Week 7

The first article I read this week was  New Adult: Needless Marketing-Speak Or Valued Subgenre? from Publisher's Weekly. I understood the publishers' desire to have a new category that straddled the adult world and the teen/YA world, but to me, a whole new genre seems unnecessary. Most books that would fall in that New Adult category can probably be safely shelved in the YA section. I don't think that adults who read YA will stop reading YA books because it seems that adults are drawn to YA not just for the content of the stories, but also for a certain style of writing and storytelling that is less dense than typical adult novels. If there are New Adult books with explicit sexual content, then they should just be shelved with the adult books. I think readers, booksellers, and librarians are more than able to find titles or series that would fall in the New Adult category without actually having to establish a formal genre. Seeing how this article was written nearly four years ago, and I haven't noticed any NA (New Adult) sections, I'm guessing the label never really caught on.

The second article I read was Who is Buying Teen Books? in the Christian Science Monitor. I agreed heartily with the statement about the appeal of YA books for adults from the early part of the article. It said:
     One part of the appeal may be that young adult books are sometimes written in a less complicated fashion than adult books and may offer more of a literary escape than an adult contemporary novel, providing a relaxing experience for an adult reader tired from commuting, working all day, and taking care of kids.
After a long day or week, or just being tired, I sometimes just want a book that moves along quickly and sucks you in for a joyride. YA books often do that. I also have friends and family who enjoy YA for precisely the reason of enjoyment without the denseness of adult novels. Additionally, they enjoy reading about teenaged angst and other issues without actually having to deal with it themselves!
I also think that just because a book was written with younger audiences in mind doesn't automatically mean that it is of low quality.

I looked at John Green's site and Teenreads. I liked John Green's site, which I picked because I have read him before.  I liked how it's updated fairly frequently and has funny videos, book trailers, etc. I think that helps his readers feel more connected to him. I also looked at the Teenreads site. I also liked how that one was updated, and how it has lots of sections to explore, like Reviews, Coming Soon, Authors, a Blog, and even a contest page!! Both sites are aimed at a younger audience, but can also appeal to older people.

Finally, the two teen imprint websites I went through were Penguin Teen and Random House. I really liked the Penguin site with the big book covers/icons, which were eye-catching. I also liked their Buzzfeed-like lists you could click on (like 14 characters to get you in trouble this summer). Those lists had nice covers (which can make me want to read a book!) as well as short but enticing summaries. There was also a YouTube channel with booktrailers for teen books.
I wasn't as fond of the Random House page. Is a membership needed? I didn't feel like pressing on the "sign up" button for some of the more interesting-sounding groups. Also, several links didn't seem to work. They also had a YouTube channel, but it wasn't specific for YA books, unlike Penguin.

I did notice that both sites featured new releases, which is a good way of trying to keep up with the numerous titles being released. I noticed that series still seem to be big (many titles I clicked on were part of series), and tried-and-true series authors like James Dashner and Marie Lu had another series out/coming out. YA books, while numerous, seem to still deal with issues revolving growing up today (including dealing with LGBTQ issues, identity issues), or dystopian realities, murders/mysteries, and fantasy.