NaNo Update: I’m a chapter behind.  Blast.  I blame the election coverage.  And my characters are swearing more than I’d like them to.  Their potty mouths are dirtier than I wanted them to be.

From questions that weren’t asked.  Ally Carter tackles unasked questions that really should be asked in her blog and it’s definitely worth a read to anyone that writes, or thinks they write, in the YA field.  The thing is, what better place to acquire such answers than from the mouth of an already-published YA author?  She does a lot of comparisons between writing for teens and for adults, which is one of the main points of the post.  She’s thoroughly qualified to do it too since she writes for both markets.

I’m not in a place to comment on most of the questions she asks simply because I’m still in the learning mode of writing and publishing and I’m not yet published.  I don’t have the kind of experience needed yet to offer bonafide advice on such topics.  There are a couple of things I’d like to touch on though that don’t really go too deeply into the publishing world and instead simmer right on top next to speculation.

Word of mouth will always carry a book.  I don’t need to be published to know that one.  All the advertising and promotion in the world won’t make people read a book.  Only other people can do that.  Sure, promotion will get your book noticed but so does running naked down Fifth Avenue during rush hour.  You need that someone to notice you and recommend you to others in order not to fall by the wayside (or end up in jail).

Adults read teen books  Teens read teen books.  I don’t think, if you’re a YA writer, that you’ll need to worry about your fans growing up.  If they like the book enough, they’ll keep it by their side.  And like Ally said, the turn over for fans in YA is pretty often considering there’s always someone turning into a teenager somewhere.  It’s not like they’ll ever skip those years.

Finally, when it comes to YA being a genre, I go by how it’s shelved in the bookstore.  Sci/fantasy has it’s own section.  So does romance.  And mystery/thriller.  And non-fiction.  And young adult.  I think it serves as both a genre and category.  The category tells us the age range of the reader while the genre tells us where it’s shelved.  The way I see it, the type of book (horror, fantasy, whatever) is the sub-genre, if you’re going by way of the shelves.  There’s no YA fantasy section or YA thriller section.  It’s just YA with everything all mixed in together.  Also, I think it’s grown to a point where it’s big enough to be it’s own genre.

Teen readers aren’t just for teens anymore.  And more and more writers are getting over the stigma of writing YA (one of the “lesser” genres, depending on who you ask) to write it.  Not to mention people are saying screw it to the “embarrassment” of shopping in the teen section.  No one look at me funny when I bring a toppling pile of YA novels to the register.