BEA 2010: You're Reading That!?!-Tackling Crossover YA/Adult Readers
Panelists address misconceptions about teen/adult reading
Mike Rogers -- Library Journal, 05/27/2010
- Panelists insist there was always YA/adult crossover
- Manuscripts should not be editor for crossover appeal
- YA titles including more serious issues
Thanks to Harry Potter and the Twilight series, an increasing number of adults are heading to their library or bookstore's YA sections for their next reads. This phenomenon was the focus of "You're reading That!?! Crossover YA/Adult Readers Come of Age," a sterling panel yesterday at BookExpo America.
Moderator Barbara Genco, a librarian and LJ's Collection Management Editor, along with author and blogger Lizzie Skurnick, Little Brown editor Jennifer Bailey, librarian Ellen Loughran, and YA author Libba Bray offered multiple perspectives to an enthusiastic crowd.
Sticking with YA
Genco led off, asking, "Why do teens still read YAs as they move into their 20s and 30s?" She asserts that today's teens are reading quality adult books and that the categories of adult/YA perhaps no longer apply.
Skurnick finds that there is a resurgence of adults rereading the books of their childhood. "Once kids were reading up," she said, "now adults are reading down—it's the same strain."
Skurnick used Justin Cronin's vampire saga, The Passage, as an example, saying that while the vampire book has become a saturated market, Cronin gave it a new spin; she compared it to Michael Crichton's 1969 bestseller The Andromeda Strain, a book embraced by readers of all ages.
Reflecting on her own teen reading, Skurnick (r.) devoured the same books as her "nerdy brother," including Peter 
Benchley's blockbuster Jaws , Mario Puzo's The Godfather, and Stephen King. Ultimately, Skurnick said, adults and teens should both be reading books aimed for each market.
Agents pushing crossover appeal
Little Brown's Bailey suggested a downside to the YA crossover. While agents are now pushing crossover appeal, she said that editors shouldn't ponder that while working on a manuscript because it would change the way a book is edited.
Also she believes that "a book is not successful until it finds the audience it was written for," and that agents and editors need to "stay focused on the core audience."
The "real" deal
Offering the author's perspective, Bray (l.) launched her amusing observations by recounting an incident with a 
neighbor who thought YA meant pornographic novels, making her an instant neighborhood celebrity. When she explained YA meant "like Harry Potter," her new-found fame vanished instantly, so "writing porn is more socially acceptable."
While for ages the concept of writing a "real book" meant writing an adult book, Bray said that's changing, albeit slowly. She finds that the current generation "doesn't follow traditional reading" and that many YA titles now deal with very serious issues and that "we never stop coming of age...the basics of the human condition are timeless. We want stories that enlighten us, that make us change."
(See LJ's BEA Flickr pix here.)
