hmquinto
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- Feb 9, 2018
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I'm having a hard time with this exact thing. Is my book YA or adult? NA? I'm working with an agent-in-training on my query letter, and she was appalled when she found out my YA book had sex trafficking in it. She told me to take it out altogether. It's a post-apocalyptic book, and my main character (15) gets traded as a sex slave, but she never actually ever has sex or performs the "deed." She gets saved in time, but there are other characters (non-important ones) that are forced prositutes. The sex trafficking isn't a big impact on the main character really, but it is to the entire story and the setting for the times they are living in. I told her I can make it so my main character isn't a sex slave at all, but I won't take out the sex trafficking in general. I decided perhaps to make my main character 17. I can't make her any older because then her voice won't be true to an adult. She's a teen!
But then again this agent-in-training is saying that I won't get agents by having this in my story. Where is the line drawn? It's okay for a group of teens to kill one another, but the idea of sex (without there being any sex scenes) is out of the question? I read the top post and Edgy YA was mentioned, but that was back in 2007. Is that still a thing? Would an agent know what I'm talking about if I say that my book is an edgy YA dystopian? I'm having a hard time making a decision on this. Do I change the age group for it? Do I keep it as is and just not take this one person's opinion/advice? Would changing my main character's age be the answer? I'm bendable, but I will remain strong about the overall message of my story.
There are other heavy themes in it like drugs, but again, it's the protagonist witnessing this and not engaging in it herself. There is also a lot of violence, but that seems to be okay in YA nowadays, so I'm not too concerned about that. I'm just lost. My book is having an identity crisis! HA!
But then again this agent-in-training is saying that I won't get agents by having this in my story. Where is the line drawn? It's okay for a group of teens to kill one another, but the idea of sex (without there being any sex scenes) is out of the question? I read the top post and Edgy YA was mentioned, but that was back in 2007. Is that still a thing? Would an agent know what I'm talking about if I say that my book is an edgy YA dystopian? I'm having a hard time making a decision on this. Do I change the age group for it? Do I keep it as is and just not take this one person's opinion/advice? Would changing my main character's age be the answer? I'm bendable, but I will remain strong about the overall message of my story.
There are other heavy themes in it like drugs, but again, it's the protagonist witnessing this and not engaging in it herself. There is also a lot of violence, but that seems to be okay in YA nowadays, so I'm not too concerned about that. I'm just lost. My book is having an identity crisis! HA!