YA or Adult, best market for SF?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Havlen

But, really, the whole YA thing is beyond me. I'm not sure when it started, but it wasn't around when I was a young adult.

It started in libraries. I first became aware of it in the 1960's. I don't think publishers started thinking in those terms as a marketing dsignation until sometime in the 1970's -- although there certainly were books aimed primarily at teenage readers before that.

[Theleb K]

I don't remember the '60's ( ) but it makes sense. I suppose that the YA (ie, teenage) "bracket" was sort of invented then - and people first realised that there was plenty £££ to be made...

[lin robinson]

Lin, I think I understand what do you mean with the ADULT and YOUNG ADULT market in content-wise. 'Sex in the space' might sell very well to certain audiences, to exaggerate this point, there is a profitable market for 'homoerotic Spock and Kirk' science-fiction, and it certainly isn't mainstream science-fiction. (Note that the story still has to be plausible or it will not work and you won't get sales!)

If you take a step downm and think Hunter S. Thompson work and especially his most famous novella (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). You can almost immediately see that the 'science-part' works extremely well wit the fiction. On top of everything, the story is very plausible, because it is based on the actual research.

Whoa, I just THOUGHT I was confused before. Now in addition to adolescence being 10-12 I've got homoerotic Spock being plausible andFear And Loathing being a "novella"...and based on "science". Ay!

[ctg]

Originally Posted by lin robinson

Whoa, I just THOUGHT I was confused before. Now in addition to adolescence being 10-12 I've got homoerotic Spock being plausible andFear And Loathing being a "novella"...and based on "science". Ay!

Did I said that the adolescent people are 10 to 12 year old? I would recommend you to read bit more and doing your own searches and maybe you'll see what I meant. What comes to the Hunter novella, it was on the real science that he conducted to be able to write the book. Although the story has been written tongue-on-cheek style, I would place it next any other hard science fiction book and be proud of its position at there.

My main point for you was that in order for you to be able to get your 'science-fiction' novel published, it has to be plausible. Without it, it is nothing but another failed story that could not light anyone imagination.

I think Teresa explained extremely well the subject on how the book ends on the Young Adult section, however I think I explained how wide the adult scifi market is.

[Theleb K]

Spock? homoerotic?

*lifts one extravagantly arched eyebrow...*

[lin robinson]

It's entirely scatological, Captain.

[Theleb K]

Entirely! One of these days I'll get up in the middle of the night and we'll chat some more..

[Anne Lyle]

I feel your pain, Lin (damn, now I'm having a Spock moment, too - "Devil in the Dark", anyone?)

I'm trying to work on a side-project whilst taking a break from my WiP, and although the plotline is YA-friendly (teenager discovering powers and unexpected heritage), the world it's set in is, I fear, too politically-incorrect to get past your average YA publisher. I've been reading "Write for Children" by Andrew Melrose, who teaches at the University of Winchester, and he's pretty stern on the subject of authors' responsibility towards their impressionable audience

I'd rather pitch something a bit racy as an adult novel and have teens read it, than pitch it as YA and draw a blank...