At a recent writing group meet, we talked about writing for different age groups. How writing for children's, middle grade, young adult, new adult, and adult differ when it come to vocabulary, language, and content.
As we moved through the different age ranges, highlighting the standards for the classifications, both from a library prospective, as well as, a commercial one, we ended up getting stuck on new adult. It's not really a classification, as far as age range, that libraries use, but it is used in the commercial space, and has been for over a decade.
So what is new adult?
If you've never heard the term before, it can be confusing. Up until a little over a decade ago, new adult meant a book fell into the adult genre and was a new release. Or, at the very least, a new acquisition for the store or library. But today, in the commercial space, that might not be what someone means when they say they're looking for a new adult book.
Most books that fall into the new adult category have characters between the ages of 18 to 24 years old. They are embarking on their lives as adults, encountering a lot of changes, and adjusting to new responsibilities. They are new adults.
A lot of these books revolve around college and college students, but they don't have to. The genre tends to revolve around characters finding their way in life as adults. Experiencing things for the first time.
The new adult label is most often found in the romance genre. It focuses on falling in love for the first time as an adult. Sometimes it deals with one or more characters losing their virginity. And it usually involves one, or more of the characters exploring things out of their comfort zone.
Why is this distinction between new adult and adult important in romance?
I've been a romance reader for the better part of my life, which means I've read all different types of romance. And while I enjoy some new adult titles, I tend to favor adult titles. Why? The maturity of the characters.
That's not to say all new adult books have immature characters. They don't. Elle Kennedy's Off Campus series is a perfect example of that.
While her characters are in college, and sometimes they do stupid things, they don't come across as immature. They all have responsibilities and they take them seriously.
But new adult books often center around going to college, college parties, and finding your way as someone who's often experiencing independence for the first time. As a woman who's flirting with 50, and has been on her own for several decades, that holds very little interest to me.
That, however, is one of the great things about books. There are different genres, different characters, and different lifestyles we can read about and we can find the books that speak to us. Even if they don't speak to someone else.
It's one of the things I love about indie publishing. There is no gatekeeping. No begging an editor in New York to give your book a chance.
Self publishing has opened the door to everyone. If you have a story you've written, you have the ability to put it out to the masses-to find your audience.
Do you have a preference between new adult and adult books?
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