Changing Genre

You'll need to make it interesting for an adult. Perhaps find a few similar books to read first. "It" is a popular choice now, it has a story which is not aimed at kids although the main characters are kids for a large part of the book. It's also a story told by an adult narrator rather than first person present tense POV of a kid.

You can just categorize it as Sci-fi/humor and make sure to market it that way. Just because a character is young doesn't mean the book is YA. I believe YA means dealing specifically with themes dealing with being a young adult, etc. As for prologue, that has to be your call. Whatever you feel in your gut. I might be bias. I hate prologues so I would say not to use one but if you feel you need it to get some points across you should.

There's more to YA than just the age of the MC/narrator; many "grown-up" books have young MCs. It's a matter of voice and pacing and subject matter and plot, with some "you know it when you see it" in the mix. YA books are often coming-of-age tales; adults tend to be the enemy on some level, in my reading experience. (Not all of them specifically, but what the older generations represent - Traditions and established Ways of Doing Things, which may be outdated and in need of change or be a threat to the MC's world/life.)

YA is ultimately not a genre but a category - it's all about the marketing, steering customers to titles they're likely to find interesting. The framing device you suggest may be part of it, but if it's forced it won't work and will ultimately do more harm than good; if it's an adult book, it'll show with or without the gimmick.

popmuze said:

Considering that my narrator is 17 years old, what would I have to take into account if I want my book to be categorized as sci-fi/humor and not YA. I think the voice is pretty mature and the writing style fairly complex. There's even a sex scene. Would I need a prolog to establish that this is an older person relating the semi-fantastical things that happened to him the summer he turned 17?

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I don't understand what you're asking exactly.

Do you think it's Sci-fi/humour YA now and want it to not be YA? That's not a genre shift, as YA isn't a genre, it's a category.

Is it an older person relating things that happened the summer he was 17? Is it an adult book or a YA book?

cool pop said:

You can just categorize it as Sci-fi/humor and make sure to market it that way. Just because a character is young doesn't mean the book is YA. I believe YA means dealing specifically with themes dealing with being a young adult, etc.

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Yeah. I think this is right. (Bolding is mine.)

If I'm wrong, go ahead and correct me, someone. But I believe YA is pretty crowded in trade pubbing just now, and it's definitely a disadvantage with SP. If it's a tough sell in both avenues, selling it (either to a publisher or readers) would probably be easier if you wrote your book for adults.

Sex doesn't necessarily do that, though. YA has had sex scenes all the way back to Judy Blume, before there was an official YA category.

I would say to use a prologue only if you absolutely need it. A certain number of people dislike them, due to too many being used as infodumps. Personally, I'd rather see a story unfold than be given a retrospective on it, but tastes differ there.

There isn't really a simply fix to turn a young adult book into an adult book. It'd mean rewriting a lot of it to have a different focus. The exception would be if it had always been more of a crossover title, where marketing could go either way. If it's already an adult book with a younger protagonist, then it was never young adult anyway.

Consider "To Kill a Mocking Bird", which starts with a frame of the adults looking back to when they were children. There isn't a need for the book to keep reminding people that this is an adult book for adults told by adults. Nor is the frame required to make it an adult book. It could be cut and it'd still obviously not be a book for children.

As far as your other thread goes complaining about lack of response. It wasn't that it didn't get responses, but that you didn't like them. Those responses are the truth though. Age category isn't a genre. Adding a random prologue about adults looking back won't change the story. I think you'd do better by figuring out what age category the book actually is, and rolling with that, rather than trying to make the book something it isn't.

popmuze said:

The main complaint I would get with beta readers and groups and a couple of agents is that the book doesn't read like young adult. The 17 year old main character sounds too mature. The writing is too complex (ie. the sentences are too long). The pacing is too slow. It may not need a rewrite at all, if I send it around as SF/humor. We'll see if any agents write back to say it's really YA.

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How much YA do you -- and the betas and groups you're in -- read that 'long sentences' is something people think isn't found in YA??

Again, YA is not a genre. Something is not YA OR Sci-fi (presuming it's both). Also, agents are not going to write back and say it's YA if it is YA and you send it to agents who don't rep YA. They're going to ignore it because you're not sending it to the correct agents.

If you send a spy thriller to agents who rep quiet litfic they're not going to write and tell you you sent it to the wrong people.

My first novel was autobiographical, concerning things I experienced between the ages of 12 to 15. It is not YA story.

popmuze said:

The main complaint I would get with beta readers and groups and a couple of agents is that the book doesn't read like young adult. The 17 year old main character sounds too mature. The writing is too complex (ie. the sentences are too long). The pacing is too slow. It may not need a rewrite at all, if I send it around as SF/humor. We'll see if any agents write back to say it's really YA.

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So the first one (the voice not sounding like YA) could certainly be something a switch over to adult could quickly fix. You may just have never written it in an YA voice to begin with.

The other two things, I'm less certain. If they thought the pacing was too slow and the sentences too long in the current version, that's likely to still be an issue even if you put a different label on the manuscript. While I agree there's some variation in leeway allowed between genres (i.e. you can get away with slow development more in literary than a thriller), I would be hesitant to assume that just switching to adult would make the manuscript ready to go.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like YA isn't a writing style as much as it is a marketing tag. A sci-fi book with a 17 year old could be advertised to a sci-fi crowd or a young adult crowd. It's the marketing team's decision to advertise to the right audience. They're just putting together a successful campaign.

There are specific themes that YA deals with, and there tends to be a certain voice. You have a very good tool, though. If it's an older person reflecting on his younger years, then approach those issues as an adult would. "I kept making the mistake of chasing girls instead of practicing flying my stealth cruiser." Even slipping in little themes like that will cater more to adults.

I’ve thought of the age categories in terms of the movie rating system.

Young readers = G
YA = PG
Adult = R and beyond.

Laguage complexity might also play a role too.
My sense of it is that we should write for our intended readers by selecting appropriate and relatable characters and themes.

indianroads said:

I’ve thought of the age categories in terms of the movie rating system.

Young readers = G
YA = PG
Adult = R and beyond.

Laguage complexity might also play a role too.
My sense of it is that we should write for our intended readers by selecting appropriate and relatable characters and themes.

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True. But I suppose YA could also be PG-13.

popmuze said:

Probably not enough. I'd love a list of YA books you'd recommend that have long sentences.

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I...don't even know what to say to that, honestly. If you don't read widely in the category and/or genre you're writing in, you're probably in some trouble, because you don't know what's going on in the category and/or genre you're writing in.

This is like if I said well I'm writing an adult fantasy novel with elves but they're smart elves, not like just troll kinda elves, and if someone said lots of fantasy novels have smart elves, me asking for a recommendation of novels with talking elves. Sort of. If you don't read your category and genre, you're at a severe disadvantage in so many ways.

popmuze said:

The YA writers I enjoy reading are David Levithan, Peter Cameron, Adam Silvera, John Green, John Corey Whaley, Ned Vizzini, and the great Paul Zindel. I see good writing, but not necessarily long sentences.

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How long are your sentences?? Are they ALL long, because that'd be a problem in any category. I just looked at a Cameron book online and it has plenty of lengthy sentences....

Adding to what cornflake is getting at, long sentences don't automatically indicate quality. Judging a book or genre by the length of its sentences is pretty superficial. A skilled author can effectively utilize both long and short sentences. Length doesn't indicate anything.

Gratuitous "that's what she said"