Why YA? (And What Is It, Anyway?)

By Atthys J Gage

The year 1967 saw the publication of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, arguably the first book of serious literature for young adult readers.

The author was barely 18 years old.

Since then, YA has exploded into one of the largest markets in fiction with tens of thousands of new titles published every year.

But how did it all get started? How has it grown? And what the heck is it anyway?

For anyone who has written or wants to write (or just enjoys) YA literature, this brief, 20 page essay offers a fresh perspective on the past, present and future of a publishing phenomenon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atthys J Gage
• Release date: Jul 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311492937

Atthys J Gage

Atthys Gage is a writer with a lifelong love for myth, magic, and books. His second real job was in a bookstore. As was his third, fourth, fifth and sixth. Eventually, he stopped trying to sell books and started writing them. He has always had a fascination for that cloudy borderline between the normal and the paranormal and spends a lot of his time thinking about flying carpets and sentient flecks of alien consciousness and other stuff like that. In the so-called normal world, he lives on the coast of Northern California with his long-suffering wife, strong-willed children, and several indifferent chickens.

Book preview