Alternatives to current YA category

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I understand why we have the rules for our YA pick, but we don't seem to have as much interest in that. While we could just limit YA to every two or three months, I'm considering having it alternate with some variations.

Would you have any interest in one of these?
* Classic juveniles: Heinlein juveniles, most of Andre Norton's space operas. Main character is not always a teen.
* New Adult. Aimed at late teens and early twenties. Getting that first real job. Being at college or academy with aliens. Mentions of sex allowed but it doesn't get steamy or vulgar.
* parallel to our THEMED thread but for YA/NA, and using same theme at least sometimes.

Let me know if you want links to example books of what I'm thinking of here. I tried posting this before with links and my browser froze up, losing what I had done so far.

[odedo1]

I have no problem with that as long as it's not a teen book, I'm thinking more like after high school drinking age and up :-)

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Examples of New Adult
Take the Star Road by Peter Grant
Ships of My Fathers by Dan Thompson
The Riss Gamble by C.R. Daems
Saltation by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Cadet by Catherine Beery

A bit of a stretch
The Cambridge Annex The Beginning by Peter Damon
A Galaxy Unknown by Thomas DePrima
Mindtouch by M.C.A. Hogarth

[Caitlin]

I like the idea of a New Adult theme, as there seems to be good crossover between space opera and coming-of-age narratives. :)

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Perhaps this would work at for a few rounds:
* alternate traditional YA with traditional READER
* in months without a YA, I would choose for THEMED a topic that is more typical of YA/NA and so we have a YA/NA theme.

We have several suggestions for themes that are likely to generate YA/NA books anyway. Examples
* Entry level
* Adoption
* Mixed species education (not on list yet)

I for one have a much easier time choosing a book to nominate when it has to fit a theme. Not only does it narrow down the possibilities, but it reminds me of books that I wouldn't have thought of.

This would cause a kerfluffle the first month most likely, because I've already planned the next theme topic. We could just have two theme nomination threads for March reads though, or have YA skip two months the first time.

[Betsy]

I don't understand why you apparently want to reduce the Reader category. Isn't it traditionally the most popular category?

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

The impression I got was Themed and Indie having the most nominations and seconds. If the next Reader nomination thread is as active as those then I'll make sure we have Reader regularly.

Also, most of the nominations on the Themed thread are likely to be Reader type books.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Or perhaps just have three books out of the 5 categories each month, with YA and NA THEMED never sharing a month. I'll see what I can work out on paper.

Okay this might work and give us just three books a month to keep it manageable.
* YA once out of three months
* NA with theme once out of three months, month before YA
* THEMED twice out of three months (any time we don't have NA)
* Reader and Indie each 2.5 times out of three months. In the month we have YA, one of them is dropped, and they alternate.

This is a six month cycle that would look like:
March: Themed, Reader, Indie
April: NA, Reader, Indie
May: Themed, YA, (either Reader or Indie)
June: Themed, Reader, Indie
July: NA, Reader, Indie
August: Themed, YA, (either Indie or Reader)