It looks like we have a new category
thrust upon us. It's acronym is NA, standing for New Adult. It seems
to be picking up steam since my peers (and I) have seen requests for
it from agents and publishers. It's gained popularity in just the
last year or so. But hey, it's really always been with us, if you
stop to think about it. It features characters who range in age from
18 on up to...you name the 20s. I've seen it explained as college
kids between the ages of 18 and 22, from 18 to 26 and from 18 to 30.
I've also seen it meant to represent 21 to 30. The thing is,
everybody has a different idea about the age range but it's safe to
assume that it features young adults in their 20s who are in college
or fresh out, or just young and on the job hunt with the intention of
starting their lives. In comparison, YA characters might still be
living with mommy and daddy.
What brought this new category to our
doorstep? I keep hearing about the influence of 50 Shades, how racy
and daring it was. That book also topped the charts and spawned a
huge host of imitators. So is it ambulance chasing? Maybe. But like I
said, I think it's always been with us in contemporary and genre form
from the very beginning. I'm thinking of the young cast of Starship
Troopers, albeit a SF military adventure, but the age range fits. Is
it a new marketing tactic designed to draw in a younger or newer
readership? I think that might be the case. We all know how the
literary world operates; one trend can catch fire and then burn out,
but the profits are realized for that short burst. I'm reminded of SF
romance and how that was hyped and became popular. Yet SF romance
didn't quite burn out as much as it settled in, to shoehorn itself in
between space opera and hard SF—a very welcome genre, if I do say
so myself. Didn't Alien spawn SF horror? Well, I suppose, but we
never let SF horror really get off the ground as a genre unto itself.
Is NA just an excuse to allow the
inclusion of some unbridled sex scenes, legalized drinking and
perhaps some experimental drug use? Now that would depend upon who
the publisher was, wouldn't it? A Christian or non-Christian outlook
and tone? One thing is fairly certain, the contemporary genre will
most likely dominate in the beginning since those have been the most
often requested books from what I can see. Will writers be primarily
confined to the college life or can we expect to write about any
lifestyle facet for this age group? What about genre? Can you imagine
NA—NF, or NA, urban fantasy, SF, military, epic fantasy, thriller
or horror. Strike that last one. Horror seems to feature lots and
lots of persons in their upper teens and early 20s.
I can't help thinking that this extra
category is superfluous in many ways. As a tag, it seems to be
suggesting that YA fans read up and that it's perfectly fine for
adult fans to read a bit down. Sounds like another marketing gimmick,
wot? Pretty redundant when you consider YA readers lust after adult
books and vice versa. Why so cognizant about age when it's really the
story that matters? A great book is going to be read over all age
determinations. Just exactly where is it going to go on the books
shelves? Under YA, or Children? Or do you think there's room for a
new category when retailers are having a hard enough time finding
shelf space for anything that will sell? I also thought that college
people were having a hard enough time getting their assigned course
study reading done, so if they are the new target market in any way,
it's going to be a hard push. And, so help me, I'm just one of the
many who didn't attend college and I would find it hard to identify
with the academic aspect of it. And boy, is this new category wide
open for cliches—I can smell the nerds and jocks coming from here.
I can just imagine watching a reader
browsing the library and picking up a book that has a small NA logo
on it, thinking that it's something new and revolutionary. Then after
finishing the book, slamming the cover shut and and whining, “But
I've read books like this before! Where's the new beef?”
Take a ride on the dangerous side and meet the Jack Lions. The PG crew has their hands full with these monsters, and it looks like they'll have to throw the kitchen sink at them since they have nothing else to fight them with.
Captain Zachary Crowe and the crew of Planet Janitor Corporation are
adept at handling environmental clean-ups and close system jumps to
collect precious ores and space trash. The problem is they have yet to
complete an assignment without a mishap to add to their not so stellar
record. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, Orion Industries contracts
Planet Janitor for a clandestine operation that no one else wants,
offering them more money than they could spend in three lifetimes. The
mission entails a 12 light-year trip to a newly found habitable planet
in the Tau Ceti system. The crew will lose 26 years on Earth due to the
cryo jump, but that is the least of their problems. What they find on
Tau Ceti will rattle their wits, test their courage, and threaten their
very survival.
