Fracturing The Young Adult Genre

With the dazzling success of the Harry Potter series, literary agents across the globe are clamoring for more of the genre.

No, not fantasy with witches and spells and cloaks of invisibility.

Books aimed at young adults are hot, largely because the material is simple enough for mid-grade children to read but complex enough for their parents to enjoy as well.

That's hitting two segments of the book buying market.

But what about those who are not parents or wouldn't be caught reading some book aimed at kids?

Welcome to the "New Adult".

If Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is too difficult to read, with too many long sentences and big words, we'll soon have a revised version of the same theme, but geared towards "New Adult". Shannon Stoker has penned The Registry, which was sold to William Morrow as a "new adult" series that suggests a more mature version of The Hunger Games but with a nod to a very grown-up adult book.

What makes it "New Adult" rather than simply adult fiction?

The characters are not ten-year-old wizards. They are usually in their late teens going on their early twenties, the university years. So does that make Goodbye, Columbus a "new adult" novella? Has it been placed in the wrong category all these years?

Or is there really no need for a new category?

It sounds more like publishers have seen this demographic segment of society, with its love of electronic gadgets, and decreed that they would buy more books if they were led to believe that the books were written just for them, about them, and only them.

No parents intruding, asking when they'll be getting a job and their own place.

For those wee little ones who think they're far too mature for the young adult section, new adult is a perfect fit. They're almost new adults at the age of thirteen, aren't they? Not old adults like their parents who read stodgy, dull things that you'd find in some boring literature class.

Authors who have penned novels with characters fresh out of secondary school take note. When you query a literary agent, slip in a mention of the "new adult" genre. It's hot right now. It's a cod, but it's hot and it shows you're up to date on the lingo of publishing. It might be enough to get your manuscript a look.