YA Romance
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[edit] YA Romances
"YA" stands for "young adult." This used to mean 15-18, but those kids just get hold of the adult stuff, mostly. Instead, today the core market is more like 12-15. YA is considered the high end of juvenile fiction. Like most juvvy, the reader uses fiction as a way of learning about life stages to come. They prefer a character a year or two older than the age range, so the heroine of the YA romance is usually 16-17, sometimes a bit younger or older depending on the story.
YA romances are all sweet romances. They concentrate, not on marriage or sexual fulfillment, but the first stages of learning to love someone romantically. Handling crushes, dates, and kisses are the concern, not sex, babies, and supporting a family. Saving the world is not ruled out, though normally they work in a more realistic frame. YA romances used to all be in a sort of genericly WASP world. Now they may have h/h of other races or religions. They move into any of the other romance subgenres, including paranormal romances, or f/f/p romances. Certainly, you can sell YA historical romances.
[edit] Publishers of YA Romances
- Smooch at Dorchester is an entirely YA Romance imprint.
