YA or Adult?

I’m having the strangest sense of deja vu — like I’ve spoken on this subject before. But I can’t remember and a cursory glance at the blog archives hasn’t helped me, so here goes:

(Update: found it!)

Serenissima asks:

Bantam Dell is an adult publisher, and the books have been written with that in mind, so the marketing has been aimed primarily at adult audiences. However, the folks at my publisher are incredibly, incredibly savvy about the marketplace, so they’re aware of the potential. After all, very few teens read exclusively YA novels. (I certainly didn’t!)

We’ve been lucky to develop a great audience in the teen market as well, and got named to the NYPL Books for the Teen Age for the debut. I’m THRILLED that teens have appreciated the books the way they have. Surprised? Not necessarily (most teens read up, and I imagine quite a few high schoolers are curious to see what happens in college). I do think the new covers are more “youthful” and everyone involved is aware of the teen audience that the books have. I’ve even seen bookstores that have that prerogative cross shelve. This makes me happy. The more folks that are exposed to my work, the better. Yet overall, my SSG books are adult books in content, publishing, positioning, and marketing.

My advice: make them teenagers. I can’t think of a YA book where the characters weren’t teens. I’ve seen a few where they were in college, but they were usually freshman or at the most, sophomores (or would-be sophomores, as in the case of Scott Westerfeld’s PEEPS), so 18-19 is probably your upper limit. I wouldn’t make them much younger than 15, or you’re looking at MG novels. Remember, most kids read up.

When I started writing Rampant, I was very consciously trying to break into the YA market, so I looked at teen TV shows, where all the characters start out at 15/16, and made Astrid 16. There are two other main characters in the book. One is 18, one is 15. I wanted the book to be solidly YA, and I think the issues I’m dealing with in that book are much more YA-related than in SSG. (More on that below.)

However, you’re not necessarily scaring them off. I’ve heard of at least two novelists in the past two years who wrote college-aged books and signed with agents who promptly asked them to rewrite the books set in high school instead. I do believe that you are opening yourself up in the market if you do that.

Having written a manuscript with a college-age protagonist who has college-age issues, I’m trying to figure out how best to pitch it to agents. Just curious on how you dealt with that issue in your endeavors.

My characters are all seniors in college by necessity. That’s the year you get into secret societies. When I was first developing the book, I spoke to a YA author friend who told me that she thought that 21 was too old for YA. Her opinion, and I’m inclined to agree with her, is that the situation with 21 years olds is very different. You’re dealing with people who have been adults for several years, with all of the responsibilities and rights that entails, can legally drink, have lived outside their parents’ houses (and often control) for several years. I have YA writer friends who get nasty letters because their books feature “underage drinking” and “underage sex.” Well, my characters aren’t actually underage for any of those things. They are truly young adults.

Which is not to say that they don’t have issues with their parents. But older adults have parental issues as well. It’s just a different scene, in so many tiny ways and several big ones as well. My protagonist isn’t being a rebel, a bad girl, or– most notably– a law-breaker if she goes into a bar and orders a martini. The fact that her roommate is basically living with a boyfriend isn’t particularly shocking. The list goes on and on.

My agent (genius that she is, she shopped it to both YA and adults houses) did get a few rejections from YA houses who loved the book but thought it were too old for the YA market. One YA house wanted to buy it if we’d make the characters freshmen and — wait for it — teenagers. (And yes, we got offers from YA houses as is.) We ended up selling it to an adult market and I couldn’t be happier there. I can’t say how the books would have changed if written for a young adult market. We’re three books in at this point, so it’s tough to imagine back that far.

What I do know is that now, in ROS(B), Amy is twenty-two. She has a lot more in common, both in experience and in outlook, with the protagonist of The Devil Wears Prada or The Nanny Diaries than she does with someone in high school. (Though Bella is getting married, right? So she’s totally got Amy trumped, because I can guarantee you right now, there are no wedding bells at the end of SSG.)

It’s interesting though, to move from Amy to a character like Astrid, who is six years younger, and a whole world away in terms of experience. Astrid’s never been away from home before, and to Amy, Eli is home. And that’s just the tip.