My novel is narrated by a 15 year old in 1961. It could easily be adult or young adult. How do I query it?
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Genre issues
- Thread starter popmuze
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That's not enough to go off of. You could have a story narrated by a fetus but that doesn't automatically turn it into a book for babies. What is the subject matter? What is this 15 year old doing? If they're a kid doing kid stuff and having kid problems (raising a puppy or dealing with bullies) then it's a kid book, if they're a teen having teen problems (figuring out their place in the world, learning what love is) then it's YA. But if the subject matter is adult, then it's going to be adult.
What ChaseJxyz said.
You need to figure out which target audience you're appealing to. (Not the only audience, but the place it would stand in the bookstore, that people would most likely look to find it.) The narrator age is not the sole indicator; there are adult books where the narrator is a child, but that doesn't mean you'd hand Room to your five-year-old. It's about subject matter and tone.
Have you run your novel past any betas? What do they think it reads like?
If all else fails, what are your comp titles? What's their target? Start with that.
(Also, YA/adult is not a genre, it's an age category. There is YA mystery, YA fantasy, YA historical, YA romance...)
You need to figure out which target audience you're appealing to. (Not the only audience, but the place it would stand in the bookstore, that people would most likely look to find it.) The narrator age is not the sole indicator; there are adult books where the narrator is a child, but that doesn't mean you'd hand Room to your five-year-old. It's about subject matter and tone.
Have you run your novel past any betas? What do they think it reads like?
If all else fails, what are your comp titles? What's their target? Start with that.
(Also, YA/adult is not a genre, it's an age category. There is YA mystery, YA fantasy, YA historical, YA romance...)
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Some betas have compared it to Brighton Beach Memoirs or Summer of 42 or The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. On the YA side it's a cross between Summer of 69, Noggin, and King Dork. Adult nostalgia? YA historical? I'm thinking of sending out two different queries. Right now I'm stymied, and I don't mean the kid in Little Rascals.
Is there any content that would make it more adult? Ie complex issues, subject matter, language, I’m sure fifteen year olds swore even in 61. If any of these things make it inappropriate for young adults I would say it’s an adult book.
Readers have said kids today won't get the pop cultural references. The only two that are really necessary are Roger Maris and Bob Dylan.
Tangential, but I'd think of period pop culture as I would worldbuilding for a fantasy or SF world. How do you make readers understand a culture they're unfamiliar with? You show them through the characters, their actions/reactions, their dialog. You show it through the setting. Whether it's Bob Dylan from 1960's Earth or the dragon bard Harp-of-the-Dawn from the planet Alarizon, a good story can make the reader understand the significance of a given piece of culture, and what that means for a particular character. (Also, do not underestimate your audience, especially your YA audience if you go for YA. If they're reading a historical, they're interested in that period of history. Give them enough context clues, and they should immerse just fine.)