HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\nI will also mention that I have come across queries where the author has mentioned they have a YA or MG, but the story is told in retrospect, as opposed to in the moment. This is not YA or MG but adult fiction. The narrator is\u00a0an adult recounting their past. Think the Wonder Years. The story is narrated by an adult Kevin as he comments in retrospect on his adolescence.<\/p>\n
Next time, the hotly contested New Adult Genre. What it is. What it’s not. Why it’s hot after years of publishing industry professionals discounting it.<\/p>\n
If you’d like to see a post\u00a0covering a particular question you have about publishing, agenting, writing, sending me a note through the contact section of the website.<\/p>\n
As always, considerate and constructive replies are welcomed and encouraged!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m working to the soundtrack of munchkins coloring in the background. Today, I am going to address a few issues I am seeing in the Inbox: Genre and Target Age. While the internet has a plethora of sources that discuss genre, I still see dozens of queries with the genre or the targeted age mislabeled. Genre is more of a bookstore label. It’s what easily lets the reader, bookseller, the editor identify how to categorize your story, how to sell it, how to help you find similar stories that are of the same taste. YA is technically a genre of children’s literature, but with the success of Young Adult in the market, the genre itself has splintered into numerous subgenres. For example Paranormal, Dystopian, Sci-fi, High Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary, Historical. All of these subgenres also exists in good old regular fiction. Regular fiction is where everything else without a protagonist under the age of 18ish goes – with the exception of New Adult (I will talk about that in another post). Adult Romance is it’s own genre just like Science Fiction and Fantasy, but still adult fiction. So you really need to understand your genre, subgenres,\u00a0and the associations agents, editors and readers expect. Certain elements are expected in certain subgenres. I’ve found so many queries lately where the author states their work is one thing but it is clearly something else. Paranormal and Magical Realism are not the same thing.\u00a0(One note, sure, there is blending of the subgenres but for this instance calling something one thing to circumvent agents and publishers is just not going to work) Women’s Fiction is not YA. Know your genre. Know what is selling and what editors are tired of seeing. Unfortunately, Paranormal and Dystopian\u00a0are on the down swing right now. Before you shout at me that that’s all you write. Take a deep breath. Don’t get caught up in the trends. The market is like a pendulum; it will swing back. We just can’t predict when (even though we try really hard to). Keep writing. Become better at your craft. Make that story the best it can be.\u00a0The time will arrive. The pendulum will swing\u00a0away from whatever is currently trending.\u00a0Just know that it may be longer to find a place for that type of story. Now, let’s focus on the target age. Lately, I’ve seen numerous queries where the author states their work is suited for YA\/NA or MG\/Adult cross-over. Unfortunately, no your Middle Grade cannot be adult, too. Cross-over appeal should be a given. Technically that’s what is meant\u00a0when something is commercial – the story has elements that both the target age and those outside that age range will find enjoyable.\u00a0Take for instance Harry Potter. Harry Potter is Middle Grade fiction because our beloved protagonists, Harry, Hermione and Ron are the age of most middle schoolers when the story begins – 11 years old. Within the first books are things that this age group associates with. First is\u00a0what I call foul humor – like booger tasting jelly beans, fart jokes, ect\u00a0– also the\u00a0early stages\u00a0of learning one’s self identity, bullying, ect\u00a0 all within a wonderfully crafted world of magic that exists adjacent to our normal world (magical realism). But the commercial appeal to both children and adults\u00a0is from\u00a0the basic story of ultimate good versus ultimate evil. As the characters aged the storytelling also matured, introducing things that older tween and teens associated with – like first kisses and first dances –\u00a0while still appealing to adults. So know who your target age group is. The first indication is the age of the narrator. If they are between 14-18, you have Young Adult. If they are between 10-14 it’s Middle Grade.\u00a0Of course,\u00a0there are gray areas within this group.\u00a0 Agent Kristin Nelson made a fantastic Youtube video that really breaks down the difference between YA and MG. I HIGHLY recommend watching it. You can watch it HERE. I will also mention that I have come across queries where the author has mentioned they have a YA or MG, but the story is told in retrospect, as opposed to in the moment. This is not YA or MG but adult fiction. The narrator is\u00a0an adult recounting their past. Think the Wonder Years. The story is narrated by an adult Kevin as he comments in retrospect on his adolescence. Next time, the hotly contested New Adult Genre. What it is. What it’s not. Why it’s hot after years of publishing industry professionals discounting it. If you’d like to see a post\u00a0covering a particular question you have about publishing, agenting, writing, sending me a note through the contact section of the website. As always, considerate and constructive replies are welcomed and encouraged! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agent-observations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catehart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/daviskidd.png?fit=276%2C183&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1wmX9-1S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catehart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>So you really need to understand your genre, subgenres,\u00a0and the associations agents, editors and readers expect. Certain elements are expected in certain subgenres. I’ve found so many queries lately where the author states their work is one thing but it is clearly something else. Paranormal and Magical Realism are not the same thing.\u00a0(One note, sure, there is blending of the subgenres but for this instance calling something one thing to circumvent agents and publishers is just not going to work) Women’s Fiction is not YA.<\/p>\n