What We Want
In previous posts about New Adult, I realized that I tried to articulate the category with broad generalizations (target audience, voice, etc.), but never got down to the specifics of personal taste. Personal taste is pretty important in this industry; it’s important to read broadly, but to also have opinions about what you read.
White-Harp acts as a neck pillow while I work. She's not exactly pleased by this arrangement.
Bear once asked me if I would ever turn down something I knew would sell and I said, “Yes, if I didn’t like it,” to which he just shook his head and said it was a stupid business practice. I couldn’t come up with a rational argument at the time, but the honest truth is, publishing isn’t a rational business–it’s a business of taste.
I put it this way: I can’t sell something I don’t like. Meaning, if I don’t like something, I can’t bring it to an editorial meeting and say, “Let’s buy this book! I hate it!” It’s the same when you recommend books to friends; it’s hard to walk up to a friend with a book you didn’t like and say, “Read this! I hated it!” So today I will enlighten you all to Cap’n Sweet Valley and my personal tastes (noting that, of course, this falls under the general umbrella of “fiction and nonfiction for twentysomethings”).
Cap’n Sweet Valley Likes
- Commercial women’s fiction (from the comedic to the more serious)
- Contemporary fiction (differentiated commercial women’s fiction)
- Voice-y, edgy upper YA that has crossover potential
- Business/career nonfiction, particular in the fields of entrepreneurship and freelance
- Nonfiction about social entrepreneurship (e.g. Kiva and Terracycle)
- Pop nonfiction
I want to clarify a few points: we differentiate between commercial women’s fiction and contemporary fiction. They often overlap, but not always. Commercial women’s fiction is specifically marketed to women, and often addresses subjects and themes that are traditionally and societally considered to be of “female interest”. Comparable book titles are THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB series, Emily Giffin, Kristin Hannah, and a lot of chick lit. Comparable movie titles would be Something’s Gotta Give and The Break Up.
Contemporary fiction can and does appeal to women, but isn’t specifically marketed to them. THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by Junot Diaz is a book example; movies like Garden State are a film example. In terms of voice-y, edgy upper YA, I’m thinking of something more along the lines of Igby Goes Down or The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (apparently, anything with Kieran Culkin).
Cap’n Sweet Valley Doesn’t Like
- Sword and sorcery-type fantasy, some secondary-world/high fantasy
- Mysteries that aren’t on mainstream fiction shelves
- Romance, especially category romance
As you might surmise, Dan isn’t too big on genre, but he is willing to give anything a chance, providing it’s “sexy”. Not in a romantic/erotic sense–although that too–but more in a general Hollywood sense, i.e. “sexy” protagonists, commercial hooks, etc. Paranormals and some science-fiction would work well for him if they are super commercial, as well as historical. Mysteries and romance that might work for him would probably fall under commercial women’s fiction/contemporary fiction.
What JJ Likes
- Fantasy (but rarely sword and sorcery)
- Science-fiction, but more of the speculative/dystopian sort than “hard” science or space opera
- Post-apocalyptic fiction (this includes zombies! I love zombies!)
- Historical fiction, particularly women-driven historical fiction
- Literary fiction (with some caveats and explanation)
- Upper YA fantasy with crossover potential
- Historical nonfiction (particularly about the Civil War and World War I)
- Collections of essays
As a rule, I’m not big on sword-and-sorcery, unless it manages to transcend it into truly epic fantasy. I wasn’t a big fan of Mercedes Lackey or George R. R. Martin (although some would classify him as epic fantasy). I tend to like sword-and-sorcery better in YA novels; to wit THE HERO AND THE CROWN by Robin McKinley and THE CHRONICLES OF PRYDAIN by Lloyd Alexander (although I would classify this as high fantasy).
Generally, I like fantastic/speculative elements in my fiction, period. This extends to what I like in literary fiction, but more on that in a bit.
Science-fiction is a little harder for me to narrow down, but in most cases, I like dystopian fiction. I enjoy more space-opera-y stuff in children’s and YA (like Asimov’s NORBY books), but less in my adult reading. A few exceptions include Orson Scott Card’s SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD series (and the seminal ENDER’S GAME) and Mary Doria Russell’s THE SPARROW.
In historical fiction, I like reading about the late 18th/early 19th century (think American/French Revolution through the Napoleonic Wars), late Victorian/Edwardian/fin de siècle/Belle Epoque, and the Jazz Age. I love female-driven narratives in historical settings, providing I don’t have an anachronistic heroine. Ladies, the concept of female independence and agency is a relatively modern concept. Please to be bringing your suffragette ideals in the 20th century, where they belong. However, this doesn’t mean your historical heroine needs to be spineless either. A great historical fiction novel is GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING and even MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA could be considered historical.
Now. Literary fiction. This is a difficult beast to tackle because it’s so broad, but I will try to get as specific as I can. I like satires; in fact, I adore them. I would love to see a modern-day novel of manners told in an arch voice (think VANITY FAIR by Thackeray or anything by William Dean Howells). I would love to read a great gothic novel in the vein of Gaston Leroux’s PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or the more recent THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova and THE GARGOYLE by Andrew Davidson.
I’m not a big fan of character study-type literary novels, nor do I like earnestly sentimental literary fiction. I’m not looking for fiction that makes me cry in the obvious ways; I would rather laugh. And because I’m a mean person, I want my literary fiction to point out the foibles and ridiculousness of people in a satirical way. (Austen excels at this, by the way.) I think there’s a difference between satire and cruelty, but satire is a post for another day.
What JJ Doesn’t Like
- Mysteries/thrillers (although I like mystery elements)
- Commercial women’s fiction, I’m afraid
- Romance (but I like romance in my stories!)
- Paranormal
I hesitate to put paranormal in there because paranormal can swing into urban fantasy or it can swing toward gothic, but it’s practically become its own category these days. I’m not really interested in supernatural creatures as love interests. For the most part, I prefer the fantasy I read to have “magic” and not “monsters”, unless it’s a really interesting examination of the monster and what makes something monstrous (the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, for instance, or FIRE by Kristin Cashore). So no vampires, fallen angels, or werewolves for me, thanks. However, I do still like demons.
I’m also a little wary of putting romance down as well, because I really want a romance IN the books I read. It’d better have a good love story, dammit. Just as long as it isn’t THE story. And I’m not opposed to reading a really great love story either; it just needs to be epic.
So there you have it. Cap’n Sweet Valley and I are still looking to publish books marketed toward twentysomethings, but within that broad category, you have our personal tastes. Hope this helps!
Thank you for writing about what works and doesn’t work for you. Great specifics! Can’t stand vampires myself. I have a weakness for magical realism that often leads me to stories that let me down: shimmering oasis turns out to be mirage. But I persist.
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//Ladies, the concept of female independence and agency is a relatively modern concept. Please to be bringing your suffragette ideals in the 20th century, where they belong.//
The nitpicker in me wants to point out that Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived in the 19th century and the Seneca Falls declaration was made in 1848. But I agree about anachronistic feminism. I imagine that there have always been women who dreamed of equality and the ability to control their lives and their bodies. But the way they expressed those desires, and the way they achieved them (or failed to achieve them) through complying with, subverting, or rebelling against their cultures’ values and customs is a very complex thing. Such characters shouldn’t read like someone took a modern day woman and plopped her down in the middle of an oppressive culture.
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Very true, although we didn’t attain suffrage in the US until 1920.
But the point about the anachronistic heroine I’d like to bring up is this: we, as women in a contemporary society, take a lot of things for granted. That we have the RIGHT to our own agency, for one. Women went about doing and getting what they wanted since time immemorial, but in much less direct and/or straightforward ways. I’m tired of reading about heroines in the 19th century who “want to live their own life”. Um, it wouldn’t have been much of an option back then.
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My question borders more on young adult than new adult. Are you interested in realistic contemporary, voice-y, edgy stories w/a 15-16 male protagonist that would share shelf space w/writers like Chris Crutcher and Michael Harmon?
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That would…depend. (I know, not a straight answer, I’m sorry.) If said novel has crossover potential, then yes. (The characters in Igby Goes Down and The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys were around that age, I believe.) But I would say that realistic, contemporary YA is not my thing and Dan would prefer said realistic contemporary to be adult.
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I don’t think the desire to live their own life would be so uncommon – certainly much more unusual than it is now, but not in itself anachronistic. There have historically been women who’ve badassed their way into a life of their choosing, and many more, I imagine, who remain unknown, who were able to enjoy some freedom by living in the margins of society.
But I think you’re right that how they framed those desires would be completely different from a modern woman. Modern america is a very rights-focused society. In different times and different cultures, the desire to live in a particular way would be less about rights and more about practicalities, relationships, religion, duty, fear, or any number of other things. Focusing on rights is not only anachronistic, it’s simplified and unimaginative.
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When you say that a romance should be “epic,” what do you mean? Epic can mean a lot of things (anywhere from long and complicated to high adventure) So I was wondering what elements would make a romance qualify as epic?
Also, the term “romance” in this context always makes me think of the traditional bodice ripper forced-into-marriage-and-kidnapped-by-sexy-pirates type of thing. Is that generally true for most agents/editors or does it simply mean a book who’s central plot is a love story?
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There’s romance as a genre, which is what most agents/editors think of when someone mentions “romance”. But I personally consider anything whose central plot is a love story a romance, although the genre generally stipulates that there be a “happily ever after” where other “love stories” do not.
Books that are not genre romance that I consider “romance” are THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE and TWILIGHT. (And frankly, I wasn’t fond of either.) Also anything put out by Nicholas Sparks. (Who I don’t like either.)
When I say “epic”, I mean that the story needs to have a huge sense of scope and scale. Impossible odds, that sort of thing. Wars as a backdrop I kind of like. I want to really and truly BELIEVE and WANT the hero and heroine to be together. A good example is the YA novel SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater. Boy slowly turning into a werewolf (her werewolf myth is entirely different from the traditional one), a race against time to stay together. I loved this book and I don’t even like werewolves!
But those sorts of books are still hard sells for me. I want my books to have love stories in them, but not necessarily a “love story”, if that makes sense.
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You’ve given some awesome insight here, thanks!
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