TheNextBigWriter Premium → Genre Confusion
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I know you're supposed to write with your audience in mind, but I seem to be coming to the end of a novel about a teenage girl and am realising that it's not aimed at teenagers at all and does not fit in the YA genre. Does anybody know if there are any examples of such stories being received well or is it an impossibility to cross genres in this way?
Let me finish it. You might consider it NA. I honestly don't know exactly what YA and NA are.
If it were not aimed at an age group, what would its genre be? Is it a coming-of-age story?
Most stories could fit in more than one genre to some degree. Why not just consider it "Commercial Fiction" (broad category) and let any future agent/editor/publisher place it in another if they think it belongs elsewhere. Take care. Vern
If it were not aimed at an age group, what would its genre be? Is it a coming-of-age story?
I guess it would be a coming of age story.
Most stories could fit in more than one genre to some degree. Why not just consider it "Commercial Fiction" (broad category) and let any future agent/editor/publisher place it in another if they think it belongs elsewhere. Take care. Vern
I think my issue is that it's written about a teenager but it's not really aimed at teenagers and possibly not of much interest to any particular audience for that reason.
vern wrote:Most stories could fit in more than one genre to some degree. Why not just consider it "Commercial Fiction" (broad category) and let any future agent/editor/publisher place it in another if they think it belongs elsewhere. Take care. Vern
I think my issue is that it's written about a teenager but it's not really aimed at teenagers and possibly not of much interest to any particular audience for that reason.
The age of the protagonist is irrelevant to Commercial Fiction. For example, To Kill a Mockingbird was written in the pov of a young girl, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were teenagers and I'm not sure there was even such a thing as a YA genre at the time; if there was, they crossed it and appealed to a wide audience -- adults read books about children all the time. As stated earlier, many works cross genres and often times an agent/editor/publisher will choose a different genre from the one you might think it belongs in. The broad category of Commercial Fiction seems to fit the bill, but where you place it at this point will make little difference in the grand scheme of things. The genre you choose is not a deal breaker for getting published, it's all about the story -- Harry Potter was not written for an adult audience but it certainly brought millions of readers into the so-called YA arena with a huge crossover. Good luck. Take care. Vern
If your work is good enough to be read by an agent, the agent will know where to place it. Genre is relevant only in placement with a publisher because when a publisher chooses a genre, it is because they know it is important in marketing. Young adult books often cross the line and are of interest to adults. There are protocols going the other direction because of the need to stick to certain age protocols when it comes to subject matter, language, sexual content ... For children's books, there is a scale called the Flesch Scale which rates words according to grade level. It is based on the average vocabulary of that age. I used it even though I wrote for adults. I didn't want to gear it over the heads of the average reader. That was the audience my publisher was aiming for.
Young adult books often cross the line and are of interest to adults. There are protocols going the other direction because of the need to stick to certain age protocols when it comes to subject matter, language, sexual content ... .
Hi Simon,
Thanks for your input. I guess my issue is that I feel like I'm writing content that young people would be interested in, but in a more mature style (although maybe I'm wrong!) and am concerned that would put it in a kind of limbo where nobody would be interested in it so think I should pick one target and write it for that one group. You used to read my work, maybe you could let me know if you found it more YA or if it could appeal to a more mature audience.
I read a portion of Being Fifteen and it reads like YA to me and the title would also imply YA, but you still do not have to classify it as such if you don't think it belongs. You can leave that up to any future publishing professionals who may enter the picture. And btw, most coming of age stories would probably fit into the YA genre though some like Carrie by Stephen King would also fit in the Horror genre. Take care. Vern
The shame of our modern genre categories is that books like The Wind in the Willows could never make it to print nowadays.
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TheNextBigWriter Premium → Genre Confusion
