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The fate of the faerie world is in her hands...
Title: The Faerie War
Series: Creepy Hollow, Book Three
Author: Rachel Morgan
Cover Designer: Morgan Media
Publication Date: Oct 2013
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Insecure Writers Support Group is hosted by Alex Cavanaugh and once per month on the first Wednesday we meet and reveal our insecurities to fellow bloggers for release and support. This month I'm doing fine, I do have a stubborn cold but it doesn't make me unable to go about my day. Just a random annoying cough and some fatigue. Also I won three amazon gift cards and bought a huge stack of e-books including those by some of my blogging friends (: I even reviewed one yesterday if anyone knows a certain Rachel Schieffelbein author of Secondary Characters. Read review here. But I do want to share something I'm considering.
I think the claim that teens won't read books featuring adults as the main characters is hogwash. The author of Paranormalcy had to make her main character younger to fit in the YA mold for publishers. But what if you didn't? My proposal is AYA (Adults for Young Adults), a genre with adults in the main role but written for a teen audience. Seriously look at the cartoons some of us watched growing up. Justice League, Batman: The Animated series starred adults but as kids we didn't care. We just loved watching them use their powers and skills to beat the bad guys. My idea just really formed on Monday but I've been thinking of this for over a year. Two novel ideas I have floating in my head star adult characters but always felt like YA stories. So my idea might just be in my head right now but wasn't New Adult just a concept before it exploded on the scene like it has now? And I think it might be great for teens having books with older characters written for them without looking for adult fiction to fill a non-teen staring book fix. So what do you think? Let me know and remember my novella Sacrifice Her will have a cover reveal in September and there is still time to sign up. Have an excellent day.
You make an interesting point here. I had no idea the main character in Paranormalcy was originally older, but now that you've mentioned it, it would have made sense.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I actually read WAY more adult fiction when I was a teen (and now that I'm an adult, I only read YA!), so I think you may be onto something.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for sharing my cover!
You're welcome I was glad to do it. YA book lovers unite! Looking back I can't believe how much more mature my older book collection is from my current one.
DeleteRachel's cover is awesome!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, all of the books I read featured adults. I didn't want to read about a teenager - I already knew what that was like!
I saw this cover over at Alex's. Gorgeous looking series.
ReplyDeleteI always read books about adults when I was a teen. I know teens who read books about adult. Ugh
First- I hope you feel better and that cold goes away for good. I hate summer colds, they seem to hold on forever.
ReplyDeleteRachel's cover is beautiful. As far as the YA books, I am torn. I have girls who read up but it's becoming harder and harder to find something appropriate for them to read. I think, Young Adult should technically be about young adults, unless the adult content can be kept appropriate. But I think my opinion may be the minority, LOL.
I completely understand your concern about appropriate content. The AYA I'm talking about would be age appropriate and not filled with racy stuff just to spice up a story. And I have no problem with YA, I just don't like it when people say teens wouldn't want to read about adults at all, that's not true. Glad you enjoyed the cover reveal and yes this cold has been hanging on like a frightened cat to a tree branch.
DeleteLove Rachel's cover and how well it goes with her series. Congrats to her! When I was younger I loved watching Batman the TV series starring Adam West. I was also a big fan of She-Ra and He-Man and I can name a bunch more with adult mcs that I liked, so I think you're right and may be onto something. Categorizing books is becoming a lot more involved than it used to be.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Rachel's cover so many times today, but each time it's like 'wow, I do love that!'
ReplyDeleteDifficult one.If you bring adults into YA you'd have to be careful not to make it too 'grown up' for YA. But you're right about NA - sometimes I think maybe it's all gone a bit OTT with all the different categories.
Suzanne @ Suzannes-Tribe
I also think that claim is total hogwash. When I was a teen I read tons of books with adult characters. I've always enjoyed both.
ReplyDeleteRachel's cover is fantastic.
I want to make specialization at my university from literature for children and youth. It's very rare topic among European (or at least) Polish scientists. It is maybe more tested at American, British, French and Russian universities, but even there it isn't popular. Greetings from very hot Poland.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful cover for Rachel's upcoming book!
ReplyDeleteAll of Rachel's covers are lovely. :)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for your cover reveal! I'm excited to take part in it. :)
I think the trouble with "adult characters for young adult lit" is that young adult lit is defined by far more than the age of the main character. It's all about "who am I" and "how do I fit into this world" and "who will I become". Those are not themes that fit with an adult character.
ReplyDeleteOver the years, many stories (particularly in epic fantasy) have been marketed toward adults but were told with a child protagonist or through a child's point of view. The age of the character isn't the issue.
Of course, there are TONS of books out there that were marketed originally to adults but have a huge YA or even MG audience (Lord of the Rings, Ender's Game, and Dune all come to mind). There are also lots of books that were intended to be adult books, but were marketed as MG because of a character's age, but then turned out to be very successful with adults (Harry Potter is an excellent example).
So I guess I just figure you write the book you love, and then see where it falls. It may be that you have NA on your hands, and this whole discussion is moot :)
I'm with Gina. Write the book you love.
ReplyDeleteAnd congrats to Rachel. Another great cover!
Those are beautiful book covers indeed! Hope you feel better and that cold bug just gets lost somewhere. And you've made some good points with the YA topic, especially comparing them to cartoons. I can't imagine how it would work with adults as the MCs in a YA book, but I'm not one to read YA much.
ReplyDeleteNice wins! Writer’s Mark
hogwash exactly!! the cover is such a good edition to the series!
ReplyDeleteI hope your cold gets better.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with you- hogwash!
Back when I was a teen, YA books were Chalet Girls and books about horses (urgh!), so I had to read about adults. The best thing about books for adults - at the time - is that I never felt I was being talked down to, and I was reading about big issues such as feminism. I was learning and my reading was improving and I was expanding my horizons. Books aren't just for entertainment, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThese genre rules sometimes drive me crazy. Of course, we read about adults as teens and loved the books. And yes, middle graders read about teens and love the books. I personally don't think it has as much to do with the age of the characters as the story and content itself.
ReplyDeleteBut there seem to be some distinct borders now of what to do and what not to do. I wonder why that is. Hmmm....
I'm with you. Even as a teen, I read a lot of books featuring adults.
ReplyDeleteIt never really bothered me. :-D
I barely read YA books as a teen. I picked up the adult books.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover.
When I was younger, I don't think they had so many sub-genres of book...or, if they did, I didn't know about them.
ReplyDeleteI used to read Encyclopedia Brown stories, but more for the fact that he was a detective, not a kid.
I've never really heard that teens only want to read about teens, but you have a great point and some great examples...especially mentioning Batman and The Justice League :)
The big publishers only want teen leads for YA books, but I think a teen will read about any age.
ReplyDeleteInteresting covers, I hope you leave that lingering cold!
ReplyDelete