Young Adult vs Adult Fiction

So, my WIP is one I was aiming at publishing in the YA age range, but as I'm writing it, there are some kind of dark parts that makes me wonder if it would be better off as adult.

Are there any hard-and-fast rules for YA vs Adult fiction? If I'm writing with an older protagonist (17 years old) aiming at the 8th-12th grade readership, are there any themes that are strict no-nos?

My concerns are that in my story I have assassinations, death threats, deaths, an almost-rape, and a few cuss words. I mean, the whole plot doesn't revolve around these (geez, when I put all the nasty stuff in one line like that my story sounds REALLY dark, but I swear it isn't!) but they all appear at some point or another. (It's set in a medieval fantasy world, in my defense).
So I guess my question is, where is the line between YA and Adult?
Is this something I even need to worry about, or (assuming I get that far) is this something my agent/publisher would decide anyway?

 

I think it's important that you know how to classify your novel, for sure - agents will want to know that, and they aren't likely to be too impressed if you get it wrong.

That said, I don't think there's much material that's too dark for YA. Hunger Games is YA, there's loads of YA about sexual assault, suicide, mental illness, etc... I'd say you're good.

 

I initially started writing my work towards young adults (because it stars them, although they're in the 18-20 range), but then I realized "they're using a lot of f-bombs". XD
That, in addition to some semi-graphic depictions of violence, and I decided maybe it was better off as adult fiction.

 

Nope. I've dropped F-bombs in YA. It's a pretty wide-open category.

 

I don't think it makes sense to think of YA as a "protective" category, if that makes sense? Like, it's not YA because the readers can't handle adult fiction - there are loads of people who read both YA and adult fiction. They don't read YA because adult fiction is too hard to read, or too "nasty" for them.

YA is more of an interest-based category. Coming-of-age, interesting voice, etc.

 

Well, just because something gets PUBLISHED as YA doesn't mean every school library or parent will buy it for their YA shelves...

 

I too have this problem concerning which genre my novelette would fall into, Adult Fiction or Young Adult. However, I should mention that Adult fiction is called New Adult, not just Adult. This means the age is 18 - 30, unlike YA, which is from 13 - 17; please correct me if I'm wrong. From the situations you describe, and yes, I acknowledge it is not as dark as you describe, it seems to depend on how your audience will take it. Adults, presumably, will handle the more mature themes and character situations more seriously, while the young adult audience will probably see it as shock value, (in my opinion). When I read YA fiction that had dark themes and even an implied rape, I tend to saw it as a way to shock the young reader into thinking the world isn't a fantastical land of good people and puppies. Again, my opinion.

As mentioned, the genre you chose for your book will depend on the audience you want to write for. And from what you describe, perhaps it would be best, and safer, to go with New Adult, instead of Young Adult. I should also add that New Adult tends to be populated by romantic-esque novels, thanks to E.L James. You should probably add another tag to the genre you're writing, e.g., Fantasy New Adult, Historical New Adult, etc.

Sorry if I sound too serious, just a habit of my writing; I hope that helps!

 

I don't think NA is really a viable category outside of Romance. So if you're writing something with 18-30 years and it isn't romance (or even isn't erotic romance) it probably wouldn't be classed as NA.

 

I just considered the possibility that New Adult could be expanded from romance/erotic romance genre. However, it is fair to say that New Adult isn't really a flexible area to write books other than romance; New Adult works with themes connected with romance, relationships, etc.

 

I think when the NA term first started being used a decade or so ago there was hope that it would be like aged-up YA, something that could fit any genre. But it really hasn't worked out that way, unfortunately.

 

I definitely agree that the genre hasn't expanded beyond romance, which is a shame since I think it really can.

 

Our local library shelves the YA amongst the Adult. The librarian told me there's a lot of great YA books that need to be in the face of people who wouldn't browse a separate YA section. Which is a terrific outlook. It does make it harder for me if I want to hone in on them, but I can manage.

 

Same issue as with so many other non-genre categories - GLBT, African-American, etc. - it's good to have them mixed in with the rest of the fiction because they should be read by everybody, but it's frustrating for those who are looking specifically for those categories to have to hunt the books down on the general shelves. My solution - shelve them in two different places!

 

There's a great book by Cheryl B. Klein (The Magic Words) that goes over this very question. I'll paraphrase a bit -- Klein says that short of erotica, almost anything can be written about in the YA world. I would say that your themes aren't too dark. One thing you might consider is whether the dark content is justified (i.e. it's not there to be "edgy").

It might be a good idea for you to find comparable works in the YA world (that's a good thing do to anyway, especially if you'll take the book to an agent). A quick search on Goodreads shows plenty of books that deal with sexual abuse, which would be the "darkest" thing on your list, in my opinion.

 

Whoo! I'm a Hard-R!

Honestly I think anything that would be around NC-17, is the most you can pull
off, without venturing into Adult. YA usually has toned downed violence and sex.
So nobody is going to be holding their eviscerated intestines in their abdominal
cavity crying for their mommy. Nor will there be any in depth hardcore penetration
of anyone in happy fun times.

So get as dark as you like without overstepping the boundaries that separate Adult
from YA.

@ArgileSocks so your saying with all the language, extreme violence, and some
some sexual content that my story could be YA? Interesting...Granted most of
my characters are well out of their teens/20's.
I am sure the kiddies will handle people being hacked apart, broken, tortured,
and all manner of unpleasantness of war in graphic detail. Unless I am missing
out on some pretty hardcore YA?

 

Yeah, I was going back to books I remember reading when I was younger that had these same things in them and trying to find what they were officially classified as, but it's apparently not something that's written on their Amazon page...(ie, YA or Adult)....or am I missing something? Is there an easy way to look up a book I remember and see if it's listed as YA or Adult?

And with regards to the New Adult, my story is mostly fantasy coming of age/ adventure, and the romance aspect will be slim to none (at least in this first book. I have plans for a sequel where the romance may become a bigger factor.) So I don't see that as a viable option, but thanks for the insight!

 

So Klein gives five criteria for deciding what age group a book belongs to, and I only paraphrased one because it was the most applicable to OP's message... your book is probably fine if it's aimed for adults.

Like you, I don't know how to explicitly find the category for books. I suggest looking for the publisher. You might get an idea of what genres they publish or what age groups they're for.

 

Good question. I think it really depends how old you are. If you're under 25 you could probably call yourself a young adult.

 

While I appreciate you weighing in, did you even read the question? It had nothing to do with me. I'm nearly 32, I know I'm an adult, lol.

 

Oh sorry - didn't read it properly!

I'd say if your protagonist is 17 years old he's probably a young adult.