Writer Wednesday: 5 Reasons to Write New Adult

It’s New!

New Adult is like a shiny new toy, there’s a big demand for it. If you look at the top 100 books on Amazon.com, you’re likely to find that many of them come from the New Adult genre. Book retailers have noticed the demand and Amazon recently officially added New Adult & College as a category.

You Can Take Risks

If you write young adult, you have to restrict the content. If you don’t, you’re going to ruffle a lot of feathers. A lot of readers don’t want to see books labeled young adult with the f-bomb or a lot of sexy time between the characters. With New Adult, your main characters can go beyond first base! The characters are in college, so getting busy isn’t as frowned upon like books with high school students.

Unique Experiences

College is the time of many firsts, which can inspire plenty of story ideas. College kids are often living on their own for the first time and experiencing the freedom of not having to answer to their parents. College is also often the time when you must decide what you plan to do with the rest of your life. I know I struggled with choosing a career (hence the four major changes lol) and writers can share stories about these issues.

Twenty-Something Issues

College isn’t the only experience that can be found in New Adult literature. Writers can explore topics that are also important to the age group, which may include getting engaged, pregnancy, military deployment, etc. In The Disappearing Girl, I focused on eating disorders because I feel that a lot of people in this age group face this problem.

Tight Knit Writing Community

New Adult writers are very supportive of each other. When I first started writing, new adult was a new term being tossed around and other authors from the genre really helped me understand the appeal of the genre and how to write books that fit into this category. There are so many blogs, Goodreads groups and Facebook groups around now that can help new and aspiring writers of NA.