Being Internly: Suggested Readings

So I'm back again with another suggested readings post, this time with a focus on the new adult genre. New adult has been increasing in popularity over the last couple of years (St. Martin's apparently coined the term in 2009) and it would not surprise me if we start to see a wave of these books being released by mainstream publishing in a year or two. Several self-pubs have been snatched up already, notably Easy by Tammara Webber, Slammed by Colleen Hooper, and Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire.  So if you have a polished, completed, manuscript that fits this genre, now is the time to start shopping it.

If you don't know what New Adult is, check out this introductory blog post from NA Alley. I have NA Alley in my Reader and they post on everything from cover reveals to publishing news. Editors Angela James (Carina Press) and Margo Lipschultz (Harlequin HQN) delve into what constitutes a new adult in a Harlequin blog post. It's a bit of a publicity puff piece, but I found James's answer as to what was not a new adult very interesting.  For a more intensive look, a School Library Journal blog (A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy) has a compilation post with links to different blogs, all aimed at answering the question of 'What is New Adult?'

The New York Times published an article back in December 2012 that covers the rise of new adult from more of a publishing perspective. Also in December, Gawker compared 'coming of age' and new adult titles.  In the Gawker article, they reference this Publisher's Weekly article, which looks at the trend from a book-selling point view. I tried to find something about writing new adult books, but instead I came across this August 2012 blog post that looks at new adult from an editorial point of view.

Since I started reading new adult by way of the romance genre, I tend to think of it as being an off-shoot, but it's definitely growing into its own genre.  Another SLJ poster, who is not that fond of the label, recommends 'fiction-y' books that would fit the bill. Back in July 2012, Jane at Dear Author did a new adult recommendation post, suggesting traditionally published young adult books that would fit the new adult category. NA Alley (mentioned above) has a catalog of new adult reads that cover traditional and epubs. Of course, browsing through GoodReads can always lead to awesome discoveries. This list is fairly comprehensive and here's a selection of new adult recent releases.