I've finally come to the realization that I need to start calling Mind & Body a young adult novel.
I've resisted this for a long, long time. Just because the book's about a 17-year-old doesn't mean it's for 17-year-olds, even though in roughly 100% of the cases, when a book's about teenagers it's marketed for teenagers.
The number of rejection letters I've gotten from literary agents combined with some advice from actual authors and editors have finally changed my mind. From now on, query letters to agents will refer to the book as a young adult, or YA novel.
This dramatically changes its genre and potential place in the market. It also endangers the public's perception of it. I think the story is perfectly accessible to adults, and classifying it as YA will probably scare a lot of them away.
I don't like it, but it's something I have to do if I ever intend to get this thing published for real.
The thing is, most YA books are written with the intention of being read by teenagers. They come off like after-school specials, stories about teenagers written by guys in their 40s, filled with 10-year-old slang and awkwardly inserted life lessons or morality tales.
"Yo, dog, you want to like, totally get high?" asked Scooter, looking up from his portable digital entertainment device.
"I don't know," Daeryk said, hesitantly. "I heard that's not good for you..."
"Don't be a square," Scooter replied. "It's totally rockin'."
Stuff like that.
In my case, the only possible reason to consider it a YA title is because its two major characters are under 18. If the story were moved from high school to college, or the characters were 26, suddenly YA wouldn't be an option.
That doesn't change the fact that the above does make it more likely that young adults will appreciate the book than adults will.
I guess the book could be refreshing for young readers. A Young Adult novel that doesn't try to preach or talk down to them. A grown-up novel for teens.
And now I resign to the fact that I'll still never get published. And if I do, I'll never be taken seriously, for all I write is crummy books for teens.