Is Your 18+ Protagonist Young Adult, New Adult, or Adult?

With the news of Wednesday Books launching a new adult imprint (Saturday Books), new adult is back in the spotlight (and thank the publishing gods! It’s about time). 

I, for one, am hoping that this move gives new adult a solid chance at becoming an independent age category in the traditional publishing landscape. Why? I’ve been writing about this issue since 2018, particularly when I was a youth librarian and young adult author who spent a significant time with teen readers and writers. I wrote NA or YA? College-Aged Protagonists, which is unsurprisingly still relevant, but I also know it’s time for an upgrade. Granted, this is a complex, ever-changing topic. Publishing trends shift every day. What I say today is just my opinion today, and not necessarily all the layers of that opinion. I’m basically giving a synthesized opinion. There’s so many variables in a story that some books could sit in two categories (or maybe all three), but you definitely stand a better chance at success if your book solidly sits in one (and you know which one). 

So what makes a book young adult or new adult? What about adult? 

Many will point to the age as the protagonist like this:

• 16-18: young adult
• 19-24: new adult
• 25+: adult 

However, I think it’s more important to look at the themes of your story. 

• Young adult = Who am I?
• New adult = Now that I know who I am, how will I find my place in the world?
• Adult = Now that I know who I am and my place in the world, how/when/why will I challenge/change that? 

YA and NA typically have coming of age themes, with new adult having an emphasis on a second “coming of age.” (Think college student who is still discovering their likes/dislikes and their perception of the world.) In young adult, there’s a desire to grow up and become independent, but they’re still experiencing childhood through teen eyes. In new adult, there’s a bigger bandwidth to explore the mixture of encroaching adulthood and the last ramblings of childhood. (For instance, there might be pushback about growing up because the reality of growing up is becoming clearer.) In adult, your character is solidly in adulthood and dealing with those responsibilities. Granted, this is a generalization. It’s important to take note that a lot of issues can happen at different ages for different folks (and readers want that variety), hence the crossover.  

Let’s look at an example with careers at the center:

• Does your character have a career they’ve been settled in for a while but hate? Most likely adult. 
• Did your character just start their first job and are navigating new responsibilities for the first time? New Adult. 
• Does your character have a part-time job while attending high school? Young adult. 
• Does your character have a part-time job while attending college? Probably New Adult, but could also be Young Adult. It depends on your overall themes, content, ages, etc. 
• What if you have a 17-year-old protagonist who has dropped out of school and is taking care of younger siblings by working a full-time job? Well, this could be YA, NA, or Adult–depending, again, on the content, themes, language, etc. 

As an example, Let’s look at Shameless. It appealed to a broad audience because it had a large cast with varying storylines, but many would consider it a mature-audience (adult) show. There’s drugs, sex, and crime upfront and in detail.

Now, let’s pretend the children’s movie Lilo & Stitch was told from the perspective of Lilo’s sister Nani. She was nineteen, working and providing everything for her younger sister who gets wrapped up in aliens (all while dealing with CPS). Despite this, the story has a lighter tone. Depending on how an author wrote it–and what they included–it could be YA or NA. If the story had a funnier, Disney-tone (and followed the exact Disney storyline), I would lean toward upper YA/crossover from Nani’s POV. But being in a crossover space can be risky. So let’s say you wanted it to be solidly YA: Nani could be aged down to 17, be put in high school, and instead of trying to gain custody of her sister, she’s a babysitter where things got out of control. On the contrary, if the story’s maturity level was raised–like we get an on-screen romance between Nani and David and the aliens are more violent/graphic–I would put it in NA. (Also, I would LOVE to read that book, so someone please write it.) If you wanted to make it solidly adult, you could change Nani to a single mom who is battling aliens with her daughter all while trying to deal with her growing feelings for David (and maybe even a spicier romance.) 

In other words, you can see how it can get complicated. 

One outcome I’m hoping we’ll get if NA expands is a broader space for younger YA and older MG (middle grade) titles. Right now, YA has definitely leaned more toward 18+ protagonists, with recent best-sellers including marriage and sex, and I feel like we’re leaving younger readers behind. 

When I was a youth librarian, it was difficult to find books that bridged the gap between MG readers and entering the YA space, especially amongst boy readers who were looking for more Percy Jackson-style reads. 

My hope is that NA will allow books that were naturally NA be NA instead of being forcibly aged up into adult or aged down into YA, therefore sending a ripple effect through those age categories (and sometimes leaving less shelf space for younger titles). 

Anyway, this is just my opinion, and I could honestly get into the weeds more. For instance, the huge elephant in the room that everyone’s been discussing is spice: where does it belong and how much of it can be included (and in what format: closed door, on-page, etc.). 

But I will leave that for another day. 

My focus right now? I am cheering on this new adult imprint.

I hope it’s the beginning of many more to come. 

~SAT 

P.S. I also want to give a huge shout out to the indie publishing space. Indie publishing has always supported and thrived in the new adult market, and the growing demand for these books has been fueled by talented new adult authors who shared their stories with the world, independently and with courage. Y’all are amazing.