What the Heck Are New Adults?

This article, published in The Independent a few days ago, answers a question I have been pondering for, well, it must be minutes now - What the heck are New Adults? The answer, not surprisingly, is that they are a demographic that has not, as yet, been sufficiently exploited by publishers. 

For the uninitiated, "demographics" are people who buy books. In this case, "New Adults" (as opposed to Young Adults, Recent Adults, Old Adults, Senile Adults, and Adults Who Have Been Validated by Their Inner Children), are college students who, apparently, have money to waste on yet another redundant genre.

So, you may ask, what is New Adult fiction? Lots of swearing, lots of sex, and, of course, unemployment.

From Young Adult to New Adult: Books for the inbetweeners

By John Walsh, The Independent, July 28, 2013

Does the book world need a new genre? The “Young Adult” demographic began in living memory and dealt with parents, teachers, good friends, treacherous friends, crushes, body-consciousness, social diseases, moral issues and lots of snogs. Then it splintered into sub-genres of teen vampires and playground werewolves, school gangs and school romance. Teenage readers were spoilt for choice, provided they had a ceaseless appetite for pubertal trauma and pustule management.

Stand by, then, for the newest genre on  the block: “New Adult.” Although the term was coined in 2009 by Dan Weiss (who masterminded the Sweet Valley High series of mild school romances for 12-year-olds), it’s only recently acquired credibility among major publishers. NA novels are written about (and often by)  18 to 25-year-olds, charting the lives of post-school, university-age friends as they encounter the world of work, offices, money, identity, rented flats and dates with people they’ve met online.

Read the rest of this enlightening article here.