I have decided to market my books from now on as new adult dark fantasy. Of course, new book genres will depend on what they are. But the eight that form the Elf Gate series are best defined as new adult dark fantasy.
So, what exactly is new adult? The short answer is the age bracket just above young adult. We’re talking about ages eighteen to twenty-nine, college age students, or any new adults who have to learn how to navigate adult responsibilities and problems now that they are of legal age.
After doing some market research, I realized that I’ve always been torn between marketing my series as adult dark fantasy or young adult dark fantasy because my books fall fall somewhere in between for age and themes. The long answer involves those themes … and a few other noteworthy points. Themes for someone new to adulthood might include leaving home for the first time, developing sexuality, depression, substance use and abuse, bullying, new education and career choices, new family issues, fear/failure of adult responsibilities, struggling with financial independence, and more. New adult stories are similar to YA because they involve coming-of-age experiences that are relatable to teens and new adults as well as older adults who remember what those challenges were like and enjoy processing those experiences through new and different lenses of fiction. But new adult is different from YA in that it does contain adult content and can be marketed as such.
I found out there is some controversy around this genre, though. Some say it is nothing more than a marketing gimmick and that there is no real audience for new adult books, probably because so many new adults and adults still enjoy YA. The problem with that is YA is designed for ages as young as eight and doesn’t usually include characters older than seventeen or eighteen. Therefore, you get a lot of YA books that are written with adult or almost-adult characters and adult-emphasis themes. Or worse, you get a lot books written for teens that adults complain about because they expect YA to be written for them. I recall an author I once knew getting a one-star rating because a reader didn’t like YA, yet the book was clearly labeled YA. (Why would you read a genre you know you don’t like?) Or how about Twilight readers complaining about the whiny teenage protagonist and vampires that aren’t scary? Guess what! YA can have whiny teenagers and hot vampires because those are typical teenage experiences and interests. The whole world is one dramatic, manic-depressive experience after another throughout the teen years. And that, too, is something that separates YA literature from new adult. One article that I read said adults are guests when they enter the YA genre, and they need to respect that. This has nothing to do with preference or quality of literature; it gives a designated free-parking space to an age group that is launching out of childhood and into maturity, physically and emotionally, so they can see themselves represented interacting with the world in ways they can relate to. Therefore new adult books could be described as representing maturing teens launching into adulthood.
That doesn’t mean YA books are supposed to be rated for general audiences; far from it. YA books will still have some challenging “becoming adult” themes because those themes reflect some of the realities that young teens face as they grow and mature. And teens facing adult problems is never a clean or easy reality to cope with. But the new adult genre can help draw a line so that parents, educators, librarians, and publishing houses more clearly understand who the target audiences are, making marketing, acquisition, and designated shelving less confusing.
I also found out the new adult genre is popular among self-published authors because the traditional publishing industry wasn’t very open to the idea at first. That is starting to change with the success of new adult authors like Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Casey McQuiston.
So, I’ve already updated my books page to reflect their new genre and subgenre, and in the future I will adjust my book promotions accordingly. Aija starts this series at seventeen going on eighteen years of age. When she gets trapped in the fae realms, she faces a whole new world where she is utterly lost and incapable of surviving on her own. She must learn new skills and find courage to grow in ways she never imagined. Most of the other characters in the story are older than her. (And if you include the fact that they are mostly fae, they are WAY older than her!) ^_^ But her coming-of-age story truly belongs in the new adult camp because she is already past the bulk of the teen-to-adult experience, yet she is still in for a lot of”firsts” as she fights for survival among fae, undead, dragons, and more. There are other characters who experience their own coming-of-age stories, too, despite their actual ages. Trizryn, for example, is over a century old, but when he discovers he isn’t who he thought he was, he has to rebuild his true identity from the ground up and learn some humility in the process. I’ve said in previous articles this is why the title “Changeling” refers to both Aija and Trizryn; they both must at some point pretend to be something they’re not while also learning how to become something more.
So, here’s to a new direction in marketing. Hopefully, it will more correctly help these books find their readers. Did you already know about the new adult genre? If so, who are some of your favourite authors from it? If you have any recommendations for me, I would love to start a new TBR list just for them since this is (apparently) a style of writing that I strongly favor. (Like I need another TRB List! LoL …) ❤
Bad Cat Ink 