed. Doesn't the existence of 'new adult' sort of make the implication you're not ready for 'adult' literature, whatever that is? I can't speak for anyone else, of course, but I can't be the only one who actually finds the name a turn-off, and I wonder if that's part of why it's never taken off.



*Of course the joke being all genres are marketing categories.
 
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ZachJPayne

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NA was an age category/genre that tried to take off into something, but sadly got regulated to a subgenre of romance, because all of the NA being released when it was tentatively trying to become a thing was (you guessed it) contemporary romance. Now, if you have characters in the 18-25 range, you either need to age them down (YA) or up (Adult) to fit into a category or you self-publish.

This is particularly vexing to me as I'm aging out of writing YA, I feel, and would rather write about young 20-somethings than teenagers. But that's just me.

Mark me up as a person who's sad that the NA classification (not really a genre in the sense that YA isn't a genre) didn't take off. It just seems like a place so rich for being a real thing

I just turned 27. I am legally, and by most definitions (maybe still a bit of brain maturation left) a fully grown adult.

But when I think about adults, I think about my parents's generation: people with jobs, families, and businesses, with a certain level of stability in their lives. It seems that a large percentage of people in their age group have that life.

When I look at people between the age of 18-30ish, I see a much smaller percentage of people who have "adult" lives, and see a lot of "new adults"--people who are finishing their education, having their first jobs, having their first loves, seeing the world, having those first adult experiences, and eventually transitioning into regular adults--or becoming the eccentric "cool aunt/uncle" who doesn't.

So NA made sense for me. I feel that disconnect between those two age classifications. And I really hope it can come back, as something that isn't a formulaic romance between "good girl on her own at school for the first time" and "bad boy". (Not saying I didn't enjoy some NA novels, but there's a formula to them).

But for now, I have to agree: NA is adult.
 

thereeness

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Albedo - Ah, sorry, I wasn't clear. In traditional publishing, they want you to age the characters up or down to fit into the YA or Adult categories, or so my editor/agent/author friends have told me. But if you self-publish, you can totally be NA if you want. Actually, I have to admit I'm curious as to how many self-pubbed books per year would be categorized as "NA," depending on the age of their narrator/protagonist.

ZachJPayne - Yeah, I'm disappointed too. I'm 31, and I relate more to the generation younger than me than my mother's, because I don't feel like a "regular" adult. I don't own a house, have kids, I'm not in a serious relationship, my education is a fancy piece of paper that cost me 50 grand and got me nowhere, and I'm working a day job to pursue my real goal. So, NA really speaks to me now, more than YA does. I'm also hoping that if enough people self-pub it enough, it'll start to get going as something real this time and traditional publishing will sit up and take notice.
 

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Victoria Schwab writes books with 18-25 year old characters. The Darker Shade of magic books, and Vicious feature characters in their early 20s
 

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Victoria Schwab writes books with 18-25 year old characters. The Darker Shade of magic books, and Vicious feature characters in their early 20s


True! But both of those series were published as Adult, not YA. She uses V. E. Schwab for her Adult books, and Victoria Schwab for her YA books.
 

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Worth noting: V.E. Schwab was already published before getting books published with characters those ages.

Also worth noting: A lot of what was known as chick lit (like Devil Wears Prada) would have been called NA if it had been a thing at the time, but it wasn't developed until later.
 

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Back in the old days (I say in my best old-person croak) we had YA novels with over-eighteen protagonists. For that matter, we had middle-grade novels with over-eighteen protagonists. I'm not sure why the publishing industry got cranky and decided that YA had to be confined to under-eighteen protagonists.
 

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Mark me up as a person who's sad that the NA classification (not really a genre in the sense that YA isn't a genre) didn't take off. It just seems like a place so rich for being a real thing.

I'm disappointed too. When I was in my early 20s, I felt too adult for continuing to read YA but not old enough still to be moving on to more adult books. I think with university and getting jobs and settling down, I would have loved if there was a New Adult genres for those experiences I could read about and relate to. I could never find any adult books that had those relatable experiences. When there was talk about it becoming a thing I was excited because it sounded like the category I wanted to read more about and be more suited for my age.

I would have loved it if it all worked out. It would suit one of my WiPs better than bringing the ages down or considering it adult.
 
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MaeZe

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...Now, if you have characters in the 18-25 range, you either need to age them down (YA) or up (Adult) to fit into a category or you self-publish....
Gawd I hope not.

My characters are 17 and 19 for a reason, they still want to change the world but the story is definitely after high school. The protagonist is 17 and dreams of going to college that is currently out of reach for her. Aging her up or down simply does not fit the story I'm writing.

And it can really mess things up, in my opinion, to arbitrarily change your characters' ages. They could easily not read the age they are supposed to be.
 

frimble3

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Also worth noting: A lot of what was known as chick lit (like Devil Wears Prada) would have been called NA if it had been a thing at the time, but it wasn't developed until later.
And I think there's a reason that chick lit was hot for a while, then faded, and NA had a few books, then died off.
People are saying they want books about 'new adult' experiences: first job, first place of their own, etc, but what NA seemed to emphasize was the 'Adult' - first relationship, first sex, etc. 'First job' was about the hotties in the office, 'first place' was about getting a place to have guys over.
I would read NA about actual characters doing things for the first time: jobs (whether cool or mundane), paying bills, travel, etc. But ditzy babes trying to snag a man is so...old.
 

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I've certainly read recently-trade-published "adult" books where the protagonists are in their twenties. In fantasy and SF it can actually be hard to find novels with protagonists, especially female ones, older than their thirties (though SF seems better in this regard than fantasy is, though they sometimes cheat by having artificially expanded lifespans). I've run across some titles that aren't SF and fantasy where the protagonists are in their twenties too. Some are contemporary romances (though not marketed as NA, from what I can tell). A couple I've read are sort of crossovers, where they're sometimes described as YA, but also marketed to adults, even though the protagonists are "college age."
 

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A bit late to this thread, but it's something I'm dealing with as well. I write NA but with a more YA voice than adult - my main characters are usually 18 with maybe more of the mental/emotional development and growth of a teenager but dealing with adult things...like most 18-year-olds. Really wish NA took off. I agree that I can't really level up to adult or down to YA...just stuck somewhere awkward in the middle.

Though I feel like more and more YA books are having more "adult" situations, so maybe there is a way?
 

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Emim, you can probably get away with YA. Eighteen is the top age for YA MCs.
 

Fuchsia Groan

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Hmm. I’m not that up on current contemp/literary fiction, but it is my impression that books about twentysomethings absolutely exist. They may not have a dedicated shelf, but they are out there.

For instance, I just read a contemp novel from Sourcebooks about a group of friends who are all 28; some have settled down and some have not. Or, to take an example from at least ten years ago, but this was a “big book”: Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel. Very much about being a millennial contemplating adulthood. Every generation seems to produce and need books like this. (The term “Generation X” was actually coined by a novelist, IIRC. Douglas Coupland, big in the ‘90s.)

I’ve also read thrillers with protagonists in their twenties; that’s pretty common in this new post-Gone Girl wave. So, rather than aging your characters up or down, and rather than calling your book NA, I would simply pitch it as mainstream, commercial, romance, thriller, literary — whatever adult genre it fits. Just be sure you can find a few comps with similar-aged characters in that genre.
 

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I submitted to this... book pitch site where you kinda get a mentor who beta reads your story, and helps you with publishing and all that fun stuff. You send your work to four or so people who had specific guidelines for what they were looking for and they were separated into Middle School, YA, NA and Adult. Some would say they take YA but would toss any NA submitted novels towards them and visa versa. It actually made it hard to submit to because, usually, I would make mine adult, but since they had that NA, I decided to tag it as that. I don't know, I had to do a lot of thinking with this extra label because I've been sending my query out as a adult novel, when it really does fit better with NA, I think. SO, sometimes it comes up and other times it doesn't, and I think the major pull for me was the themes being discussed that separate it from YA, NA and adult, and the ages, of course, because the MC was 20.

I've read a lot of discussions over it.
 

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That's a big part of it - figuring out how to label it in queries. Some people who take the mainstream want nothing to do with YA, and it starts off as YA but then grows into something more. And good idea, Fuchsia Groan. I'm thinking of books I've read that are labeled YA but are on the far end of it - 18+ characters, adult themes, etc. At this point the best bet is looking at their agents with the idea of, well, they were perfectly fine with this kind of in-between story idea.
 

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No, I think it's normally grouped with adult. It's really too bad, because a separate genre for NA was a great idea - as part of that age group myself, I would have loved to read more books about college-age or recently college-age people and the unique issues at that stage in life. Unfortunately it was taken over by a bunch of badly written romances with emotionally-abusive love interests. Still, I think a back cover summary or query letter makes it pretty clear if something is NA or not, even if it's not its own genre.
 

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Slave by Laura Frances is a perfect example of what I would consider an NA novel outside of the usual contemporary romance. It's marketed as a Teen and Young Adult dystopian novel (on Amazon at least) but its tone is considerably more mature for the genre IMO. It felt not quite adult (since the MC didn't have much life experience) and not quite YA (since the MC is slightly older, among other reasons). The main character was also a 19/20 year old I believe.

That said, I'm in the same boat as some of you! It's so disheartening to see NA fizzle before it had the chance to properly take off. I loved the idea of NA because characters could be young but not too young (a.k.a. inexperienced but slightly more mature) while the things they experienced were adult.
 

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Like many of you, I definitely feel NA could have become something. It's only in the last two years that I've felt Adult books have more to say to me than New Adult books could, and that's because I've gone through some "adult" life changes a lot of my peers still haven't (house buying, marriage, kids). Until then, my lifestyle was one that people of my parents' generation had well moved passed.

Something else I see YA bloggers crying out for - and I'm not sure if this is UK based - is books about university, which would necessarily feature university aged characters. The point they seem to make is there need to be more of these kind of books as it's an untapped area. One such book that came out last year, Freshers, by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison, featured characters aged 18+ in their first year of university. I didn't rate it myself but it received a ton of positive attention simply because of its subject matter. Although, it's worth pointing out the ground it covered - firsts, figuring yourself out, learning to function away from your home support network - were quite YA in nature. Though, as a lot of that stuff carried on for me throughout most of my 20s, I don't see why it should be that YA in feel; it's not like NAs or Adults have everything figured out.