A New Adult Takeover - Meet E.L. Wicker

I didn’t really know how to begin this post, so I thought I’d start as I mean to go on. Yup, I’m winging it—after all, that’s what pantsers do, right? They wing it. So my fluffy wings are spread and I am flying by the seat of my pants. What an interesting place to situate wings.

Sharon Johnston usually posts about now, but this is a takeover, because I’m all new and shiny. As this is my first post on YAtopia, I thought I’d make it sparkly.

Ta-dah 

If you haven’t gleaned from my post so far, I tend not to take myself too seriously. Serious is good, but I prefer to stay on the side of light and fluffy. Especially because the series I’m writing at the moment can get very dark in places. It’s a New Adult paranormal romance. It started its life as a YA, but as I wrote, the themes and issues were best suited to NA, as were the maturity levels and ages of my characters.

Which leads me on to my passion—New Adult fiction.

New Adult fiction has grown at a rapid rate—how did it all begin? Come with me as we take a trip back to 2009 when St Martin’s press expressed an interest in receiving submissions that were similar to YA, but could be marketed towards an older audience too. The New Adult genre was officially born, but it didn’t pick up much steam until a few years later. It’s success can be widely attributed to independent publishers, particularly in the field of contemporary romance. Authors such as Jamie McGuire, Colleen Hoover and Sylvia Day all began their New Adult literary careers as self-published authors. The genre literally exploded.

It’s actually not a surprise that New Adult has done so well. If you turn on the television at primetime, you’re likely to be met with a New Adult show. 90210, The Vampire Diaries, also past series like Greek. These were all aimed at the ‘older young adult’ – the new adult. New Adult is sought after and popular.

Yet despite this massive success, whenever I try to select the genre for my own book ‘New Adult’, in many cases, it’s simply not there. Luckily, this is being worked on. Publishing houses have now embraced the genre—some did to begin with, others took a little while to assimilate.

So what are the differences between YA and NA?

It’s really not complex. A lot of the same themes and issues are explored, but there’s also moving on from being a young adult to a new adult and all that it encompasses. You’ll find a lot of New Adult books centered around college life as the characters gain their independence. You’ll also find that many characters are beginning their first job or getting married, having children, moving into their first house and dealing with all of the personal fears that those things can cause. Primarliy, NA is aimed at readers aged 17-30, with the characters usually aged between 18-25.

New Adult fiction is my absolute passion. I adore it. I love reading it and writing it. My kindle is chock full of books from authors such as Mia Sheridan, Penelope Ward and Jennifer Blackwood. I am a hunter of new books because I want to read them all. If it has dual POV – I’m in heaven.

I am thrilled to be a part of YAtopia where I can represent the genre I so love and I look forward to posting more!