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Please read "A Note to Authors" in the Board Rules before posting here. This is the place for actively participating forum members who are also authors to post news about newly released books, book deals, book tours, blog tours, public appearances, awards, etc. Author members who are active in other areas of the forum, other than in self-promotion, are welcome to post here; those who post only here or who post only self-promotional material on the forum will be considered for deletion as spammers. Please reserve this forum for truly newsworthy items; reviews of your books or notifications of new blog posts you make, for example, are not considered newsworthy for purposes of this forum.
- Catherine Delors
- Avid Reader
- Posts: 399
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: Paris, London, Los Angeles
- Contact:
Amazon put it in YA for months and my publisher didn't see anything wrong with it. True, my heroine is eleven at the beginning of the story, yet the novel features incest, rape and various forms of violence, domestic and political. But I was told that standard YA fare includes that because teens and preteens are more "mature" than in the heyday of Nancy Drew. Ah, I loved Nancy...
So by the same token you could think of The Lovely Bones as YA because the protagonist/victim is a teenager. Why not? I read pretty much anything in my parents' library as a kid, and some of my childhood discoveries, like the Odyssey, Eugenie Grandet and Don Quixote, remained lifelong loves. And, Miss M, I read Proust's _A la recherche du temps perdu_, the whole Pleiade edition, in my teens. But then I love to get immersed in loooong books.
Yet I never wrote Mistress with a YA audience in mind. Not that I don't enjoy the genre, far from it, but the book is a bit long (around 180,000 words or so) and the political issues may be too heavy for a teenager.
I don't think For the King is going to be marketed as YA, though. Rather standard romantic HF.
So by the same token you could think of The Lovely Bones as YA because the protagonist/victim is a teenager. Why not? I read pretty much anything in my parents' library as a kid, and some of my childhood discoveries, like the Odyssey, Eugenie Grandet and Don Quixote, remained lifelong loves. And, Miss M, I read Proust's _A la recherche du temps perdu_, the whole Pleiade edition, in my teens. But then I love to get immersed in loooong books.
Yet I never wrote Mistress with a YA audience in mind. Not that I don't enjoy the genre, far from it, but the book is a bit long (around 180,000 words or so) and the political issues may be too heavy for a teenager.
I don't think For the King is going to be marketed as YA, though. Rather standard romantic HF.
- Catherine Delors
- Avid Reader
- Posts: 399
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: Paris, London, Los Angeles
- Contact:
Well, all those topics are up for grabs in the YA market. In fact my teens love it.
I read your book and didnt think of it as a YA novel. That doesnt mean you couldn't write one...or that teens didn't read your book. I know Michelle said she gets a lot of teen fan mail.
Some of the most popular books with rape, incest, drug abuse etc. are Ellen Hopkins poetry novels. I cant keep them on the shelf.
I'm glad that you are with your budget. Thats great. I look forward to seeing the new website.
I read your book and didnt think of it as a YA novel. That doesnt mean you couldn't write one...or that teens didn't read your book. I know Michelle said she gets a lot of teen fan mail.
Some of the most popular books with rape, incest, drug abuse etc. are Ellen Hopkins poetry novels. I cant keep them on the shelf.
I'm glad that you are with your budget. Thats great. I look forward to seeing the new website.
News, views, and reviews on books and graphic novels for young adult.
http://yabookmarks.blogspot.com/
http://yabookmarks.blogspot.com/
- Catherine Delors
- Avid Reader
- Posts: 399
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: Paris, London, Los Angeles
- Contact:
That's exactly what I heard about YA, Divia. And I also heard of "mainstream" HF writers who are nudged toward YA. Nothing wrong with it as long as it is consensual...
This isn't happening to me with For the King, though. I am watching the 1st draft of my book trailer right now, and it has a lot of humph. I like that. I will post it when it is finished. Also within budget!
This isn't happening to me with For the King, though. I am watching the 1st draft of my book trailer right now, and it has a lot of humph. I like that. I will post it when it is finished. Also within budget!
- Miss Moppet
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1726
- Joined: April 2009
- Location: North London
- Contact:
[quote=""Catherine Delors""]
So by the same token you could think of The Lovely Bones as YA because the protagonist/victim is a teenager. Why not? I read pretty much anything in my parents' library as a kid, and some of my childhood discoveries, like the Odyssey, Eugenie Grandet and Don Quixote, remained lifelong loves. And, Miss M, I read Proust's _A la recherche du temps perdu_, the whole Pleiade edition, in my teens. But then I love to get immersed in loooong books. [/quote]
Oh I love Pleiades. I have two treasured volumes of my own (Mme de Sevigne and a Saint-Simon) and the others I get from the library. The La Nouvelle Heloise I am reading is a Pleiade. I just love the paper and they are so compact to carry around. On the minus side they have super boring cover so I've used the cover to an English translation for my blog.
So by the same token you could think of The Lovely Bones as YA because the protagonist/victim is a teenager. Why not? I read pretty much anything in my parents' library as a kid, and some of my childhood discoveries, like the Odyssey, Eugenie Grandet and Don Quixote, remained lifelong loves. And, Miss M, I read Proust's _A la recherche du temps perdu_, the whole Pleiade edition, in my teens. But then I love to get immersed in loooong books. [/quote]
Oh I love Pleiades. I have two treasured volumes of my own (Mme de Sevigne and a Saint-Simon) and the others I get from the library. The La Nouvelle Heloise I am reading is a Pleiade. I just love the paper and they are so compact to carry around. On the minus side they have super boring cover so I've used the cover to an English translation for my blog.
That was my impression too, although I'd better reserve judgement on Amazon and your publisher until I read the book!Catherine Delors wrote:Yet I never wrote Mistress with a YA audience in mind. Not that I don't enjoy the genre, far from it, but the book is a bit long (around 180,000 words or so) and the political issues may be too heavy for a teenager.
- Catherine Delors
- Avid Reader
- Posts: 399
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: Paris, London, Los Angeles
- Contact:
- Miss Moppet
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1726
- Joined: April 2009
- Location: North London
- Contact:
I think Harry Potter, Twilight, Gemma Doyle Series and a few other heavyweights have helped to blur the lines between YA/Adult. Adults don't have to hide in shame for reading YA material and many teens are being drawn into adult titles for a variety of reasons, young MCs, interest in topic(historical time period) intriguing story.
Publishers don't run away from teens anymore. They have embraced them, which I think is great for teens and the industry.
Now, can all books be a cross over? Nah. But I love it that teen fiction isnt something that is taboo.
Publishers don't run away from teens anymore. They have embraced them, which I think is great for teens and the industry.
Now, can all books be a cross over? Nah. But I love it that teen fiction isnt something that is taboo.
News, views, and reviews on books and graphic novels for young adult.
http://yabookmarks.blogspot.com/
http://yabookmarks.blogspot.com/