WSJ Article on YA and #yasaves on Twitter

Yes, there's a bandwagon.  And I'm on it.

I usually don't get too involved in being outraged, it tends to leave me exhausted and with oily hair (not sure why).  So when I got on Twitter this morning and saw the YA world had exploded I thought, oh boy, what's the shitestorm now?  Well, it's this article from the Wall Street Journal talking about why the entire YA offering is drivel and shit.

Listen, I'm not going to claim that every single book aimed at teens these days is a Pulitzer contender.  I've seen more than a few that were riding coattails, appealing to the new trend, and yes - going for the sensational route in order to grab those readers.

But condemn us all?  Hmmm... well, that makes me feel... hmm... kinda oily haired.  So, without harping or making a long post about why my writing, and those of my published comrades, is not bottom of the barrel, teen slasher-porn aimed at appealing to the lowest common denominator in order to make a few bucks, I'm just going to tweet under the #yasaves hashtag today as the thoughts come to me, and I invite my followers to do the same.

Embrace the Awesome - Don't Be A Lit Bitch

Confession time - I'm kinda a lit bitch.

You know the type - the ones that like to carry around obscure authors in trade paperback and read them in really public places.  Yeah... that's kinda me.  Or at least, it used to be.  I had a breakthrough session with my sister a few years ago, when I was a post college grad with two shiny degrees in English Literature and Religion, reading Euripides in the backroom at Hallmark on my lunch break. (Sidenote: yes I worked at a Hallmark.  No, we're not going to talk about it). Meanwhile, big sis is clocking in as the chair of the English department at a rural school, and rollicking around in the YA market that is about to explode.

Sister: You really should read this Harry Potter book sometime.  It's pretty good.

Me: Yeah, that's what I hear.
Sister: No really.  It's good.
Me: Right, okay.
Sister: Stop blowing me off.  You might actually like it.
Me: Sorry, I've got some big person books to read.
Sister: You're just being pissy because it's super popular and you don't want to look like you've bought in to it.
Me: You're just being pissy because I like to read books with words like "transubstantiation" and you don't know what that means.

Well, if any of you have sisters then you know that the conversation totally degenerated from there.  For the record, I did not wizen to the awesome until ORDER OF THE PHOENIX was released, at which time I sullenly asked to borrow the series from big sis.  We made a summer deal - she gave the smoldery hot and intelligent OUTLANDER series by Diana Gabaldon a shot, and I gave JK Rowling the time of day.

Uh, yeah.  We spent the summer sprawled on beach towels untangling tiny plot details and discussing these amazingly talented authors whose backstory weaving is remarkable.  We also both ate a lot of crow, but that's besides the point.

My next lesson.  Lit Bitch status aside, the OUTLANDER series has had my heart since word one.  Whenever anyone (adult) asks me for a book recommendation the conversation goes like this:

Me: Alright, I'm going to talk to you about an awesome series, but you have to get past the first phrase out of my mouth without losing interest or mocking me.
Friend: Okay.
Me: It's a time travel romance -
Friend: *eyes glaze over, nods politely* Okay
Me: No seriously.  Here, just take it.  You have to promise me to read past page fifty before giving up.
Friend: Yeah sure.  I'll give it a try. *gives it dubious glance, tucks it away into purse*

TWO DAYS LATER -

Friend: Hey, I'm bringing this back to you.
Me: C'mon now - did you read past page fifty like you promised?
Friend: Er... uh.... I'm done.  *blushes* Can I get the sequel?

It's also true that the magic isn't always there for everyone.  I haven't found a vampire attractive since Gary Oldman played one, but I'm old school like that. The point is - don't be a snotty snot face when it comes to your reading material, like I did.  You might miss out on some awesome.

Why YA? Why Now?

For a while now it's seemed that YA is the market to be in.  Writers whose usual stomping grounds are certainly not in that arena have been throwing their hat in the ring—Joyce Carol Oates, James Patterson and now John Grisham.  Even Rick Riordan, of PERCY JACKSON & THEY OLYMPIANS fame was not originally a YA/MG author.

The market shift can easily be spotted in the changing genre coverage of agents, as well.  At least twice a week I get emails in my inbox from QueryTracker, alerting me to an agent who has expanded their area of interest.  More often than not, they're adding YA to the mix.

It's easy to name the catalysts—J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer—but they wouldn't be household names if people weren't reading the books.  There are plenty of excellent writers with original plots out there—across genres and readership-age—who haven't initiated worldwide culture shifts.

So what gives?  Why did your local Barnes & Noble knock down a wall to expand the teen section?

Recently, I had my college buddies over for yet another Twizzler and Dove chocolate fest.  Books came up, and everyone turned to me for recommendations, since I spend 40 a week surrounded by them.  I tossed off three or four titles, pens started scribbling and I said, "Sorry guys, I just realized everything I'm telling you is YA.  It's pretty much what I'm reading right now."

To my surprise, this group of above-average intelligence, thirty-something women all said, "Oh—us too, it's totally cool."  Since I had a captive audience I picked their brains—why?  Why are adults reading YA?  I have to admit, it's kinda been killing me.  And their answer echoed what I had come up with on my own:

Because we didn't have any.

Readers in my age frame had to leap across a massive gap in our early to late teens.  We went from R.L. Stine to Stephen King, Sweet Valley High to Danielle Steele, Nancy Drew to Kinsey Milhone.  With few exceptions (God bless you Lois Duncan, Judy Blume & Christopher Pike) there wasn't a market for edgy, intelligent YA—definitely not in the numbers we're seeing now.  As a teen, I had to search out titles that interested me in my age range.  As an adult, I'm saturated with YA books in the TBR pile, and the bedstand is hating life.

Teens are reading in massive numbers.  I speak from firsthand experience when I say there has been a major shift in the way pleasure reading is viewed in the high school where I work.  The quarterback is carrying around the same book as the mousey girl with glasses, and he's not trying to hide it underneath a copy of Men's Fitness, either.

Adults are reading those same books.  There's a reason why Sweet Valley was trending on Twitter days after the release of SWEET VALLEY CONFIDENTIAL: TEN YEARS LATER. Heck, it's even been released with a super retro cover.  It's 'cause women like me were happily throwing down our college degrees and rolling around in some trash-awesome.  Am I vicariously attempting to recapture my youth?

Or am I trying to fill a fifteen-year-old gap?