How to Market to the New Adult Audience

For the Day 17 prompt of the 28-Day Blog Challenge for Authors, the question is:

Describe the market for your book – to the tiniest detail (e.g., childless divorced women past age 50 who want to remarry). Why that demographic? How do you connect with them to market to them?


This is an interesting question because as I have mentioned in previous posts, I consider my book part of the emerging "new adult" genre. This term caught on back in 2009 when St. Martin's Press announced a contest looking for submissions from authors who have protagonists slightly older than teens. These books are intended to appeal to adults who read young adult novels and older teens.

The audience for the new adult genre is mostly females who are in that in-between stage of their lives. They may live in a college dorm or still live at home with their parents. New adults are typically at an uncertain phase of their lives. They may be looking for their first job, leaving home for the first time or beginning their first serious romantic relationship.

The reason I chose this audience and made my protagonist Kate 21 years old is because I find this stage in a girl's life fascinating. She has to find her footing for the first time without her parents and must make a decision on the type of career path she wishes to pursue. College is also such a fun time in a person's life and leads to experiences (bad and good) that stay with you forever.

Since agents and publishers are reluctant to take on older protagonists for YA books, it's a tough market to break into. Most of my marketing has been done via social networking, connecting to other NA writers, blog guest stops and online giveaways.

If you are a writer of new adult fiction or want to learn more about the genre, here are a few excellent resources:

NA Alley: This is a must for NA authors! The fabulous group of bloggers that run this site are both NA authors and fans of NA books. They review NA books, discuss the genre and host giveaways.

Writer's Digest: An article from 2010 breaks down the genre and talks about typical protagonists and the intended audience for the books.