I think we’re all on the same page at this point that Bria and Caitie are both me. No more weird surprises for you guys.
But, now I’ve noticed something odd… something I noticed before but has become more obvious.
Me and the whole New Adult thing.
Previously several people had tagged my Caitie books as New Adult. I guess in some ways my characters do fall into that potential age bracket, but I’d always just thought of them as Rom Coms. But, New Adult is so new, I feel like it’s still finding is borders.
For Jenna (It’s in His Kiss) and Sarah (The Last Single Girl) the whole coming-of-age thing felt a bit pushing it. Both have careers and homes and have settled into their lives. The thing they were looking for was romance… and (of course) they find it! 😉 But, I never thought that singleness equaled coming of age.
At the same time, hearing readers refer to them as NA never bothered me. People can think about the books they read however they want, right?
Then came Wreckless, my new YA under my Bria name and I’ve noticed something interesting. It’s tagged as YA. It’s categorized in Teen. I’ve been living in the YA circles for years. I’ve been blogging about writing YA. The blurb alludes (lightly I guess) to high school rival teams… and yet, it’s getting grouped a lot with NA too.
All of the alsobots on the Wreckless Amazon page are NA. And the mentions people have made on twitter that it’s YA sometimes feel like  a type of warning. Like, oh it was good, but it is YA just so you know.
Here are some things that is for sure: Wreckless takes place in high school. Bridget is 16. Jake is 17. Yes, he gets the Bad Boy With A Mysterious Past thing going on, but he’s still 17…and really, as Bridget says, he’s horrible at the bad boy thing.
All this to say, I’ve been a-ponderin’ lately: What makes people think Wreckless is New Adult? Is it because there’s so much NA coming out lately that it’s assumed someone going Indie must be NA? Is it because of the tone (ramped up angst but a funny voice while dealing with a heavy topic/issue book type deal)? Is it because the Caitie books are about characters in their twenties? Or maybe it’s because of the alsobots — you look on Amazon, see all those alsobots there and they change your expectations?
I have no idea. Maybe a little mix of all of those. The real question is this: Does it matter?
Part of me thinks, Of course it matters! People come to books with expectations! How do I convince everyone in the world that this book is YA but still worth the read becasuse of all that great stuff going on!?!
The other part of me, the part that doesn’t care about things like “what do we call it” just doesn’t mind. I wouldn’t mislead anyone (IT’S YA! I SWEAR!) but, I’m not the book police. Whatever a reader wants to call my book is fine with me.
To make things more confusing –> I’m working on something that would fall into the New Adult category for next year. I just want to keep everyone on their toes I guess.
So, that brings us to the question: DOES IT MATTER? Not to the writer, but to readers. If an author is saying, “This is YA” but you’re seeing it tagged as something else by readers – does that change how you view book ? I’m curious… or nosy. One or the other. 🙂
kk,
Bria
Speak Your Mind