Chapter 13: YA Nonfiction and New Adult

The publishing market is always changing, and new genres are constantly emerging. Suppose you’d like to write for the YA market, but the story you’re compelled to tell really happened. Or, suppose you have a story that will appeal to youth, but feel your audience may be a little too old for the YA market. Fortunately, there are markets for those stories as well. This chapter will show you how to reach out to them through the genres of YA Nonfiction and New Adult.

The standard definition for nonfiction is factual material that incorporates real people or actual events, or provides practical suggestions on a topic.

In general, publishers generally divide nonfiction into two categories. The first is narrative nonfiction, which tells a story based on factual events. Narrative nonfiction is designed to expand the reader’s knowledge of a time period. Some recent YA examples are The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb; Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II by Martin W. Sandler; and The President Has Been Shot! The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James L. Swanson. Like fiction, these books have rising action and tension, build to a climax, and resolve to a conclusion. Think of narrative nonfiction as information interwoven with story. Readers should come away from narrative nonfiction having learned something about a significant topic, person, period, or event.

The other category is prescriptive nonfiction, where information is presented to the reader in a step-by-step approach designed to teach how to do something. It is practical advice about a skill or concept that can be applied to your life; think of it as a how-to guide that elucidates a topic. It may offer strategies, resources, or advice on a given subject. Recent examples include The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make by Sean Covey; The Teen’s Guide to World Domination: Advice on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Awesomeness by Josh Shipp; and How to Be Richer, Smarter, and Better-Looking Than Your Parents by Zac Bissonnette. Prescriptive nonfiction may include occasional examples, but it centers on teaching the reader something different.

Publishers have taken a renewed interest in YA nonfiction, recognizing that there is a hungry audience for it. In addition, as schools are now adopting the Common Core standards—educational benchmarks designed to ensure all students in the nation have a comprehensive set of skills—great opportunities have opened up for editors to publish and sell books that incorporate core topics. The fact that, as of March 2014, forty-three of fifty states have implemented the Common Core means the school and library market has assumed greater importance in the publishing world. Editors are actively looking for YA nonfiction (as well as YA fiction that can be used in an educational setting). This explains the increase in the number of nonfiction titles being purchased.

- ADVICE FROM PUBLISHERS ROW -

Daniel Ehrenhaft, editorial director at Soho Teen:

“We have educator’s guides and a Common Core-aligned curriculum with material that teachers can use to teach the book. We’re really excited about that, and develop our educator’s guides internally with the author’s help.”

The existence of the Common Core points to an essential difference between adult nonfiction and YA nonfiction. While nonfiction can be—and ideally is—entertaining, there is an additional educational component to YA nonfiction. The ideal YA nonfiction is informational, practical, and has curricular connections. This means YA editors are more likely to look for writing that can also be used in the classroom. Since books tied to topics learned in school can be intimidating in subject and presentation, the challenge is to write fascinating, well-written books on educational topics. If your book can promote and stimulate conversation both in and out of the classroom environment, so much the better.

Since nonfiction with strong educational leanings is something editors are looking for, let me provide a few tips for writing YA nonfiction. Writing YA nonfiction books requires expertise in a given subject, the ability to do intense research, and the skill to practically and creatively shape a broad base of information into an entertaining and engaging narrative that teens can relate to.

With narrative nonfiction, you want a richly detailed account of a time in history; your work should transport the reader to another place. Novelist L. P. Hartley said, “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” Exceptional YA nonfiction should expose youth to that foreign country, forcing them to juxtapose historical ideas, cultural norms, and interactions with today’s world. The lives of people can shed light on the unexplored. Writing narrative nonfiction in particular requires a disciplined presentation rooted with historical facts. Your book should inspire young people to learn more about the time period or other relevant tie-ins to the topic.

What kinds of topics make for superb YA narrative nonfiction, besides those that are designed for educational utility? Unsurprisingly, they’re the same topics that make any book—YA or not, narrative nonfiction or not—worth reading: readable history wed to an entertaining story. It’s always worthwhile to explore what no one else has, as agents and editors are always looking for solid treatments that will introduce young readers to a fascinating subject. Put a fresh spin on a well-known incident; there’s usually a mesmerizing story behind the story somewhere. After all, people plucked from obscurity have shaped history and there are many unheard of, improbable yet true stories that merit attention. So let’s look at some narrative nonfiction categories.

History is a difficult subject to interest teenagers in, as many feel that these subjects are too closely knit to things they have to learn in school. But with such a wide breadth of topics, there’s always room for a book with a refreshing new spin on an aspect of history that can capture the imagination of youth. One recent successful YA history book is The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin. Appealing a little bit more to the younger end of the YA audience, this book depicts an incident where fifty black naval sailors went on strike over unsafe working conditions, were charged with mutiny, and faced possible execution.

Subjects ripe for exploration are events and topics that are close to a century old or more—subjects teenagers can hardly imagine in their world today. For example, The Great American Dust Bowl by Don Brown introduces teens to the crippling drought that wreaked havoc during the 1930s. Young people may be dimly aware that the Dust Bowl was the setting of The Grapes of Wrath. However, Brown’s use of visual media brings to life this time in history and vividly portrays the harrowing stories of heartache and grief beyond the realm of Steinbeck’s famous novel. Another instance is Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. This book reveals the plotting, the risk, the deception, and the genius that created what is still the world’s most formidable weapon.

In An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy, an epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia is portrayed in a fascinating true story of a city under siege, spotlighting timely parallels to modern-day epidemics. Given that the worst of the AIDS pandemic is rapidly becoming a memory, this book illustrates how an outbreak of a disease can impact politics. In this case, a constitutional crisis arose when President Washington was forced to leave the Philadelphia due to the spread of yellow fever.

Historically marginalized populations are a terrific avenue for YA nonfiction, simply because they provide an avenue to introduce fresh stories to readers. One recent example is Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone. This book, which won multiple awards—including the NAACP Image Award—examines the history of the brave soldiers who fought in an obscure attack on the American West by the Japanese. Stories like these unearth the hidden histories that have molded America.

Most biographies feature well-known people. YA nonfiction often features past presidents. Take, as a case in point, Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty by Tonya Bolden. Instead of concentrating on the whole of Lincoln’s life, Bolden revives interest in Lincoln’s legacy by focusing on his passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. If you are able to examine a unique element of a famous historical figure’s life, there is a market out there for your book.

Of course, there is always room for an excellent biography on a well-known individual, as Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies by Marc Aronson proves. Hoover’s pursuit of “security at all costs,” raises relevant points about the post-9/11 world. Good biographies are able to make the subject relevant, not just to their own time, but to ours as well.

As I mentioned, giving voice to and uncovering the stories of an underrepresented people is a superb way of finding a compelling story to tell. Biographies of groups—in this case, groups of women—can provide fertile ground for compelling, relevant narratives. Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific by Mary Cronk Farrell shines a light on how American nurses were treated up to and including on the Bataan Death March. By shining a spotlight on a previously unknown aspect of World War II, this book contains moving recollections of several of the nurses that bring the story to life.

Another technique for telling compelling stories is to put together a compendium of various historical figures, as in Historical Heartthrobs: 50 Timeless Crushes—from Cleopatra to Camus by Kelly Murphy and Hallie Fryd. Another is Women in Space: 23 Stories of First Flights, Scientific Missions, and Gravity-Breaking Adventures by Karen Bush Gibson. Be aware, however, that your concept isn’t stretched too thin. The key to making these type of stories work is finding a common connection between the figures and tying them together with a great hook. The reader should be drawn to the topic with the promise delivered in the title. Who wouldn’t be drawn to mad, bad, and dangerous to know types or drawn into love and romance throughout the ages? Or chilled to the bone by stories of deadly femme fatales?

Never feel that you have to limit yourself to the stories that weave in a collective. Recent YA nonfiction books have focused on an individual woman as well. The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield shares a critical though obscure story of how Barbara Johns, a high school junior, led a strike for equal facilities in her town’s schools. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose explores the story of Claudette Colvin, a key plaintiff in the court case that struck down segregation laws in Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Hoose was particularly lucky, as he was able to interview Ms. Colvin herself. In fact, Ms. Colvin actively promoted the book and made media appearances with Mr. Hoose. If, like Mr. Hoose, you have access to your subject, use him or her! Ms. Colvin’s unique cooperation in her own life story may have led to her biography winning the National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature and being a 2010 Newbery Honor Book.

However, if you’re writing about an individual’s life, make sure to show how her life reflects her cultural milieu. For example, in Tonya Bolden’s Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America, the story of the woman who discovered oil in Oklahoma is interwoven with multiple threads of U.S. history, among them slavery, Native American policy, and westward expansion. Paying homage to your subject is important, but remember that he or she didn’t live in a vacuum. Biographies should capture a story, but don’t forget to give historical context of your subject so people can better understand why his or her life mattered.

Cultural history is a record and interpretation of past events involving human beings through the social, cultural, and political lenses of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors. Most people may think of cultural history books as a recent development, but The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon won the Newbery Award, given to the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children, in 1922. This book has been updated many times, most recently in the winter of 2013, and still remains a phenomenon. One recent captivating example is Expressing the Inner Wild: Tattoos, Piercings, Jewelry, and Other Body Art by Stephen G. Gordon, an enthralling account of how humans have modified their bodies throughout history.

Since culture is nebulously defined, its topics are frequently diverse. One common element, though, is concentrating on an idea that’s persisted throughout history and multiple cultures. Buried Beneath Us: Discovering the Ancient Cities of the Americas by Anthony Aveni is solid treatment of a fascinating subject, talking about ancient civilizations of the Americas and how they are relevant today. Its spotlight on early American civilizations pointedly addresses what can be learned from the rise and fall of civilizations.

Humans aren’t the only animal that YA nonfiction focuses on. After all, science is changing our world all the time. Science books like The Dolphins of Shark Bay by Pamela S. Turner help readers expand their erudition of the natural world by showing dolphins at play, hunting, herding, and fighting. Thought-provoking books like these open doors for youth, especially those who took an interest in animals growing up.

Science books can also help explain the behavior of animals as the world encroaches upon their natural habitats, as in Wild Animal Neighbors: Sharing Our Urban World by Ann Downer. Teens are often encouraged to think about volunteering opportunities and ways to help our world. Some books have even tied themselves to charities designed to save the planet or endangered species. Downer’s book does a great job at offering suggestions for teens who are concerned about the environment.

Sometimes, science books can open up a new career to teenagers. Navy SEAL Dogs: My Tale of Training Canines for Combat by Michael Ritland portrays the world of dog training to teens. The author’s work with the Warrior Dog Foundation reveals fascinating insights as to what dog signals mean. It also makes public how the failed search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq led to the formation of an elite K-9 unit.

All three of these books tie into important topics in today’s world—biology, environmentalism, and terrorism. Science books with a strong educational aspect are attractive properties in publishing today, so bear that in mind when selecting a subject.

With sports, while there’s always room for another book on traditional sports such as football, baseball, and basketball, there’s something unique about the book Ultimate Fighting: The Brains and Brawn of Mixed Martial Arts by Patrick Jones. It gives a bird’s-eye look at a sport that combines multiple fighting styles, including karate, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, Vale Tudo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Young people involved in the X Games have even motivated the International Olympic Committee to think outside the box as it relates to sports. Most recently, the 2014 Winter Olympics introduced twelve new sports. Why not consider one of these recent additions?

As is true for history books, looking for unexplored stories can be fertile ground for a heart-wrenching narrative. In In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle, Madeleine Blais recounts the story of the Amherst Lady Hurricanes, a scrappy, tough-playing high school girls’ basketball team. Through detailing their 1992–1993 season, Blais also notes a sea change in high school policies, as the team’s town supported its female athletes in a way previously reserved for male athletes. The best sports stories can be a window into the national consciousness.

Graphic novels, where stories are rendered artistically, are extremely popular, but who says graphic storytelling should be limited to fiction? Bad for You: Exposing the War on Fun! by Kevin C. Pyle and Scott Cunningham is one of many books reinventing the graphic genre. Their book exposes a catalog of party poopers, from Anthony Comstock to the wet blankets who opposed Harry Potter.

Some subjects lend themselves to the graphic approach more than others. Take, for example, Growing Up, Inside and Out by Kira Vermond, illustrated by Carl Chin. It tackles the evergreen subject of puberty, both physically and mentally, with frank talk about crushes, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Its pictures emphasize its modern approach, showing a half-dressed couple looking at a condom wrapper at one point. If pictures will help illustrate your points, then consider using graphics with your material.

In other cases, the subject is impossible to divorce from a pictorial approach. In Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd, pictures are the whole point! The book introduces teens to the fundamentals of design in an engaging, colorful style. The book also allows teens to experiment with what they’ve learned, providing ten design projects at the end. In addition to allowing young people to develop their own visual distinctiveness, Go uses design elements to creatively emphasize key concepts. If your subject touches upon art or other visual elements, then a graphic scheme might be the best way to reach your audience.

Memoir can open a teen’s world to experiences they’ll never have directly. For instance, not every teen is going to spend their life preparing for the Rapture, but that’s exactly what Aaron Hartzler’s Rapture Practice is about. On the other hand, teenagers will be able to connect to experiences his parents would never approve of, such as listening to popular music, planning debauched and drunken parties, and a burgeoning attraction to other boys. By wrapping a tale of adolescent upheaval inside an unfamiliar setting, teens will encounter something both ordinary and extraordinary.

Sometimes the unusual backdrop of a memoir is a historical event of major importance. In March: Book One by John Lewis, Lewis, one of the original Freedom Riders, recalls events ranging from meeting Martin Luther King Jr. and joining sit-ins in 1960 Nashville to Barack Obama’s first inauguration. In this case, young people, who will probably be aware of racial injustice, will see that theme personally applied to the historical events that John Lewis lived through.

The strange social backdrop of a memoir, however, doesn’t necessarily have to be something historical; it can be an issue that affects people today. In Enrique’s Journey: The True Story of a Boy Determined to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario, the harrowing journey of one illegal alien’s trek to America gives the reader palpable chills. By forthrightly addressing the hazards Enrique faced—beatings, rape, maiming, and murder—readers gain a new perspective on the subject of illegal immigration.

Another example is Hidden Girl: The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave by Shyima Hall and Lisa Wysocky. Sold by her parents at age eight and then illegally trafficked into the United States, Shyima Hall tells her story to draw attention to a growing global crisis. This memoir puts a human face on the issue of trafficking, candidly addressing issues that no teenager should ever face.

Sometimes, mixing genres can lead to a truly creative approach for a difficult subject. David Small used graphic nonfiction to write Stitches, his memoir of being transformed into a mute. This National Book Award finalist pictorially represents a fantastic descent into adolescent hell and the authors’ hard emotional and artistic road to recovery.

Information books can take a difficult topic and make it palatable for teens to learn about it. Take, for instance, Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin. In this book, verbal and visual profiles elucidate what it’s like to identify fully as female or male, to identify as neither male nor female, or to be intersex. By focusing on the process of transitioning and not on genitalia, this book sensitively addresses subject matter that is too often sensationalized.

In other cases, informational books can present information readers need to know in a creative way. In Everybody Paints! The Lives and Art of the Wyeth Family by Susan Goldman Rubin, design elements such as changing fonts and background color draw attention to the oeuvre of this creative clan. In doing so, teens who aren’t familiar with the artwork of the Wyeth kin will come away with a sense of their importance in the American art scene.

Given the wide range of music itself, it shouldn’t surprise you of the wide range of possible music topics. “Gangnam Style” swept the nation in 2012, providing the backdrop for K-Pop: Korea’s Musical Explosion by Stuart A. Kallen. By focusing on the last twenty years, the book profiles the most influential artists while describing the antiquated Korean studio system. A revealing look at the Korean music scene for newbies, this book gives readers a rudimentary knowledge of Korean culture and its pop music scene.

The American music scene also provides fertile ground to cover. Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed the World by Robbie Robertson, Jim Guerinot, Sebastian Robertson, and Jared Levine covers twenty-seven thoughtfully selected musicians known for their radical experimentation with music. In choosing such a small sample, books of this type spark debate as to who has been included or excluded and why. A CD of music samples helps pique the curiosity of readers to whom these musicians are unknown.

Of course, the most well-known musical story of all time is still yielding new stories. In How the Beatles Changed the World by Martin W. Sandler, the progress of Beatlemania is tracked and the band’s influence on record singles, record albums, album covers, and cultural zeitgeist is noted. With chapters on the Beatles’ fashion, hairstyles, and movies, this book makes the case that the Beatles did, in fact, change the world.

Until now, we’ve been talking about narrative nonfiction, which blends story with factual information. Let’s switch gears and talk about prescriptive nonfiction, which teaches the reader how to do something. Genres of prescriptive nonfiction vary widely. Cooking and food-related books are fairly common, such as The Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian: How to Look Great, Feel Fabulous, and Be a Better You by Rachel Meltzer Warren. By helping teens identify their own personal values, Warren’s book guides potential vegetarians toward the lifestyle best suited for them.

Some topics may be timelier than others. In school students are taught how to write, but some teens may, like you, be interested in honing their craft so they can write for a wider audience. Thrice Told Tales: Three Mice Full of Writing Advice by Catherine Lewis acquaints readers with various literary styles by rewriting one nursery rhyme repeatedly. By tackling everything from style to swearing, this book is short, clever, witty, and—most of all—fun to read.

Another relevant subject to teens is answering the question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Books that help young people explore various options can prove useful. So, You Want to Be a Chef? How to Get Started in the World of Culinary Arts by J. M. Bedell offers profiles of food industry careers and provides a comprehensive introduction to the food business. Food service professionals share their insights and offer advice about choosing a culinary arts career.

Teenagers are also full of insecurities and want help dealing with them. Enter books like Scared Stiff: Everything You Need to Know About 50 Famous Phobias by Sara Latta. Part entertainment, part therapy, this book helps teens know they’re not alone by including celebrity co-sufferers and offering a warm, optimistic tone.

So now that we’ve covered possible avenues for your YA nonfiction book, what advice can I give you? I want to stress the importance of an Author’s Note—teens are going to want to know how you came up with the idea. So tell them! Don’t skimp; let them know how your concept began, what your research was like, and why you felt your subject was important. If your focus is truly fascinating, then teens are going to want to know everything they can about it. In addition, be sure to include what you hope they’ll learn from it; this can also be a yardstick by which you measure the success of your book.

Another important thing to remember is that we’ve moved into a transmedia culture, so be sure to include any maps, photos, technological references, or diagrams that are important to your research. And don’t forget to post your bibliography on your website; some readers may want to follow in your footsteps and research the topic on their own. It doesn’t hurt to include bibliographical information at the end of your book, but it’s often best to place it on your website—this way, you can stay tied to your readership.

But the most important advice I can offer about writing nonfiction is to pick a topic that interests you. If you’re passionate about your topic, then that excitement will transfer to the book and, eventually, your readers. Don’t select a topic that doesn’t interest you based on how well you think it will sell; that’s a recipe for a dull, pedantic book no one will want to read.

If you are writing a nonfiction book, then you need to know what agents will expect when you approach them. Typically, agents and editors who acquire nonfiction look for a proposal instead of a complete manuscript up front. A proposal introduces the topic to the agent or editor, details the author’s expertise in the subject, and presents plans on how the book will reach its target audience. It’s a business plan that attempts to sell a well-developed concept.

So you’ve decided you want to write a nonfiction book for the YA market. Great! You’re going to need a query letter and a book proposal. (Please refer to Chapter 12 for how to format a query letter.) Now, let me walk you through the elements of a nonfiction book proposal.

• Marketing and publishing rationale: Why do you think this book is needed in the marketplace? Who will benefit and why? Why have you chosen to write it?

The marketing and publishing rationale needs to make the case that there is a strong commercial need for this book. It should show that this book fills a gap in the market somehow—maybe one that the public isn’t even aware of yet.

• Audience: Who are you publishing to? Why would they be interested in purchasing your book?

You may feel that everybody needs your book, but I can assure you, not everybody is going to buy it. Have a strong sense of who will be interested in your book and why. Be specific. If you’re writing for YA, think about who might be interested in the topic—athletes, Latinos, kids in rural areas? Be able to justify why your book will interest your chosen audience.

• Brief description: A one- to three-sentence summary of the book. Think of this as potential back cover copy.

Imagine that your book is about to be published; if you were going to pick it up off the shelf of your local bookstore, what would it say on the back? Remember, your space is limited, so you’ve really got to grab a reader’s attention. Your brief description should clearly communicate the book’s concept and draw in a potential reader.

• Book description/chapter outline: A clear description of what the book is and what it’s trying to achieve. This will include a table of contents, chapter heads, and a brief description of each chapter.

This is the meat of your proposal. Think of it as the blueprint of how your book will develop. Each chapter should have a brief summary, showing how it relates to the book’s overall concept.

• Key features and selling points: A concise, bulleted list of key reasons why readers will want to pick up the book.

If you only had thirty seconds to tell someone what they would learn from reading your book, what would you say? What points would you want them to know? Does your book capitalize on any current trends? Consider that when writing your key features and selling points. It can help you effectively communicate exactly what you hope to teach.

• Author platform and bio: A profile that includes information that will help the publisher understand why you are the ideal person to write this book.

As fascinating as your childhood hobbies may be to you, that’s not what agents or editors are looking for when they read your bio. They want to know that an audience is clamoring to hear what you have to say. So think strategically when preparing your bio—what does your online presence look like? How many Twitter followers do you have? Have you been published previously? Do you have any media connections? Are you comfortable on camera? What plans do you have to get your book discovered by your audience? Hopefully, your platform and bio will answer these questions.

• Marketing/publicity plan: Do you have any special relationship to the market? Are there any special conferences, trade shows, or magazines that your book would be an ideal candidate for?

Now that the agent or editor knows you’re an expert in the field, you have to prove that you have the ability to sell this book to its audience. Think of this section of the proposal as a way to demonstrate that you have the requisite ability and media connections to get people talking about your book, and that realistic opportunities exist to promote it.

• Competition or related titles: What are some other published titles that resemble your concept or discuss the same topic? How do those books fall short in comparison? How does your title offer a different approach?

No matter how unique and different your book is, there will always be titles it competes against. The comparative works should show that there is a market for your book, but you also need to explain how your book will distinguish itself from the crowd. You’ll probably come across some competitive titles in your research, but you can also search for competitive titles on Amazon or Goodreads and at your local library. Once you have found one title, Amazon has a feature that identifies other books similar in topic. This is a great starting point for finding other comparative titles. Be sure to include enough information to identify your competition—author, title, publisher, page count and publication date.

This may be the most important section of the proposal because it’s how an editor or agent will determine how much your book is worth. Typically, agents or editors will look up the books you’ve listed in Bookscan—a program through the Nielsen company—to see how many units these works have sold. After getting a sense of how well books like yours sell, they will use these figures to help determine how much money they will offer you for your book.

• Book specifications: How long do you expect your book to be? Do you anticipate any unusual features, like charts, maps, or graphs? How long do you think it will take you to deliver a complete manuscript?

If your book will feature color photography or a nonstandard printing format, now is the time to let the agent or editor know. When specifying length, don’t get caught up trying to figure out the page count—the approximate word count will suffice.

The elements above are staples of most proposals, but bear in mind that your proposal must be uniquely customized. Some agents may have their own proposal guidelines, so make sure that you proposal meets their requirements. Remember, your proposal needs to be a window into the personality of your work. Make it engaging, informative, and representative of the voice and tone of your book as a whole.

For years, when authors would call my office, I’d tell them that the age range for the YA market was fourteen to twenty-four. This isn’t necessarily true anymore. Readers who grew up on YA are now looking for books that have the same dynamic intensity of YA but deal with the realities of making one’s way in the world. To accommodate this new audience, a genre called New Adult is catering to the needs of this market.

So what exactly is New Adult, and how does it differ from YA? The term was first coined in 2009 by St. Martin’s Press when it held a special call for “fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult—a sort of an ‘older YA’ or ‘new adult.’” As YA readers aged out of the genre, publishers needed a way to maintain a connection to those readers. So New Adult was created to generate both books for those readers and a space on the bookshelf for those stories.

Of course, that sounds altruistic, but New Adult is also a marketing tool. It’s a means to market to and retain the reading loyalty of adults of all ages who enjoy the expressive fervor of YA books.

So, let’s imagine that you’ve got a story to tell, but you aren’t sure whether your audience falls under Young Adult or New Adult. How do you determine your story’s market? According to Jessica Sinsheimer, associate agent at Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, if your characters are in high school and dealing with high school problems, then your manuscript is YA. If your protagonist is slightly older and trying to transition into adulthood, then you’re writing for the New Adult market. Covers for New Adult books tend to be more sexualized as well—a little less brooding and more explicit than YA covers.

Genres are always rather elastic, and New Adult needs time to evolve. But what can we say about it in its infancy? Let’s look at some common elements in today’s New Adult market.

• Remember all the experiences of life after high school? Moving away to college, buying your first car, working your way through school, getting your first job, moving out, office romances, internships, travel abroad, military deployment, and first apartments, among other things? A lot of monumental firsts happen between eighteen and twenty-five—the age of the New Adult reader.

New Adult books focus on the heady post–high school, pre–late twenties years when young people are establishing their independence and becoming more settled adults. They reflect the challenges of moving out, forging careers, and negotiating education and career choices.

• Since a lot of the characters in New Adult novels are college age, a lot of New Adult novels involve a college setting. For example, there’s Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, a novel about a woman whose twin sister does not want to share a room at college; Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, about a woman’s bet with the campus lothario; and Losing It by Cora Carmack, about a college senior who’s determined to lose her virginity before she graduates. If high school is a common element in YA books, college is the corresponding element in New Adult books.

• There is no doubt that YA has become increasingly edgy, especially regarding sexuality. Like it or not, we live in a hyper-sexualized world. But as the age for New Adult is older than YA, any residual modesty that existed in a YA manuscript is gone in the New Adult marketplace.

This doesn’t mean you must fill your manuscript with orgies aplenty! After all, New Adult isn’t simply sexed-up YA. However, an increase in reader maturity necessitates an increase in material maturity. You’re going to have to ramp up the raciness. In fact, your readers will expect it—Ericka Clay at tipsylit.com complained that New Adult books didn’t have enough erotic content in them. So be advised—keep it steamy!

• Since New Adult is a recent publishing development, it’s still grappling with its identity. Instead of being relegated to children’s imprints, adult fiction editors have been publishing New Adult, usually under a romance imprint. Therefore, there’s been a strong bias toward New Adult fiction with a romantic element. One example is Rush Me by Allison Parr, about a young woman’s romance with a professional football player. Another example is Headfirst Falling by Melissa Guinn, about a woman who struggles with her feelings for her brother’s fellow soldier.

While there’s certainly a lot of overlap between contemporary romance and New Adult, there are important differences between the two genres. Contemporary romance tends to use third-person point of view, while New Adult generally has a first-person narrator, in order to keep the voice and style that it shares with YA. Contemporary romance also tends to deal with major life events, such as marriage and pregnancy. New Adult relationships tend not to have the same sense of gravity. That’s not to say New Adult books that deal with marriage and pregnancy can’t be done, but if you do pursue that path, keep your tone consistent with the New Adult market.

• New Adult may have originally been published under romance imprints, but it is rapidly coming into its own. Random House has already created its first exclusive New Adult imprint, Flirt, and other imprints are sure to follow. But New Adult books are branching out beyond the romance genre. Romantic suspense titles like Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren and Rebel by Elle Casey are stretching New Adult’s boundaries and giving authors more leeway to experiment. Jamie Maguire’s next book, Red Hill, is a New Adult novel set against a zombie apocalypse. While we haven’t seen New Adult science fiction pop up yet, I’m sure it’s on the horizon.

So don’t restrict yourself to romantic stories or feel that no editors will want to read a New Adult steampunk novel revolving around a series of gruesome murders. They might! The New Adult market needs pioneers and originality. It’s up to you to start trends and open doors.

• I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but so far, all of the books I’ve mentioned have female protagonists. That has not been a conscious choice on my part. Most of the literature around New Adult mentions novels with female protagonists. I suppose that’s why New Adult is often misperceived as sexed-up chick lit.

Making Faces, by Amy Harmon, features both male and female protagonists. But the fact that I could only find one New Adult novel with a male lead character mentioned in all the reading I did points to a serious gender imbalance. It also indicates a critically untapped market. Feel free to push the boundaries of New Adult with daring, challenging male protagonists. You could be the one who opens up a bold new frontier in the New Adult market.

So should you write for the New Adult market? Absolutely! If you have a story that will appeal to a slightly older market, I encourage you to write it. Don’t let the fact that the genre is new or that your book doesn’t seem to fit exact categories stop you. As I said earlier, the market is expanding and genre is always shifting. Just bear in mind that many of the same rules apply in New Adult books—whatever your market, you need realistic characters, a compelling plot, and vividly drawn settings to successfully find an audience.