D&D General Is Appendix N Still Relevant to D&D?

[Reynard]

Pretty ambiguous category, but my understanding is that some of its most common elements include being aimed at readers 12-18 and normally featuring a teenage protagonist undergoing relatively universal adolescent developmental and relationship challenges and milestones, alongside whatever else is happening in the story. Growing up and approaching adulthood is usually a big part of YA fiction, though I get the sense that it's not always as central as it once was.

When I was a kid, Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books (especially the last two, Taren Wanderer and The High King, where the first two are more children's lit) and A Wizard of Earthsea were some of the gold standard classics.

Sure, and they are intended to be.

But calling Conan stories YA is... well, frankly, its nonsensical.

 

[billd91]

If all "YA" means is "clean" it is a pretty useless sub-category.

It doesn't mean clean. It's really more about works published to appeal to readers aged 12-18. A lot will have teenaged (or slightly older) protagonists because those definitely appeal to the YA readers. And that's partly what's important about YA literature - it's deliberately aimed at the 12-18 year old market or, if older than when that market became distinct, otherwise fits the same style of literature.

The Conan books weren't written for teens and would usually appear in a general adult section of a library even though those works are often read by teens.

 

[LordBP]

One thing to remember is that "Young Adult" may not have been used back in the 60-70s, I know during the 80s, the bookstores that I visited didn't have a young adult section, they had a kids section and everything else was adult.

 

[Mannahnin]

One thing to remember is that "Young Adult" may not have been used back in the 60-70s, I know during the 80s, the bookstores that I visited didn't have a young adult section, they had a kids section and everything else was adult.

Oh, sure. YA as a whole publishing/marketing category didn't exist yet.

Much like how Fantasy was almost never split out from Science Fiction as a category until after the Del Reys started seeking out and publishing books specifically to appeal to Tolkien fans, in the 70s. Doubleday's Science Fiction Book Club carried both but kept that title for its whole lifespan, 1953-2025.

But authors like Le Guin and Alexander were definitely writing books aimed at the age groups YA aims at; stories and moral lessons and protagonists easy for those readers to identify with.

 

[Parmandur]

Calling anything published more than like 30 years ago YA is anachronistic. And it is a category that is being phased out in publishing now, too.

 

[Thomas Shey]

If all "YA" means is "clean" it is a pretty useless sub-category.

Most fantasy and SF subdivisions have been fairly useless for a long time, honestly. As I noted, a lot of times you'd see juvenile fantasy/SF sorted by the age of its protagonists in the old days, and that often wasn't particularly helpful (as I noted, I saw Three Against the Witch World/Warlock of the Witch World/Sorceress of the Witch World placed in juveniles on some occasions, and if anything, the protagonists were at the least, older teens).

 

[billd91]

Calling anything published more than like 30 years ago YA is anachronistic. And it is a category that is being phased out in publishing now, too.

Phasing it out would be unfortunate. YA sections are important sections of your typical public library and it helps a great deal to have literature directed at that age group.

 

[Parmandur]

Phasing it out would be unfortunate. YA sections are important sections of your typical public library and it helps a great deal to have literature directed at that age group.

Thing is the current generation targeted by YA views the YA label as a kiss of death. So YA series are being rebranded as standard genres now so they don't seem cringe to Teens.

 

[Deset Gled]

Phasing it out would be unfortunate. YA sections are important sections of your typical public library and it helps a great deal to have literature directed at that age group.

One thing to keep in mind is that we're interchangeably talking about classifications like "young adult" and "sci-fi vs fantasy" and "fantasy subdivisions" from two major different sides. As a group of nerds who are heavily invested in these genres, we tend to talk about them as if we're discussion library classification systems (i.e. BISAC, or the Dewey Decimal System). But most of these words actually come from marketing and sales; they don't care what the book is about, they just need to know who's going buy it.

Is YA being "phased out" from marketing? Yes. But that doesn't mean the category is going away. It means that publishers have learned that a lot of adults read these books, and not just teenagers. So what was "paranormal teen romance" morphs into "romantasy".

 

[Parmandur]

One thing to keep in mind is that we're interchangeably talking about classifications like "young adult" and "sci-fi vs fantasy" and "fantasy subdivisions" from two major different sides. As a group of nerds who are heavily invested in these genres, we tend to talk about them as if we're discussion library classification systems (i.e. BISAC, or the Dewey Decimal System). But most of these words actually come from marketing and sales; they don't care what the book is about, they just need to know who's going buy it.

Is YA being "phased out" from marketing? Yes. But that doesn't mean the category is going away. It means that publishers have learned that a lot of adults read these books, and not just teenagers. So what was "paranormal teen romance" morphs into "romantasy".

All genres are purely marketing. Sci-fi and Fantasy are shelved together because they share a customer profile, not by content.