YA Isn’t Just for Young Adults
“Don’t you want to write a real book?” This is a question that’s been posed to many of my YA author friends. It’s also a question—with its implication that real books are for adults—that betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what YA is and why it matters.
An argument could be made that, simply put, YA is for young people, not adult readers. This line of thinking also seems to diminish its value: the genre’s commercial success (YA book sales hit globally in 2022) hasn’t translated into—and is perhaps directly at odds with—literary prestige, and it remains more difficult for YA authors to be considered for tenure-track teaching positions, covered in literary journals, and so on. But the category’s true audience is deceptively broad. of the people buying YA books today are over 18 years old—and the majority of those buyers are between 30 and 44 years old. If you’re thinking these adults are buying books on behalf of tweens, teens, or perhaps educators bulk buying for adolescent or college-aged students, the truth is much more interesting. The vast majority—78%—of .
