A note about the vitriol

[megwrites]

As you may have noticed, I am not fond of the whole New Adult idea. I've said my piece on that.

And some of you may well be wondering why I feel the need to get so up in arms about it. So what, they have a new category of books. If I'm not going to be reading it, what's the harm?

Generally, I try not to piss in other people's sandboxes, because you know what? We all need our spaces. But when folks start making big widespread "we" statements and try to suck me in to said sandbox? Then I get angry and I start gnashing my teeth and letting my displeasure get shown.

Especially when someone wants to try to make a movement out of it and rearranged entire bookshelves based on what one publishing company (and one subsection thereof) wants to do.

So, yeah. If you're a reader who wants such stories, I wish you luck in finding them. But please, don't go around saying "we" like you've got my support in this. You don't.

Also? I'm a little more than worried that this will lead some well-meaning soul down the road to ask me why I'm not enjoying all these new adult novels because "zomg, you're totally the right age and they're ZOMG so much better than adult books" - and I just don't want to have to smack somebody like that. I do not need the assault charge on my record, okay? Okay.

You may commence with your regularly scheduled Monday.

Comments

[fashionista-35.livejournal.com]

From what I'm reading, it doesn't sound as if there's going to be a whole new section, but who knows, that may change. I'll be honest, I'm cautiously optimistic about this-- I've often thought that there needed to be something that fit the niche between YA & traditional adult literature. Yes, a lot of us were reading adult literature by the time we were fourteen (myself included), but I have to admit, by the time I was sixteen or so, I really enjoyed novels that had characters who were out of high school, but maybe not living the full-fledged kids and mortgage adult life by the time they were in their early twenties. It's telling, I think, that one of my favorite books of all time is Anne Rivers Siddons Heartbreak Hotel, which is set at a college and the lead character is a college senior. The story revolves around one tumultuous summer just as the Civil Rights movement is gathering steam and how the fallout affects her and shapes the person she's going to be. Yes, she's an adult, but by no means is she a fully formed individual yet. I would have committed murder for more books like that, and there were always painfully few.

Now-- is a full-on sub-genre the answer? I don't know-- but for someone who writes like I do, I have to be honest, it's something of a relief to know that there are editors out there who are looking for books that fill that particular niche. Who won't be asking to shift the action to a high school or make the protagonist sixteen so that they fit the YA mold better. (Which is one of my pet peeves-- sixteen-year-old characters acting like thirty-five-year-old divorcees.)

So... while I totally get where you're coming from and respect why you feel that way, I think I'm going to sit on the side of cautiously optimistic.

P.S. BTW, although I had no idea this even existed until you brought up recently and it certainly wasn't mentioned when I sold, it's entirely possible that Carmen might fall under that banner. What's interesting about St. Martin's (and one of the things I like best about it) is that they don't have a specific YA imprint-- they buy what they like within their already existing imprints and then designate it as YA or whatever-- I think it allows them more flexibility in the long run and why it doesn't surprise me that they're the ones trying this.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

So... while I totally get where you're coming from and respect why you feel that way, I think I'm going to sit on the side of cautiously optimistic.

Well, the big issue for me is not that there's going to be a category for books that fall in a liminal area, it's that this category seems to be focused the readers rather than the stories.

I think it's great to have something to call those books that do fall into that in between section, and that writers will be allowed to write what they're writing without either having to age up or age down to fit something. But the focus hasn't been on "yay, writers will be getting more space!" but rather on readers being so lost and uncertain at the age of 22 or so that they need special books. And that bugs me.

Because it feeds into a lot of the crap that if you're an adult who reads YA that you're somehow less mature, that YA books are less literary, less serious, less well written. That they're strained peas for those readers who just don't have the teeth for meatier books. Which ISN'T true.

I think the talk about this category neglects that the popularity of YA is not just because suddenly teenagers and 20-somethings are reading books when they weren't. Some of it is because adults that are WELL OVER their twenties are flocking to that category because they love the stories. Which is wonderful! But it doesn't mean those adults or 20-somethings are acting out of a basic immaturity or anything. It just means the stories are frickin' awesome.

But I really wish that this whole new adult thing didn't come with people casting aspersions on the maturity of the readers. I mean, when you're getting comments from 63-year-old guys saying, "I only read YA now a days!" then it gets a little annoying to be singled out as the reason for a label needing to exist.