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.
