Legends, Lovers and Lives Facebook Event! Guest Post and all book are $0.99

How I Found Out That I Was A New Adult Author

By J. Bennett

The first time I ever heard the term “New Adult Fiction” was from the lips of a literary agent. I was sitting nervously across the table from her at a meet & greet during a writer’s meeting. While I smiled and nodded and tried desperately not to start chewing my nails to bloody nubs, she described a book that fit into this strange new genre.

My book.

The year was 2011, and I was still putting the finishing touches on Falling, the first novel in my series, Girl With Broken Wings. From the beginning, I always considered the book to reside firmly in the adult paranormal genre. My protagonist flubs the saucy comeback, wears too much eyeliner…and feeds off the energy of living creatures (humans being the forbidden dessert).

So, paranormal right?

“New adult,” the agent assured me. As soon as I scuttled home in my too-tight high heels, washed off all the sophisticated makeup, and traded my carefully ironed skirt for my favorite yoga pants, I did a little research. Digging up information about New Adult Fiction in 2011 was like trying to get a glimpse of Big Foot, only harder. (Google Big Foot, and there he is.)

What I learned was that New Adult was a spankin’ new fiction subgenre that usually featured a protagonist in the age range of 18 – 25 years old. Check. My heroine, Maya, is 20 and her two half-brothers are 23 and 26. New Adult fiction also tends to tackle themes related to the transition into adulthood, such as college, sex, a first job, moving out of the house, and pregnancy.

I didn’t see “getting kidnapped and genetically altered” in any of thematic elements list of the New Adult genre, but in a way Maya’s little genome misadventure is her big wakeup call to the fact that the world isn’t all lollipops and wind chimes made from recycled silverware (those actually exist). At the end of Falling, Maya is light years away from the college sophomore who started the book waxing philosophical about an ideal world. Reality smacked her good and hard and then kicked some sand in her face for good measure. Sure, most of us don’t get turned into genetically-enhanced super beings, but the transition into adulthood is often scary, confusing, and challenging for any number of reasons (not least of all is realizing that your combination skin wasn’t just a puberty thing).

As it turned out, 2012 was a very good year for the New Adult genre. Some lovely ladies by the names of Cora Carmack (Losing It), Jamie McGuire (Beautiful Disaster), and Colleen Hoover (Slammed) wrote some pretty awesome New Adult books and danced all the way to the top of numerous best seller lists. Suddenly people knew what New Adult was. Okay, not a lot of people.  But some people knew, which meant other people would also soon know.

Now, Amazon’s Kindle Store actually has a Fantasy New Adult/College genre list. Goodreads also has a New Adult Fiction most popular list. In other words, New Adult Fiction isn’t quite so new anymore. It might still be mostly known among writers and publishers, but readers are getting savvy, which means you bet I’m bragging all over the place how I caught the “New Adult Fiction train” at the perfect time…even if it was more by accident than superior precognition.

Do you want to catch the New Adult Fiction train and find out what this genre is all about? Then hop aboard! I’m really excited to be one of more than a dozen different authors who will be collectively setting our New Adult and Coming of Age books for $0.99 on Amazon on Saturday, June 14^th. Falling is included. Our books are all in the Fantasy and Paranormal genres, so you can gallop to distant lands, or read about some peeps kickin’ cool powers on this planet.

To see a full list of participating authors and to hang out with us (Don’t let us be the kid sitting all alone in the cafeteria at lunch!), RSVP for our Facebook Event called “Legends, Lovers and Lives”. Some of us will be giving away small prizes and free books. To learn more about the New Adult Genre, check out informative articles Here, Here, and Here.

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J Bennett is the author of the Girl With Broken Wings series, a New Adult Paranormal series. She lives and writes in San Diego. Bennett will be pricing the first novel in her series, Falling , at $0.99 on Saturday June 14^th as part of a one day sale along with 16 other New Adult authors. To learn more, visit the event’s Facebook page, Legends, Lovers and Lives.