YA Advice

hopper0001

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Hi All,

Just a fast question to get people's opinions on this. I just finished writing a novel that I think fits the YA category pretty well. Only thing is that it is a sort of "set in the past" (late 1950s to be exact) nostalgic story about an 18 year old misfit finding love in a somewhat bizarre charade on college campus. Since this has elements of YA, but also has nostalgic and romantic undertones, I'm not quite sure just how to categorize it? YA Romantic Coming of Age? YA Romance? YA Nostalgic Romance? I want to put my best foot forward with agents. I've got the query pretty much down. Made it succinct and to the point without being too vague and tried to capture interest quickly. Just one page and about 300 words give or take. That's all pretty much ready to go. It's just how to categorize it that's got me a little stuck.

Also, if anyone knows of any good nostalgic, coming of age YA books that take place in the past, please let me know. I'd like to read something very similar to my own to get a feel for how the author handled his or her book.

Thanks!
 

KBooks

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Is the main character in college or does the action just take place on a college campus?

I can think of a book I'm currently reading with a college freshmen that's still shelved as YA, but it's the 3rd and last in a series, and the character started the series as a 15-year-old, and was 16 in the second book. If you want this sort of feel/setting and want to keep it YA, would boarding school be similar enough?
 

Isobel

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Is the main character in college or does the action just take place on a college campus?

I can think of a book I'm currently reading with a college freshmen that's still shelved as YA, but it's the 3rd and last in a series, and the character started the series as a 15-year-old, and was 16 in the second book. If you want this sort of feel/setting and want to keep it YA, would boarding school be similar enough?

+1 Conventional wisdom is YA protagonists are still in high school and ideally no older than 17. There are exceptions, but typically either last books of series or well known writers, i.e., Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. FWIW, I don't think the 1950s is a problem. I've heard some skepticism from agents about "historical" YA set in the 1980s or 90s as vanity projects for authors reliving their teen years, but i think 70 years ago gets you out of that.
 

hopper0001

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The character starts at age 17. I've read someplace that YA can be 13 or so up to 18. How would you categorize it if you had to? YA romance? YA Coming of age? It is very much a coming of age story. Thanks for the reply!
 

hopper0001

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Not boarding school, college. A quick Google search will show typical YA spans from ages 12 to 18 (my character starts as a 17 year old anyway) I don't think any agent/editor is gonna nitpick on age if it's a matter of a year. My real concern is how to best categorize it. It is truly a "Coming of Age" story (which is often an aspect of YA), as the character goes through a growth/maturity. I never would have thought of myself as a YA writer and still don't, but the industry has to put it into some kind of category and YA fits best in this case. So I'm thinking YA as the main category with perhaps "romance" us the sub category since it has a romantic aspect to it as well.
 

KBooks

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YA characters can certainly be 18. But from what I've heard, usually once a character enters college, that tends to fall past the typical scope of YA and move on to adult fiction of some genre, or new adult fiction. Some books kind of skirt that weird border area... if you're a super-popular established author like Rainbow Rowell you'll probably have more leeway. If you're trying to land your first agent, it's probably a safer bet to aim more solidly within the lines.

Maybe others will chime in with different responses!
 
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Fuchsia Groan

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If you're not sure, I would just call it "YA." Almost all YA novels involve coming-of-age themes, so that label feels redundant. YA romance is a thing, but I doubt an agent needs you to get specific. Personally, I would use YA romance comp titles to make the point. Agents often seem not to love the ultra-specific labels, from what they say on their blogs.

A college setting could work, I guess, but when you say the book is "nostalgic," that makes me wonder if it has a retrospective element, i.e., an adult narrator looking back on their college years. That element would push it solidly into adult fiction, so that's just something to keep in mind.

And novels for adults with teen protagonists are definitely a thing! Not every novel about a teen is YA by a long shot. YA is designed to appeal specifically to teens, who may be curious about the 1950s but probably not nostalgic, except in the second-hand sense that you can be nostalgic for something you didn't live through. (Granted, that is also a thing. When I was a teen, I was fascinated by the 1940s to the point of feeling "nostalgic" when I heard music from that era, though I wasn't even close to alive then.)
 

RaggyCat

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What Fuschia said. My hunch from what you've said (esp the nostalgia element) is your novel is an Adult novel but with young characters. YA is quite a specific and savvy genre, and I always think that unless an author intends to write a YA, then they probably haven't done so. Read some historical YA set in the twentieth century and that will help you get a sense of whether your novel is, in fact YA, or actually Adult but with young characters. There are plenty of examples of this around, though it's true that in many the characters age up in the book (Never Let Me Go and One Day spring to mind).

Some historical YA I've read that you could check out:
Stranger - Keren David (set part in 1904)
Dawn, and the sequel Dusk - Eve Edwards (older characters yet still YA, WW2)
A World Between Us - Lydia Syson (Spanish Civil War - didn't personally love but I'm in a minority)
 

hopper0001

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Hi RaggyCat,

I do think that it veers more toward YA, however what label would you give to a novel that is Adult but has young characters? This is where it gets confusing...more confusing that it should be. Sigh. I guess you'd call it YA Historical Fiction as you stated above? Thanks!
 
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RaggyCat

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Hi RaggyCat,

I do think that it veers more toward YA, however what label would you give to a novel that is Adult but has young characters? This is where it gets confusing...more confusing that it should be. Sigh. I guess you'd call it YA Historical Fiction as you stated above? Thanks!

It is confusing! I guess when it comes to an Adult novel featuring young characters I'd label it according to what happens in the story, and where it would best fit in a bookshop. Have you any comp titles for your book? I was struggling with the classification of my book a while back (so I sympathise with your quandry!) and the thing that helped me was finding comparable authors and seeing how their work was classified. It's tricky! If you do decide it's YA I'd just state "YA" on your query rather than anything more specific - it'll be clear from your query what kind of book it is and an agent will work it out... That's better than mislabelling.
 

Debbie V

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Raggedy Cat is spot on. All of these classifications are to help bookstores and libraries know where to shelve a book. Will readers of YA fantasy want to read this? Then it goes in YA fantasy. If it will appeal to readers of romance, then that's where it would go in the store. Si maybe picking up books in each area in a store or library and scanning the first pages will help you decide how your book fits in. Remember that some categories are more broad than others.
 

aryheron

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YA Romance sounds pretty spot on, I don’t think there’s need to complicate things further.