What is "New Adult?"

[DiapDealer]

Yet the people who like and read YA(or NA)'s ages are often as varied as the people's ages who don't like it and won't read it. These labels seem to be less of an "aimed at age group 'X'" affair, and more of a "aimed at readers who enjoyed the last cult hit with the label 'X'" kind of thing to me. In other words, the wording of the label itself is basically meaningless--except in a branding sort of way. And if it's all about the ages of the characters.... well.... who was Dickens targeting with Oliver Twist? Or Joyce with Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man? Huck Finn? Crane and that young man sporting a "red badge of courage"?

My problem with these labels is that they bring absolutely nothing to the descriptive table—regardless of the potential buyer/reader's age; "What kind of book is it... what's it about?" "Oh, it's New Adult." It's meaningless unless you already know the secret hand-shake of that particular cultural circle.

[fjtorres]

Yes, it's all about branding.
And marketting.
And gatekeeping.
Especially formula gatekeeping.
The YA label has a formula and NA is simply adding explicit sex to the same formula.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yet the people who like and read YA(or NA)'s ages are often as varied as the people's ages who don't like it and won't read it. These labels seem to be less of an "aimed at age group 'X'" affair, and more of a "aimed at readers who enjoyed the last cult hit with the label 'X'" kind of thing to me. In other words, the wording of the label itself is basically meaningless--except in a branding sort of way. And if it's all about the ages of the characters.... well.... who was Dickens targeting with Oliver Twist? Or Joyce with Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man? Huck Finn? Crane and that young man sporting a "red badge of courage"?

My problem with these labels is that they bring absolutely nothing to the descriptive table—regardless of the potential buyer/reader's age; "What kind of book is it... what's it about?" "Oh, it's New Adult." It's meaningless unless you already know the secret hand-shake of that particular cultural circle.

I read YA when I want to read a coming of age story or a story with a teenaged protagonist. YA romance is about relationships between teens (i.e. is not going to involve marriage, although YA problem novels may); YA SF tends to have teenage protagonists and dilemmas, etc. The books (except fantasy) tend to be shorter and more focused, and often easier to read; and the books that don't cross genres tend to concentrate on the problems faced by teenagers. It's pretty clear what to expect and there is no secret handshake involved. FTR, I am in the mommy porn demographic but I read nearly anything.

New Adult seems to be too much of a new genre to really figure out yet, but I have to admit that good college/college age stories are pretty rare (or were back when I was interested in reading about that age range). Dunno why that is. I'd hope some good college stories come out of this New Adult genre.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Joykins

I read YA when I want to read a coming of age story or a story with a teenaged protagonist.

Which sort of proves that the label has nothing to do with targeting a certain age group of reader. The fact that it wasn't targeted for your age group was meaningless to you. So clearly, it's about the age of the characters, then right? Or is it difficulty level? Or theme? It's a moving target, frankly. The label is trying to define something (who will like it) that's just not really definable. There's Difficult YA, YA with cursing and a hint of sex. There's books that don't carry a YA label that by all rights (and comparisons to other books) should. It's so meta it's pointless.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Joykins

New Adult seems to be too much of a new genre to really figure out yet, but I have to admit that good college/college age stories are pretty rare (or were back when I was interested in reading about that age range). Dunno why that is. I'd hope some good college stories come out of this New Adult genre.

I love New Adult! I think it's been needed for a long time. It's been an area overlooked. I loved Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire which was my first NA Novel and then I moved onto S.C. Stephens and Tammara Webber.

[Joykins]

I have read Tammara Webber--I think she's great--when I thought it was romance.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'd guess it's stuff aimed at 18-year-olds.

I would not call an 18-year-old an adult. 21-year-old yes. If you are not legally allowed alcohol, then you are not yet an adult.

The things you should legally be able to do when becoming an adult...Sex, marriage, drive, able to be drafted, drink booze. All those things have to be in place before I would consider you an adult (in the legal sense)

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Which sort of proves that the label has nothing to do with targeting a certain age group of reader. The fact that it wasn't targeted for your age group was meaningless to you. So clearly, it's about the age of the characters, then right? Or is it difficulty level? Or theme? It's a moving target, frankly. The label is trying to define something (who will like it) that's just not really definable. There's Difficult YA, YA with cursing and a hint of sex. There's books that don't carry a YA label that by all rights (and comparisons to other books) should. It's so meta it's pointless.

While I agree that it's a marketing category for new books (as opposed to, say, reclassifying Huck Finn), and therefore serves mainly a marketing purpose, the fact that I read books not targeted for my age group (I read books targeted to all age groups) doesn't mean the books aren't mostly hitting their targeted audience. I'd say they're doing that nicely from what I see in the library.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'd guess it's stuff aimed at 18-year-olds.

New Adult is smut for the pre-adult. That's what it is.

[dreams]

Ok, I was curious after reading through this thread about the background to the name. I found this recent article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex...ing-trend.html. It was interesting to me, as I had not heard the term before or I hadn't paid attention to it.

Sex in Young Adult fiction – a rising trend?
With the publication of one of the UK’s first ‘Steamy’ novels imminent, Alice Vincent reports on the rise of sex in Young Adult fiction and the readers who can't get enough.

Steamies are better known in the trade as New Adult Fiction. The genre was coined in 2009 by the Manhattan publishing house St Martin’s Press to reflect a slightly older group of readers who were indulging in teen, or Young Adult, fiction. Goodreads.com, which has 14 million members, is an American social networking website built around users’ reading habits. They first noticed users labelling books as New Adult in May 2011, and since creating a New Adult genre page in September 2012, 14,000 titles – a 500 per cent increase in two years – have been listed as such.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would not call an 18-year-old an adult. 21-year-old yes. If you are not legally allowed alcohol, then you are not yet an adult.

The things you should legally be able to do when becoming an adult...Sex, marriage, drive, able to be drafted, drink booze. All those things have to be in place before I would consider you an adult (in the legal sense)

There's this thing I did when I was 19 and became an adult by going to Niagara Falls (Ont.), and then went back over the border and became a teenager again. In fact, one could hypothetically do this repeatedly, hitting the duty-free shop each time in the company of someone who is adult in both countries, or at least one could (hypothetically) in the 1990s.

[JSWolf]

Another way to look at it...

New Adult is the kid's first porn with words.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Another way to look at it...

New Adult is the kid's first porn with words.

Oh, come, now, didn't they pass Judy Blume's _Forever_ around your middle school too?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Joykins

YA is aimed at middle school and high school students

YA is BS. You either are an adult or you are not.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I love New Adult! I think it's been needed for a long time. It's been an area overlooked. I loved Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire which was my first NA Novel and then I moved onto S.C. Stephens and Tammara Webber.

I disagree. We've had porn/smut for a long time. This is just a way to market it to a younger audience.