Friday, March 30, 2012

The Lure of Young Adult Books

I don’t know why, I am seeing YA (Young Adult) books everywhere. This trend was started by the Twilight series and then The Hunger Games saga propelled it forward. Practically every writer I meet online is writing YA: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Dystopian, (which is the current rage), Sci-fi, Mythology, Speculative and Steam punk.

I am wondering what makes a writer choose to write for the young adult audience? Is it because such books are selling like hot cakes, a case of give the publishing market what is the current flavour of the month. Is it because of the need or call of the story? As a writer I can completely understand that. I  mean no offence to the YA writers. Most of my writing friends write YA.

Many of the YA books I have come across are being made into movies (Under the Never Sky, Divergent, Legend, Matched, Chaos Walking Trilogy, Shatter Me, Delirium, Uglies). It’s a good sign for us writers. I have also seen that agents who were not accessible to writers for the younger audiences are now throwing their doors open for the YA and select MG books. Everyone wants to cash in on this trend.

I personally love theYA books (though I have not read that many). Maybe in future I may even write one such book myself. But, that will be in the distant future. 

What do you all think of the YA trend? Is it here to stay? What according to you all is the lure of the YA books?  Have you all read many such books? Which are your favourite YA books? I would love to know how many of my Blog Buddies write YA. For the others like me who don’t write YA, are you even remotely tempted? What’s your take on it?

20 comments:

  1. YA are driving most of the consumption trends and so is the case of reading! Am sure at least it will be a while before the trend declines or else grows :)

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  2. I think, it is the demand and the success rates that are driving it. I read the "Twilight" series. Though, I enjoyed reading it, I find the romance too sweet. I guess, I was not the target audience, anyway :). I would prefer writing a more mature romance.

    http://rachnaparmar.com

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  3. True! There is so much hype and hoopla surrounding it. But it is good for welters <3

    love
    http://www.meghasarin.blogspot.com

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  4. I think part of the lure rests in the youthfulness of the characters. They can speak to readers of the same age as the characters and adults (at least for me) like how it makes us feel young again or to remind us of out past, or to remind us how wonderful it is to fall in love again. I never really understood what my market was until last year. Turns out it was YA all along. :)

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  5. I sure hope YA stays hot since that's what I write. My favorite YA books are the darker, edgier books that tackle difficult subjects.

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  6. It is a trend that will find a ceiling, but I see it as a market driver for a long time.

    Good stuff Rachna and enjoy your weekend.

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  7. Hi friends...maybe I am getting a bit envious of all the limelight the YA books are getting. Agents are really attracted to it. Many don't even want to see MG books. Sometimes I feel that MG books are getting sidelined. I just hope not.

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  8. Young adult books didn't really exist when I was a kid. If it gets teens to read, then it's a good thing.

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  9. I think YA is here to stay for a long time. The actual YA audience will never "age out" because they're always "growing in" to it. Plus, there are a ton of adults who adore YA (myself included.)

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  10. writers over the years have ironically being market driven and less artistically. Not good for literature & readers.

    Weakest LINK

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  11. I think YA will always be here. I'm starting to read it again. Harry Potter and Hunger Games are great examples.

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  12. Yes YA books are really taking off and apparently they sell better in print form at the moment than adult books.
    I've yet to read/see the hunger games or any Suzanne Collins.

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  13. I've read a few YA books. Some of them were pretty good, some not so good. It takes a pretty special kind of person to write YA, to know what young adults are interested in and sort of write in their language and mindset. I admire YA writers.

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  14. YA is awesome and there will always be an audience for it. Ivy read the Hunger Games series and loves it. She is just coming into that age group. I have a YA in my head that I am saving for future. Beth (crit partner) writes YA.

    Most adults love it too. The books are more exciting and sometimes better written than adult books.

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  15. Timely. I have only just recently begun to feel the lure of young adult books!

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  16. I write YA, but purely because my characters fall in that age range?

    :-D

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  17. Yep, the YA trend is definitely here to stay because more than teens can relate to the stories.

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  18. I hope that quality YA books stay on trend. When my children were younger, good ones were hard to find. Some of my favorites are by L.M. Montgomery.

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  19. I think it is great that there are books for that age group. I doubt I could write for that genre and have not read many at all.

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  20. I started writing about preteens and teens YEARS ago, when I was a young person myself, ages before YA was such a hot trend. My simple reason was that I was a young person myself, and it would've made no sense for a young person to write about adults. I wrote what was familiar, and through the years, as I've become a better writer, I've stayed with those characters and am proud of how I literally grew up with them. I know them very well after now over 20 years, and can write them convincingly and in-depth at any age, even after they've aged out of adolescence. My YA is 20th century historical, which isn't one of the trends, but that's what I would've written even if I'd started writing it as an adult and not a preteen. I don't want to follow trends.

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