Monday, April 14, 2014

Guest Blog by Author Reese Monroe


Is New Adult a Passing Fad?
Guest Post by Reese Monroe

I started writing back in 2008, and one of the first things I was told was. “Your characters are too old for Young Adult but too young for adult. Change it or you won’t get published.”

As a person new to the trade and no experience whatsoever in the rules of writing, I probably should have listened to those people advising me, right? While I respected them and often took their advice, this was one piece I couldn’t follow.

I had to go with my gut. I loved my characters too much to do otherwise. They weren’t dealing with the issues common found in high school, they were dealing with college, or life after high school in the work place, or life after a major change (usually some form of super natural power popping up LOL!)

But that’s what I loved writing about. Not that YA and Adult are bad, not at all, but New Adult (NA) was different from them, and there really wasn’t a place for it—yet. 

So, I just hunkered down and kept writing the stories in my heart. It wasn’t until 2011 (and novel #13) that I signed my first contract with a company as their first NA author.

It was an exciting time. And now, NA is really hot. I think NA was lying in wait for a long time, and when the readers really called out for it after getting a taste from self-publishing authors it became a big demand everywhere. 

I’m a contributing author on NA Alley Blog, and I love how NA is described there: “Bridging the gap between YA and Adult fiction.” To me, that’s very descriptive, because YA is more sweet and Adult can get very descriptive and hot, so bridging the gap with NA is a nice description. 

It’s a category within varying genres, so yeah, issues in NA can, and often do, vary by genre. But keep in mind that it’s about the time between adolescence and adulthood, so that’s a wide range of issues to touch on, right?  

I’m curious. What do you guys think of this New Adult category? Did it take you by surprise? Were you one of the many readers who’d been calling for it? Is it a passing fad? Here to stay?  

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