A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to read some books about people from the ages of 18-22, the ages of college and starting out life for the first time on your own, the age I was at the time. Then I began reading even more young adult novels, and I continued to read adult novels as well. I wrote about people from ages 15-30. I didn't think of them as different genres, really. They were all just contemporary fiction, no matter the age of the protagonist.
But the thing is, I was writing protagonists between the ages of 15-30. I knew how to find literary agents for YA and for literary fiction or chick lit, but I didn't know how to find literary agents who would also be interested in my manuscripts that had MCs in their early adulthood years.
Then I heard about this new thing that was coming out, called "new adult" fiction. And I got a little excited, thinking, "hey, here's the genre I was looking for! The genre I wanted to write for, years ago, and have been writing for."
As the months have gone by since I first heard about NA, my views have changed a bit on whether or not you even need a separate genre for those ages.
Because when you really think about it, it's ridiculous that things are separated due to the age of the protagonist. YA was published as regular adult literary fiction for quite some time. In fact, when Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty came out, it was published under an adult publisher, and you still have to go to the adult fiction part of the store in order to find the series. That series doesn't just follow Jessica Darling's life in high school, it also follows her to college, and her years after college.
Quite frankly, I've decided that all fiction should be like that.
If it's contemporary, it belongs together. Mystery can go together, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, each genre can have it's own section, but not separated by age. Because the age of the MC shouldn't matter.
The level of difficulty in reading can matter, sure. Like if a book is an easy read meant for a thirteen year old, then yes, it should go in a separate section. But if the book can be read by either a teenager or an adult? Why not just put it in the same section?
After all, Catcher in the Rye is in the adult section. To Kill a Mockingbird is in the adult section. Books like Two Way Street could also easily be in the adult section, even though it was published as YA.
So, after months of thinking, I've decided that NA doesn't need to exist, because those are just adult books. YA doesn't even really need to exist.* After all, when I was a teen, I read both books about teenagers and books about adults. Many teens do. And so many adults read YA. So why not just stop trying to segregate the ages of protagonists and just enjoy the books for what they are?
*Don't get me wrong, I love the YA community. There are amazing books published as YA that probably wouldn't see the time of day without the community. But the point of this is that NA is kind of a pointless genre, because it already exists in adult.
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