What makes YA or NA different?

You're definitions make sense.  I struggle with this myself.  I view the difference mostly by age, regardless of the issues in the book.  I would put my current book under NA but to be honest I am one (of probably a minority) that feels uncomfortable writing about intimate love scenes, preferring to let the reader's imagination run wild.   I know, sex sells, but I am trying to keep in mind that I want my daughter to be able to read my book one day without complete and utter embarrassment.

Also Ang, don't you think it is very important to tag your book properly when self publishing? I have had reviewers who tell me my Dead Girls YA series is NA just because of a bit of cussing and one very small scene sexual in nature. Yet they take my New Adult (Purgatory) series which has sex (not erotica), death, a hooker character, and some cussing, and have occasionally said it's borderline (what ever the hell that is) YA because it's not explicit enough.

I think it's okay to keep this a crossover group

I do think it is important to tag it in the blurb or tagline. Sometimes on Amazon I see very obvious erotica showing up on the Teen lists, or even non-romance books showing up on the romance lists. I guess people are trying to find new readers, but that will only get people frustrated that your book doesn't actually fit the genre they want to read.

Your example is exactly what I was saying about NA being so much harder to label, some people see it being about explicit sex/language, while others see it as the age of the characters or the experiences they face. I personally would put the Dead Girls series as mature YA.

Hahahaha. I've done that. You could delete it on the old site. Not sure here.

The line between YA and NA is very thin. While certain features like the age of characters is an evident difference, YA and NA topics don't differ much. Coming of age and self discovery/acceptance, either at 16 or 22, seem to be the most common topics in both genders.

If you ask me, it seems that certain topics reserved for NA are only because of "political correctness". For example: sex and cursing is out of YA (or it seems so), but not extreme violence. E.g., The Hunger Games are splashed with hardcore violence up to the last page (teens killing teens and even enjoying it: if it's not hardcore violence I don't know what else it might be). However, put a scene a tad erotic in a YA book and it will be automatically censored by parental associations and banned at schools. If you ask me, that's hypocrite. Both sex and violence should be considered unacceptable for YA, or both accepted. I wonder if any of those mums so dexterous to tell YA from NA at a book sign prevent their kids from watching The Hunger Games, Ender's Game  and movies of the sort.

Bottom line: Throw everything in the YA bucket and write what you want. Be very marketing oriented if you want to make a lot of money, but don't forget that writing is a art and a mean of expression, which means it doesn't fit everybody's taste.

Kiss,

Gacela.

This is something I've been chewing on with my current w-i-p, which is why I thank the stars the NA category was invented!

I had debated with making my protagonist a few years younger so as to fit within the YA genre, but I doubt it would work, as some aspects of my plot would probably not sit well with some of the YA mums if they're that lairy about swearing and scenes of a sexual nature. I'm planning to do a bit of sweary cull on a subsequent rewrite anyway (it would be unrealistic to take EVERY instance out, but I could probably ditch some of them without losing too much of the 'grit' of the story.) But the couple of sex-related scenes... I think glossing over those parts with 'fade out, then fade back in' (or whatever) instead would actually do more harm than good. They definitely DON'T come into the category of erotica, nor are they particularly graphic - but cutting them out completely just to appease some YA parents who don't like the idea of their innocent offspring accidentally reading about Sex Stuff is not an option from a story point of view. It has to happen, and it has to be very clear that this is what has happened.

It's always amazed me that things like The Hunger Games, with all its themes of teen-on-teen violence, are considered totally okay, while a lot of Judy Blume's books are still frowned on for their frank but balanced approach to teen sex. Kind of like MTV censoring decisions for P!nk's 'Just Like A Pill' video - they dubbed out the word 'morphine' from the song because that was a drug reference, but were quite happy with showing hordes of people licking, snogging and generally crawling all over each other in bondage gear!

Hi everyone! My sixth grade students enjoy reading YA books--it's more grown up for them than Middle Grade. So I want my books to be innocent enough for them to read. Calling them YA works now that NA is around because it labels them as NOT sexual or edgy violent.

Hello!  Just popped by with a question: how do I classify my latest story.  It's the story of a fourteen-year-old girl who wants to know what sex is all about, and she's not afraid to ask as she goes along.  I've posted two chapters and got negative feedback.  Evidently, it was offensive to some of the people who read my usual stuff.  I thought it was funny, because I used honest questions that really came up in my personal experience but, you know, I was afraid to ask.  I think it fits this definition:
YA - as defined by me
- main character is a teen
- deals with issues that teens typically deal with (leaving home, death, firsts -love, sex, etc)
but because I think it's funny, maybe somebody doesn't agree?  Could somebody help me out? If it's in bad taste, tell me.  JP
p.s. the title is Adventures of a Young Girl

This thread helps me clarify some things so much! Thank you.