Kristina Olsson

Trends in young
adult writing
Amie Kaufman
“I see now that dismissing YA books because you’re not a
young adult is a little bit like refusing to watch thrillers on
the grounds that you’re not a policeman or a dangerous
criminal, and as a consequence, I’ve discovered a
previously ignored room at the back of the bookstore
that’s filled with masterpieces I’ve never heard of.”
Nick Hornby
You know what? Nick Hornby’s not
alone. With success after success
unfolding, young adult (YA) fiction’s
not just alive and kicking, it’s
making up all-new dance steps.
Interested? You’re not alone either.
So let’s take a look at what YA
is, where it’s come from, who’s
reading it, and where it might head
in the future.
What is YA?
How do we define young adult
fiction? Despite frequent use of
the word, it’s not a genre. It’s a
marketing category. YA takes in
everything from thrillers to memoir,
fantasy to science fiction (SF) to
novels-in-verse. You name it, YA has it.
It’s often said that YA is named after
its target market, but the truth is
that these days, it’s defined more by
the age of its protagonist than the
age of its reader.
Despite (or perhaps provoking) a
steady stream of eye-roll-inducing
articles about how YA is too dark,
too shallow, too simple or too much
for teenaged readers, the truth
is that it’s a thriving and valuable
member of the publishing family,
offering the chance to explore
questions about who we are and
what the world’s like, and what kind
of place we want to occupy in it. YA,
like all fiction, offers the chance to
live other lives, rehearse our fears,
and occasionally to learn about sex,
drugs and rock and roll without
necessarily trying them firsthand.
YA is about defining oneself—to
quote author Sarah Rees Brennan,
it’s the literature of transformation.
And this, perhaps, is part of
its widespread appeal. We are
always defining ourselves, always
transforming ourselves, whether it’s
our first day at school as a student,
or our first day as a parent on pickup
duty.
There’s been much written about
the origins of YA—commentators
point to S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders
as a turning point for books
aimed specifically at teens, and
authors such as Judy Blume and
Robert Cormier for continuing
to tell stories that spoke to the
teen experience. By the nineties,
YA fiction was booming, and
in Australia books like Melina
Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi
brought it to the forefront of our
consciousness.
So who’s reading YA now, and what
are they reading?
What’s on the shelves now?
And whose shelves?
The question of who’s reading YA
now is an interesting one, and the
answers might surprise you. Back
in 2012, the study Understanding
the Children’s Book Consumer in the
Digital Age established that 55% of
YA buyers (with YA designated by
publishers as for age 12-17) were
aged 18+, and 78% of the time,
they were purchasing the books for
themselves, not for a teen.
It’s easy for numbers to blur, but
think about that: more than half of
purchases were made by adults,
and four-fifths of those were for
adult reading.
And it gets even more interesting.
Just under a third of respondents
were reading a book from The
Hunger Games series, then at peak
popularity. But the remaining 70%
listed more than 220 titles they
were currently reading. And only two
of those titles commanded more
than 5% of market sales. (The latest
Harry Potter and Twilight.)
What do we take from this? YA
readers of all ages are reading
a huge variety of books, and not
just titles from major franchises.
For authors, this is wonderfully
encouraging—readers don’t just
jump from one big-ticket item to the
next. They read widely.
A side-note: the number of adult
readers in the YA space raises
an important issue—Given the
importance of YA to teens, how
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WQ