4 replies to this topic

[SunriseWriter]

Hello!

 

I'm wondering if my book fits into the YA genre despite my main character being 19 years old. My story is a fantasy taking place on earth. It deals with angels and demons. However, while my character is 19, we do not see her in college. In fact, the entire story occurs in one week, diving straight into conflict (my main character's 18 year old brother gets kidnapped by a demon and she must save him).

 

I've been told by a friend who manages a bookstore that my book is YA based on similarity to other YA books. My book is similar to Angelfall by Susan Ee (YA) in terms of tone and some action, therefore leading me to think that age might not be the only deciding factor here.

What do you think? Will my character's age hurt my chances of passing my book as YA?

 

Thanks!

[michaelblaine]

If your goal is YA, then 19yrs old is probably OK being that she still falls within the YA age range.  Just a couple of things you may want to ask yourself when deciding:

 

1. Thematically, is the book more YA or A (sexual references, language, violence, adult themes)?

2. What is your character's maturity level?  If she is precocious and thinks/talks/reacts as you'd expect from an adult, your novel most likely would fall under A.  If she's just your average teenager, it could easily be YA.

 

Hope this helps :)

[HarlequinWriter]

I'm a fan of all genres. Lately I've been seeing lots of books with explicit sexual themes and extremely strong language in the Young Adult section of my local library. I did some research a while ago and found out about a somewhat new genre known as New Adult that is still categorized under 'Teen.' If the post by @michaelblaine didn't clear up all of your confusion, I recommend doing some research the New Adult genre and then trying to label your book. Hope you can get it all figured out~

[Springfield]

Hello!

 

I'm wondering if my book fits into the YA genre despite my main character being 19 years old. My story is a fantasy taking place on earth. It deals with angels and demons. However, while my character is 19, we do not see her in college. In fact, the entire story occurs in one week, diving straight into conflict (my main character's 18 year old brother gets kidnapped by a demon and she must save him).

 

I've been told by a friend who manages a bookstore that my book is YA based on similarity to other YA books. My book is similar to Angelfall by Susan Ee (YA) in terms of tone and some action, therefore leading me to think that age might not be the only deciding factor here.

What do you think? Will my character's age hurt my chances of passing my book as YA?

 

Thanks!

 

Why is she 19? 

 

She's out of YA range, but there are exceptions. Is the book YA themed?

[9emilylime9]

Is her being in college significant to the action/her character? If so it may be New Adult. Otherwise I think that it could be billed as either Adult or YA depending on a few things that a lot of other people have touched on already. The biggest is themes. YA is a broad age range, but it's generally geared towards 13-18-year-olds. And while YA can have dark themes and sex and violence because those are things that teens can experience, I think that if your book has those with older characters, then that pushes it more into NA or A. The other thing to consider is tone: is it light and witty most of the time, or is it more introspective? The former is more YA, the latter is more Adult, I think.