1florabundi
Have spoken to other area libraries and we find that a lot of our adult readers of fantasy and science fiction no longer get books from us. The reason turns out to be that most of the new books in these categories are labeled young adult and everything they acquire is put under this section. Many adults are not willing to browse this section. A lot of these books are not really suitable for the younger groups but that's where they end up. Need some suggestions on convincing publishers to go back to labeling adult contentment not just young adult. Any suggestions?
2Cecrow
I'm not a librarian (or anything to do with publishing), but I read science fiction and fantasy and I'm trying to understand the problem. Adult science fiction and fantasy is definitely not being underserved from a publishing point of view (just visit any bookstore to see the evidence; it's eating up two or three times the shelf space that it did in the 1980s.) So what's actually going on here seems to be either your library isn't ordering adult books in these genres; or it is mistakenly categorizing what it receives; or you've scanned the contents of some of these books labeled as young adult and don't agree that the content is appropriate? It sounds like the last one (since you say it's publishers you want to convince.)
We could argue all day about how much violence, sex, etc. 'young adults' can handle, but there's more to it than that. You could move one of these books to the adult section because it contains a scene or element you don't think is appropriate for 'young adults'. So an adult reader discovers it, but is not going to be impressed. Yes, they will shrug off 'objectionable' elements and no 'harm' done to them, but the novel does not wow them with scientific thought, it doesn't build on the legacy of the genre, it doesn't have a lead character they find engaging ... in short, it reads like something they would have enjoyed twenty to forty years ago, but not something they want to spend time on now. The publisher has already taken this into account - over and above any other consideration - when they stuck the 'young adult' label on it.
If your adult patrons are feeling underserved, they could try submitting acquisition suggestions to the library. I've done that many times.
We could argue all day about how much violence, sex, etc. 'young adults' can handle, but there's more to it than that. You could move one of these books to the adult section because it contains a scene or element you don't think is appropriate for 'young adults'. So an adult reader discovers it, but is not going to be impressed. Yes, they will shrug off 'objectionable' elements and no 'harm' done to them, but the novel does not wow them with scientific thought, it doesn't build on the legacy of the genre, it doesn't have a lead character they find engaging ... in short, it reads like something they would have enjoyed twenty to forty years ago, but not something they want to spend time on now. The publisher has already taken this into account - over and above any other consideration - when they stuck the 'young adult' label on it.
If your adult patrons are feeling underserved, they could try submitting acquisition suggestions to the library. I've done that many times.
3norabelle414
>1 florabundi: I find this to be a problem as well. Except for a very narrow band of hard sci-fi, space operas, etc. a lot of soft sci-fi and ESPECIALLY fantasy is just assumed to be for children (young adults) just because fantasy is always for children. It's even worse when the fantasy is written by women. I find a similar problem with Romance, where any book with a romantic subplot written by a woman is classified as capital-R Romance even if a similar book by a man would be in general fiction.
I don't think that there is anything you can do with the publishers. A few small libraries trying to get 5 huge companies to change the way they classify books is a losing battle. But you don't have to do exactly what they say. If your library policy prevents you from categorizing books differently than what the publisher provides, you can still create displays of science fiction & fantasy books regardless of "age", recommend them to people, highlight them on social media, or select them for a book club. (My local library has a book club called "Never Too Old" which is specifically a book club for adults to read books that are classified as YA.)
If you have any specific examples of books that your library classifies as "young adult" that you think should be in the "adult" section, the users here might have ideas for getting them into the hands of adult readers, but I don't think trying to go at the publishers is going to lead anywhere.
I don't think that there is anything you can do with the publishers. A few small libraries trying to get 5 huge companies to change the way they classify books is a losing battle. But you don't have to do exactly what they say. If your library policy prevents you from categorizing books differently than what the publisher provides, you can still create displays of science fiction & fantasy books regardless of "age", recommend them to people, highlight them on social media, or select them for a book club. (My local library has a book club called "Never Too Old" which is specifically a book club for adults to read books that are classified as YA.)
If you have any specific examples of books that your library classifies as "young adult" that you think should be in the "adult" section, the users here might have ideas for getting them into the hands of adult readers, but I don't think trying to go at the publishers is going to lead anywhere.
5andyl
>2 Cecrow:
Yeah I would have to agree here. There are plenty of adult SF and fantasy books published over the past year or two.
I am not sure they are nearly all labelled YA - but I am in a different country to the OP (who is the US I believe).
Maybe we need some examples of books which have been miscategorised.
Yeah I would have to agree here. There are plenty of adult SF and fantasy books published over the past year or two.
I am not sure they are nearly all labelled YA - but I am in a different country to the OP (who is the US I believe).
Maybe we need some examples of books which have been miscategorised.
