Thursday, June 6, 2013
Week7: Assignment 2
I read New Adult: needless Marketing- Speak or Valued Subgenre? Publisher's Weekly, Dec. 14, 2012 and the article The Next Big thing: Adults reading Teen Literature. The term "New Adult" sounds like a buzz word that is being thrown around and debated from different viewpoints. I'm not sure if I see the value even after reading these articles. There have always been and always will be crossover issues. There will always be teens that read Adult books. Adults are already reading Teen books so why rename them. Put them on display and let the Adults see them. Twilight and Hunger games were not in the adult section but many adults read them. The Book Thief has been read by both as well as the Boy in the striped Pajamas. The articles seem to have some good points for both sides of the debate.
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I read both of these articles also. I think you have a good point that adults and teens already read books in both categories. The Book Thief was catalogued as Adult and Teen when it came out. Maybe things haven't changed as much as publishers want us to think.
ReplyDeleteI, too, read both of these articles and to an extent thought it was much ado about nothing. We have a relatively large population of crossover readers in BCPL and while the concept of creating a "New Adult" subgenre is interesting, I don't think the terminology is right. If you were just a "Young Adult" how do you then become a "New Adult"?? I think that as librarians we'll have to carry the burden of identifying appropriate materials and use creative merchandising to bring them to the public's attention!
ReplyDeleteI think publishers are trying to ride this wave of a very hot segment right now in a very jumpy industry. I see both sides. While I don't really have a problem with labeling "New Adult" as a marketing tool, I agree with Marilyn's comment about Young Adult vs. New Adult. It seems silly and a stretch. On the other hand, if it helps readers pinpoint what they are looking for and it fills a niche, I am OK with it. Perhaps it's the YA label that should be revisited. In the meantime we continue to do what we have always done: match titles with customers regardless of genre labels.
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