Is "New Adult" the new "Young Adult" reader age category?

I came across the term "New Adult" recently as an emerging reader age range (not "genre" as it is often mislabelled) and wondered what it was. After all, we already have Young Adult and Adult fiction...

What's the gap in the market that New Adult claims to fill?
What is New Adult anyway?

As with "Young Adult" - its well established predecessor - the definitions can vary widely enough to confuse.

What's "Young Adult"?

Young Adult can also be described as "young adult literature" or "juvenile fiction" - and is often given the acronym "YA". It's generally aimed at adolescents/teenagers and young adults, although many adults read YA work.You could characterize a YA novel by use of a teen protagonist, key issues relating to that age range as a focus for the storyline, or a "coming of age" theme.

YA work can span across all genres - as YA is an age range, not a genre in it's own right - and work tends to be characterized by work appealing to the generally assumed teen audience.

The age range varies, however. Some argue that YA is 13-25, some 16-25 (preceded by a "Teen" age range of 10-15), some 13-19... You see the problem! We get the general idea that it's aimed at teenagers generally - but crudely speaking, what age is "too young" for YA? What's "too old"?

Here's where New Adult appeared to help out a little - but as with everything, each silver lining has a hidden rain cloud.

What's New Adult?

New Adult (or "New adult literature", or "NA") was first marketed by Martin Press in 2009, who decided there was a gap in the market for "fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult—a sort of an 'older YA' or 'new adult", although that's been translated as "basically a Young Adult book with sex and cursing thrown in."

.

This suggests that NA could encompass all genres, yet Angela James, the editorial director of Carina Press, describes NA as "a genre that fills the gap between YA and contemporary romance." That seems far more limiting and perhaps gives an impression of NA as a shady romance genre too mature for teens/minors, but not mature enough for an adult romance audience. Is that a correct perception? It's hard to say.

Again, the age range of "ideal" readers varies, although it seems to be consistently described as around 18-25/30 years old. It still raises the same questions, however; what age is "too young" for NA? What's "too old"?

Why is NA different to YA?

An NA novel could be defined by a protagonist/characters older than those in YA - of a similar age to the intended audience - but one key difference seems to be the inclusion of more mature themes. The NA fiction range appears heavily focused in the romance genre - whether it's strengthening in other genres such as SF&F (Science Fiction and Fantasy) remains to be seen. 

I recognise that NA aims to further focus marketing by the publishing industry, but on the other hand, it could be quite a constricting measure that disengages readers. Rudimentary age ranges are used in both YA and NA fiction marketing - however, in reality, reading transcends age, so should readers be put into such boxes, labelled and classified by age? Who's to say that an adult couldn't still enjoy the works of Enid Blyton, or a child the works of Tolkien?

This was a particularly heated extract I found. It raises a really valid point about the perceived quality of classifying writing into age groupings;

New Adult is a label that is condescending to readers and authors alike. It implies that the books act as training wheels between Young Adult and Adult. For the New Adult books that are particularly childish, the label implies that they are a step above Young Adult--which is insulting to the Young Adult books that are far superior. For the New Adult books that are particularly sophisticated, the label implies that they are not worthy of being considered "adult." It's a lose-lose situation for everyone.

"The problem with new adult books" by Lauren Sarner, Huffington Post.

So, is NA the new YA?

Ultimately, we have a proposed new reader age range on our hands here, which requires us, as independent authors, to make a conscious choice on how we define our work when it's on the adult side of YA.

Should we market our books as YA, or NA?

I find this especially difficult to decide given the potential grey area on mature content which may crop up in the second Book of Caledan. I personally don't think I could market book 1 as YA, but then book 2 as NA - I'm sure that would split, confuse and frustrate readers.

However, I wouldn't class the series itself as NA overall. Besides, in what appears to currently be a romance dominated category, I get the feeling I'd only be shooting myself in the foot if I marketed my current series as NA, despite the fact that yes, my protagonists are older teens/in their early twenties and yes, there may be more mature themes on the way in book 2.

Furthermore, NA has been around for 5 years so far, yet is not particularly well recognised. When did you last see "New Adult" pop up on the categories list at Amazon? Well, it doesn't. Similarly, few other publishers/retailers recognise it, despite growing interest and a growing number of particularly self published authors classifying their work as NA.

Should we jump on the NA bandwagon and help it diversify into genres other than romance? Or do we stick to good old familiar YA? Is there even a need for NA when we already have YA and Adult categories?

NA certainly doesn't seem to be a replacement of the YA category - and I don't think NA will ever replace YA - just a niche within/crossing into it. For now, I'll be sticking to YA, but I'm interested to see where NA is in a few years time - I think it has potential, but I don't feel it fulfils it yet.

I'd love to hear what you think! Please comment below, or catch up with me on facebook or twitter to have your say.

Ciao for now,

Meg

The benefits and pitfalls of having an author mailing list

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A topic I've repeatedly come across in self-publishing is establishing a mailing list - a list of interested, consenting contact's emails so that you can send them important updates about your book/product/cat's eating habits/whatever they've signed up for. So, writers can contact readers about their books, and readers receive updates directly from the author.

Sounds great, doesn't it? 

Overwhelmingly the status quo seems to be that a mailing list is a necessary aspect to any success as a self/independently published author. 

But, I surprisingly found that there are some pitfalls to having a mailing list.

I thought it would be worth sharing some of the perhaps more obscure pros and cons with you as well as linking to some of the posts that helped inform me (at the bottom of the post)! You can also see my mailing list signup form above as an example too (hint hint! Sign up if you'd like to receive advance updates on Books of Caledan). :-)


Advantages of mailing lists:

• You have your own reader base at your fingertips to share important updates with.
• Mailing lists allow authors to be independent of rising (Google+) and falling (Facebook) social networks; your fans travel the internet with you.
• Authors can send targeted promotions to parts/all of their list/s, which means authors can offer certain/all subscribers incentives - like I offer such as advance knowledge of release dates, special offers, exclusive content, and so on.
  
• Authors can integrate signup forms on their platform. I've added a signup to the top right of my blog and at the top of this post just to highlight how easy it is: Mailchimp provided the form coding for me, so no coding knowledge needed. Very handy! You can integrate mailchimp with both facebook and twitter too.
• Some mailing list services are free (up to a limit). I use MailChimp, which allows up to 2,000 subscribers for no fee. This means that there's no financial burden or obligation for new authors/businesses. Most authors I've encountered seem to use either MailChimp or Aweber above that threshold/for paid accounts.
• Authors can import/export mailing lists across platforms/hosts, so you're not tied to one service if you find a better provider or change your mind.
• Authors can schedule mails to be sent out at times to be most convenient to your readers wherever they are in the world! Plus this means you can schedule them in advance and then forget about them - the provider then sends them out as scheduled.
• You can add incentives to encourage signups - upon signup, a response email automatically sends to each new subscriber linking to the amazing freebie giveaway you've offered. That way, the subscriber get's something (good) for free, you get their email address/permission to contact, and the list provider handles the distribution.

Blogs I'd seen about mailing lists tended to be very heavily weighted in favour of them. There are drawbacks though, which I didn't discover until testing out the idea for myself.

The disadvantages of mailing lists:

• A paid account with Mailchimp is required to setup response emails to new signups (i.e. sign up and get a free reward emailed automatically i.e. ebook, download etc). I think Aweber is much the same. That's a great aspect of the incentive nature of mailing lists, though it could be overcome on a free account by manually emailing every single new subscriber. That's only effective therefore on smaller operations unless you pay for the feature.
• Sending too many emails, spam emails, or if too many people don't open your emails/unsubscribe, then your account could be marked as a spammer and shut down. So email content needs to be a balance of quality, useful and relevent content that doesn't bombard people and is always interesting/valuable enough for subscribers to open and read.
• You must put your business address on each and every email you send out to comply with international anti-spam laws. In order to eliminate this (because you can't use PO Box addresses either), you'd have to put a business address - for example an accountant or solicitors address there (or a publishers/agent)... but that involves having access to such a facility. Personally, it's an understandable but worrying breach of confidential information.

I hope that this has been a useful insight into some less obvious advantages/disadvantages of mailing lists. Some further useful reading on mailing lists can be found on these blogs, which include some "how to" information and are well worth a read:

Why Authors Need To Set Up A Mailing List, NOW! by Book Marketing Tools

How Authors And Writers Can Build An Email List For Marketing by Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn

 Email marketing and newsletters for authors byAnna Lewis and Suw Charman-Anderson

Ciao for now!

Meg

Hi all - I return!

Just a quick blog to show that I am in fact still alive. I just finished my third and penultimate year of university (hurrah), which means I no longer have to spend my free time slaving over assignments/revision (double hurrah) and can instead get back what I truly enjoy doing; writing (triple hurrah!)!

In the next week I'll be blogging here about:

•  The benefits and pitfalls of having an author mailing list.
• The age-range debate: 'Young Adult' vs. 'New Adult' literature.

Plans for this summer include:

• Finish editing and then publish The Tainted Crown: The First Book of Caledan (and all the things that entails) - sign up to my mailing list to receive advance notification of publication date today!
• Finish planning and then write the second book of Caledan (title currently unknown). 
• I'll be more active online too on my facebook account, on my twitter account and on here. I'll also be setting up an author page on Google+ and Goodreads.
• (+ inevitable boring real life stuff: decorating, chores, bla bla bla.... invest a domestic goddess robot already, scientists!)

Why timelines are vital for writing stories

I've been busy plotting book two of the Books of Caledan series in my spare time this past few weeks. 

It was easy to begin with; I already had lots of ideas recorded in bullet point lists for each main thread of the plot, which I transferred onto Scrivener's corkboard feature (each thread being one corkboard).

I compiled the three main threads (each made of a group of closely linked character viewpoints) and then... promptly hit that brick wall we call writers' block.

I scratched my head whenever I returned to the project for a few days until it hit me. I'd been putting it off, but really it was time.

It was time for a timeline!

This is exactly the same process I went through with book one; with exactly the same results. The hardest thing was making the first pen stroke on the page. After that, it flowed beautifully! (Frankly, I should have started a timeline sooner... Oh, hindsight!)

First, I drafted it roughly on paper. I found that, over the ten viewpoints I listed, I could group a large bulk of the ideas together in time as characters met, separated, or as certain plot events had to meet at the same time.

That made things much easier. I now knew which characters were chronologically behind/in front at any given point. I could marry up those events that had to tie in together and work backwards to link up the beginning of book two's timeline with the end of The Tainted Crown (book one)'s timeline and forwards to meet book three.

Importantly, the timeline was pinned down on paper; it's much harder to visualise mentally!

Today I typed it up in Excel, which allowed me to play around with rearranging things as needed. There's no dragging or dropping on a piece of paper; alas! But that was, for me, a useful "first draft" if you like. Get anything down, and then it can be revised. (That reminds me of an Anne Lamott quote regarding crappy first drafts! It's the second one from the top.)

The main advantage of a timeline for is that it allows the threads of the story to be plaited together and connecting the ideas brings them to life. Suddenly, by looking at the bigger picture, the sequencing problems I'd been having vanished.

I can see the next steps. As it is, I just found the convenient point to stop book two and start book three that had totally escaped me 24 hours ago!

If I'd tried to carry on without a timeline, I would have failed. I genuinely don't know of any more valuable tool when it comes to sequencing and arranging your stories than a timeline.

I hope this pursuades you to try a timeline approach if you haven't before.

Ciao for now,

Meg

Why reading a book you dislike can be useful for your writing

I've read in many a place that to be a good writer you also have to be an avid reader.

Luckily, I'm a complete bookworm (if I could have been Hermione Granger I would have!). Only time restricts how much I can read these days.

Lately, I've picked up two new fiction works, one by an author I've previously read (and enjoyed), one by an unfamiliar author. Both have put me way outside my comfort zone. I won't disclose which authors or books I'm reading (it's unfair and irrelevant), only use them to illustrate the point I'm making.

In any case, I realised that not enjoying reading a book is as good for my own writing as enjoying a book.

The first book was written in first person/present tense. Given that most books I read are written in third person/past tense, this was incredibly distracting. Nevertheless, it's a historical fiction set in a time I'm particularly interested in, so I persevered.

This became less of a distraction when compared with what I felt was a lack of compelling story telling and instead, simply a recount of slightly embellished historical detail. Now I'm faced with the choice of not finishing the story - frustrating to any reader - or forcing myself through the second half in the hope it improves.

The second book is gripping - I can't put it down - but also darker. It goes beyond the typical realm of fantasy battles that I usually encounter and continues into grim and gruesome murders to an unnerving depth. The plot in this one is thankfully very more-ish, but I do sometimes shiver as I read the darkness within.

So why are these experiences valuable?

By reading lots - and enjoying and disliking what you read - you can learn to recognise and understand what/how you enjoy writing and use this knowledge to make your own writing more efficient and better.

For example, I now won't use first person, present tense any time soon; to me it feels unnatural and distracts from the story. If, as a reader I feel that way, I'm sure others would too.

Additionally, I'll carefully consider what detail I add to my characters/settings - too little makes for an uncompelling read. Characters and settings must feel believable, 3-dimensional and real.

I also know my own tolerance for gory details; a.k.a. what I can handle writing and reading before I get nightmares! I think that's important to understand. 

Knowing my preferences will save me the time of re-writing to change tense and person, rewriting to axe or add detail retrospectively and also the worry of how much "gore" to add in my work - I'll push my boundaries but stop short of Game of Throne's Red Wedding for now, for example.

I hope that's a useful thought to share; it's certainly offered me a new perspective and way of linking reading and writing.

Ciao for now!

Meg

(You know you're a writer when...) it's date night... with Scrivener!

Yep, that's right; happy days!

It's time for a date night of the writing kind; just me and Scrivener*.

Task of the evening? Flesh out the plot for books 2 and 3 of the Caledan series.

I thought I'd take the time to work some more on this whilst book 1, The Tainted Crown, is with my very kind proof readers and critique buddies for feedback.

I already have some bare bones laid down but definitely need to add to them before I'm anywhere near ready to start writing book 2!

I'm currently plotting both books together so that I can pick the most appropriate point to split the two books later and also make sure to tie up all loose ends. Ideally I would have plotted out the whole series first; but when I started book 1 I didn't have a clue what I was doing!

You live, you learn, eh? So this is the next best point to pin down all the fine details for the rest of the series/ I am hoping to write book 2 this summer so it needs doing!

I can't wait. Just me and the keyboard, a cup of tea and the cat sat next to me (or at the other side of the house ignoring me; either's good!), with the internet turned off (required for any hope of success!).

If you're writing tonight... enjoy!

Ciao for now,

Meg

*If you haven't heard of Scrivener before, I highly recommend you check it out! It's an amazing program built by writers for writers.

Perils of writing in the digital age: back everything up, everywhere!

Writing digitally is great!

For the purpose of writing, I couldn't go back to the days of hand cramp and blotting paper. (Yes, I used to write in fountain pen and have blotting paper; a quaint and terribly ink-stained situation.)

Yet there's perils lurking here too.

Guess who typed out all smart and neat the plot for books 2 and 3 of Caledan a few months ago? Yes, me!

....Guess who now can't find the files anywhere. Yep. Me.

I could have sworn they'd be on my usual hard drive, or the myriad of USBs I keep for backups and working files, or even on the cloud (that darn awesome thing), given that I always back up stuff to at least two places. Apparently not! 

Guess who wants to kick herself really hard right about now, because she knows better than to not back up files or to delete them like a complete idiot. Yep, me. What. An. Idiot.

*     *     *

Guess what I just found in the deleted files on my cloud? ... Yep, the file I was looking for. What on earth possessed me to delete it? Heaven knows. Am I glad I found it? You have no idea!

So unlike an essay a few months back (deleted by mistake and as it turns out, unrecoverable... oh the pain!), this tale has a happy ending.

The moral of the story?

Back stuff up EVERYWHERE!

And then some other places!

Chances are you'll get immensely annoyed about tripping over the same files over and over again, but goodness it's worth it just not to lose anything.

Phew.

Off to make a celebratory cup of tea...

Ciao for now,

Meg

The Tainted Crown Edit 3: Complete!

The Tainted Crown

Edit 3:

95 chapters, 107,811 words

Edit 3 is complete! I performed this edit on my kindle using the annotation feature to add notes as I read.

Then, I manually went through every annotation on kindle (313 in all) and simultaneously corrected the draft on Scrivener.

I am confident there are no spelling mistakes at the very least! (Famous last words!?)

Now it's off to my very very kind proof readers/critique buddies with the completed manuscript.

...I hope they like it!

(*About 309 printed pages in book format)

How to be a productive writer in 3 simple steps

Until I read a blog post by a certain Rachel Aaron, my writing was a vague hope of eventually getting a novel together. I was struggling to keep up pace and motivation. And then, I saw this amazing blog post.

Here. Click it, go on! Reeeeeeead it!

It changed my life!

Long story short, it's about how to be more productive and better in your writing and enjoy it (rather than feeling like you're flogging a dead horse...).

It's the story of how Rachel Aaron went from writing 2k a day (which was me on a very good day) to 10k a day. (Yes, you read that correctly. No I did not mistype that!)

It changed my entire approach. In 2011, I wrote about 40,000 words for The Tainted Crown.  Most of those were after September 2011 when Christopher Paolini had inspired me and after I had seen Rachel's blog post. By summer 2012 I'd finished draft one on 101,269 words.

It helped me decide where I was going, fine tune the details, and charge out of the starting gate with all the information and motivation I needed to reach the finish line. The nice side effect was the increased word count that Rachel also saw in her own work.

I was able to make much faster and better progress (because writing is about quality not quantity) by following Rachel's advice;

• planning my writing (the fewer gaps/more you know, the better your flow)
• being enthusiastic about writing (boring scenes must die! Great scenes are a joy to write and arguably write themselves!)
• using my time well (pick your most effective time of day - for me, the evening)

I quite literally have had this written/drawn on a post-it note stuck to my desk for the past 2 years+ to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Recommended reading:
I would highly recommend you read the blog post above, but also look at Rachel Aaron's e-book "2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love" which covers this in much more depth. It's a text I refer back to regularly to keep on track!

Check out Rachel's website and blog if you get a chance - I hope they provide you with the same inspiration they gave me!

Ciao for now,

Meg

The Tainted Crown Edit 2: Complete!

The Tainted Crown 

Edit 2:

95 chapters. 108,213 words*.

Edit two of The Tainted Crown is complete! I focused mainly on speech punctuation checking and paragraphing length in this edit.

I have one more edit to go (which will focus on proof reading and anything else I spot).

Then, a final read through on my Kindle - so I can read the story as a reader not a writer almost - and any tweaks needed as a result of that, before I release the manuscript for editing/proofing/critiquing/etc by my very kind writer buddies.

Nearly there (ish)! Or at least, closer than before! :-)  I'm so excited about this - can't wait to pass it on to others and can't wait to get this baby published this summer! :-)

Ciao for now!

Meg

*That's about 300 pages in book format.