Comments on: One of the theories

By: Katie

Katie — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:45:19 +0000

gah. I hope it doesn’t disappear (or shrink to an unbearably small market). I’m not trying to be unrealistic. But YA is what I’ve always wanted to write! (and read!) *crosses fingers*

By: capt. cockatiel

capt. cockatiel — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:37:01 +0000

I try to instill my love of YA in my sister. Usually I don’t let anyone touch my books, but I will lend them to her if she doesn’t ruin them (AKA, she can’t take them to school in her backpack). Hopefully it will catch on soon.

By: rebecca

rebecca — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:24:05 +0000

gah. this scares me a tiny bit. it makes me wonder if breaking into ya will only get harder.

but then i remember that i am decidedly NOT THINKING ABOUT THE DAMN MARKET right now, or anytime in the near future. nooooo, bad rebecca, baaaad.

i hope it’s not just demographics. i hope it’s that more people have discovered how fantastic ya is. pretty please, oh ye gods of half-crazed writers.

By: Corey J Feldman

Corey J Feldman — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:52:27 +0000

As I mentioned in your Introvert/Extrovert post, I am not a big fan of labeling. I know we need to quantify and qualify the world to some extent so we can make our way through it. But for me a good book is a good book.

By: lili

lili — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:12:34 +0000

also, there’s lots of teens now modelling excellent reading habits to their impressionable younger siblings/nephews/nieces etc. so hopefully that’ll stick.

By: Renleigh

Renleigh — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:34:53 +0000

I just finished my freshman year of college and when I returned home one of the first things I did was hit up the YA shelves of the library, because I found that I missed reading YA. When I was there I found both Magic Lessons and Magic’s Child, both of which I’d been dying to read ever since I first got Magic or Madness a couple of years ago. I devoured them in a few days, and really, really enjoyed them. (Thank you! I also really want to visit Australia now.) So, I suppose as a reader who loves great stories, as long as authors like you are writing YA, I am going to continue to read it. Also, I find it easier just to browse in YA, because I feel like there’s a higher concentration of quality.

By: Hillary!

Hillary! — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:24:35 +0000

What about YA Librarians? They obviously enjoy the stuff too, and must have enjoyed it for a while.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:32:30 +0000

More likely, the hugeness of Harry Potter and other notables makes YA more successful, across the board, by expanding the market and by driving the search for the next HP and co. Whether the YA market needs another HP to stay big is another question.

Personally, I don’t remember reading much YA as a teenager, though I must have done so. I read and loved HP (starting at age 23), and have read other popular YA since. But I don’t check the YA section in bookshops. It probably has to ‘break out’ to reach people like me.

What do publishers’ marketing departments have to say? I assume they have some ideas. Do they ever tell?

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:18:47 +0000

There appears to be another baby boom going on in the US right now, so there might be a slump for a few years before this boom hits the YA range. Count me as an adult reading YA. Great stuff on those shelves.

By: Suzie

Suzie — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:30:56 +0000

Um, and apparently I’m grammar challenged. Changed phrasing in mid-thought, and I’m fussy enough to tsk about it in a second post.

By: Suzie

Suzie — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:29:11 +0000

I still scan the YA section faithfully every time I go to the bookstore, and I’m in my mid-twenties. The great thing about YA might be targeted to teens, but its audience is made of teens and above. A good book is a good book.

By: G

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:18:07 +0000

I’ve stayed with ‘YA’for the past 30+ years, after that Tolkein and Lewis and Alexander and Norton and Garner pulled me in, so odds are good that you have another 30+ to come from the Rowling readers, if they continue to read.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:51:34 +0000

I’m an adult and I find the YA stuff to be easy-to-read faster-paced stories. Growing up with those types of stories, a steady diet of heavyweight “adult” titles gets to be too much after a while and a YA makes a refreshing change.

Not sure what will happen in the years to come, I think that todays youth have a shorter attention span and increasingly hop from thing to thing. My 22 year old doesn’t even listen to a whole song any more (takes too long) but picks out fragments that he likes then jumps to the next song, so a 90k tome with slowly developing plots and characters may have a difficult time.