I'm a YA editor, and generally the notion of YA first cropped up in the 60s. The Outsiders is often quoted as the first real young adult novel, though there were a lot of novels published for teens before then, by children's publishing departments.
It's not so much a question of marketing to teens, as it is PUBLISHING to teens. Really, it starts with the writing and acquistion, and not the marketing. Some books may be pitched as crossovers (Twilight, Harry Potter--which is actually middle grade do NOT get me started on this), but generally not until they've made themselves known as hits. Adults venture into YA sections, yes, but it's not until a YA title gets huge that you pick up the crossover audience. The exception here, is fantasy and sci-fi.
But in terms of publishing YA, they're pubbed generally by the children's divisions now. And that in the 60s alone was a novelty, considering how new a "children's division" was.
In terms of what we look for when acquiring YA, it's a question of what the focus and the voice of the novel is--is it an adult looking back on their teen years? or a contemporary teen voice talking about what's going on rightthisverysecond. Too reflective, and too kind of self-judgemental and self analytical tends to feel more adult than true YA.
Books like Prep wasn't pubbed as a YA because it's really NOT a YA. The voice is too old, and too self reflective--it's not a true YA voice. And as such, it works better in adult, where granted, a lot of young adults and teens will totally find it. But really, it was pubbed in adult and that's a very different thing than pubbing in childrens.
Also, what's taught in high school and middle school generally has very little overlap with YA publishing. In fact it's kind of a big issue within the YA world. You look at summer reading lists for higher grades, and see tons and tons of classics, but absolutely nothing published remotely recently--and so you often breed readers who are bored and go to adult for contemporary fiction. It makes a certain amount of sense to list classics, as reading lists are tied directly into curriculum, and the english currciuclm tends to be linked to history, etc. But ask a childrens or teen librarian about this, and watch their head explode. They tend to have a much better grasp of the current YA trends and publishing than high school teachers.
It's not so much a question of marketing to teens, as it is PUBLISHING to teens. Really, it starts with the writing and acquistion, and not the marketing. Some books may be pitched as crossovers (Twilight, Harry Potter--which is actually middle grade do NOT get me started on this), but generally not until they've made themselves known as hits. Adults venture into YA sections, yes, but it's not until a YA title gets huge that you pick up the crossover audience. The exception here, is fantasy and sci-fi.
But in terms of publishing YA, they're pubbed generally by the children's divisions now. And that in the 60s alone was a novelty, considering how new a "children's division" was.
In terms of what we look for when acquiring YA, it's a question of what the focus and the voice of the novel is--is it an adult looking back on their teen years? or a contemporary teen voice talking about what's going on rightthisverysecond. Too reflective, and too kind of self-judgemental and self analytical tends to feel more adult than true YA.
Books like Prep wasn't pubbed as a YA because it's really NOT a YA. The voice is too old, and too self reflective--it's not a true YA voice. And as such, it works better in adult, where granted, a lot of young adults and teens will totally find it. But really, it was pubbed in adult and that's a very different thing than pubbing in childrens.
Also, what's taught in high school and middle school generally has very little overlap with YA publishing. In fact it's kind of a big issue within the YA world. You look at summer reading lists for higher grades, and see tons and tons of classics, but absolutely nothing published remotely recently--and so you often breed readers who are bored and go to adult for contemporary fiction. It makes a certain amount of sense to list classics, as reading lists are tied directly into curriculum, and the english currciuclm tends to be linked to history, etc. But ask a childrens or teen librarian about this, and watch their head explode. They tend to have a much better grasp of the current YA trends and publishing than high school teachers.
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