A Light at the End of the Tunnel
Mar. 17th, 2011 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomi_jayI am thisclose to finishing Wild. And this time I mean it. No more revisions, no more edits, no more rewrites. OMG. I'm not sure I can imagine what my life will be like. I was hoping to finish the last 40 or so pages by yesterday, but on Tuesday my arm was playing up and last night I had to go out and socialise. AGAINST MY WILL I SHOULD ADD. So tonight and tomorrow will be it. Wild will be ready to unleash on the world.
So I'm kinda stuck now. This book has undergone a lot of changes since 2007, from straight-up adult urban fantasy to a slightly more YA-ish urban fantasy with a romantic element. However, I struggle to think of it as truly YA. Lizzie is young - university age - but the subject matter is not young. There's heavy drug-use, domestic violence, and a butt-load of angst. I'm not saying those things don't happen in YA fiction, I'm just saying I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea. Personally I think Wild is the best thing I've ever written, but I think, for a lot of reasons, it will be a polarising book.
I don't see it as a controversial book, and I don't want to market it as such. But this isn't a happy, sweet, fluffy book, and Lizzie isn't a typical YA protagonist. So I'm not sure if I should try to flag it as a YA book, an adult book, or to just put it out there and see what readers decide. Once I've spoken to my lovely formatter and got my PDF/mobi copies, I'm planning to do the same as I did with NIGHT AND CHAOS and offer some free copies in exchange for reviews/word spreading, because really, what I think of the book just isn't important. What you think of it is what counts.
So I'm kinda stuck now. This book has undergone a lot of changes since 2007, from straight-up adult urban fantasy to a slightly more YA-ish urban fantasy with a romantic element. However, I struggle to think of it as truly YA. Lizzie is young - university age - but the subject matter is not young. There's heavy drug-use, domestic violence, and a butt-load of angst. I'm not saying those things don't happen in YA fiction, I'm just saying I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea. Personally I think Wild is the best thing I've ever written, but I think, for a lot of reasons, it will be a polarising book.
I don't see it as a controversial book, and I don't want to market it as such. But this isn't a happy, sweet, fluffy book, and Lizzie isn't a typical YA protagonist. So I'm not sure if I should try to flag it as a YA book, an adult book, or to just put it out there and see what readers decide. Once I've spoken to my lovely formatter and got my PDF/mobi copies, I'm planning to do the same as I did with NIGHT AND CHAOS and offer some free copies in exchange for reviews/word spreading, because really, what I think of the book just isn't important. What you think of it is what counts.
