Totally off topic – but I love when I can make my title
rhyme. Now onto the business at hand!
The New Adult category has been a surprisingly controversial
addition to the romance world.
Publishers have jumped on the category and it seems to be quite popular
with indie writers as well. Some people
love it, some people hate it. Some people
don’t quite understand what it is. The
big question everyone seems to be asking: Is it here to say or will it fade
away?
New Adult is also a type of story, a genre that tends to
address a group of very specific topics.
These topics revolve around a young adult moving into to the adult world
– learning to take responsibility and live and love on their own. This age group is a natural selection for
stories involving college romances or summer romances after high school
graduation. These stories have always existed;
they just didn't have as wide spread an audience and their own name as they do
now.
In fact, New Adult has been around a lot longer than I
originally thought. I found a contest
by St. Martin’s Press looking for submissions “similar to YA that can be
published and marketed as adult – a sort of ‘older YA’ or ‘new adult’.” This contest for submissions began Nov 9,
2009, and was the first mentions of New Adult that I could find. If you know of an older one, please let me
know. I find this type of research
fascinating. St. Martin’s press states
that their reason for looking in this direction was to attract all the adult
readers that were currently reading tons of Young Adult. They received 333 responses.
Angela Brown, a Young Adult and New Adult author, describes this genre beautifully:
“Students transitioning from the guided days of high school to the independent self-management (or mismanagement) in college/a trade school/special training beyond high school academia isn't a trend. A son or daughter going straight into the workforce or a foster kid who has aged out of the system and must fend for themselves...those are not trends. And because these types of situations are par for the course, New Adult is not a trend. In truth, it's simply providing a name to a "between"category that has long needed its own identifier.”
From this point on, New Adult seems to pop up everywhere, a
little at a time. It snuck up on me and I was reading it before I even realized it. Then it hit the adult romance world and I
heard a lot of interesting things. Many
people don’t seem to take this genre seriously.
I hear it mocked and labeled as a fad that will be fading away anytime
now. Granted, these people don’t enjoy
diving into a good YA novel like I do, but I think these people are wrong about
the value that New Adult has brought to the book world and especially the romance genre.
There is a strong market for New Adult. And yes, it will probably lose a bit of its
hype and popularity over time. This
happens with any shiny new thing.
Paranormal romance blew up, and then it calmed down – but it is still
very successful. BDSM is currently in
the blow up phase as well, but eventually the next thing will come along and it
will find its happy place and carry on as well. New Adult will follow these trends and find its place in the
overall romance genre, settle in, and make a permanent home. It’s not going anywhere.
One of the largest (and best) reasons it’s here to stay are the
authors who are writing some truly amazing stories. New Adult writers are passionate
about their work, as any author should be.
The genre has opened the doors for new writers to share their stories
and really target their audience of readers.
New Adult author, Carrie Butler, summarizes it quite nicely:
“New Adult (NA), as a category, has one thing in common with its characters—the coming of age struggle. It took three years, an under-served market, a few independent bestsellers, and the support of a vocal few for it to find its place in the literary world. Talk about an uphill battle! Now we’re seeing NA contemporary romances take off left and right. Why? Because readers are finally getting something they’ve been denied for years: love (and sometimes lust) amidst those awkward exploratory years.
After this particular genre rides out its tropes and loses trend status, other niches within New Adult will undoubtedly rise to the occasion, i.e. paranormal romance, romantic suspense, etc. Sure, the settings and themes will be different, but the heart of the category will always remain the same. Characters will walk tightropes without nets and face consequences they never knew existed. Their priorities will shift, their concepts of the world will be challenged, and they’ll fight for what’s important to them. They’ll grow, and they’ll find themselves. That’s what NA is all about.
If you ask me, New Adult is anything but a flash in the pan.”
I hope I've given you something to think about, maybe even
something new you’ll want to go try.
Before you judge, pick a New Adult book up and give the pages a few
turns. You might come away with a
different opinion and a new love.
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Great post! Thank you so much for including me. :)
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