"New Adult" was a category that St. Martin& #39;s attempted to launch 10 ish years ago - coming-of-age books about the 18-28 ish age range. That was the main parameter, like YA with teen mc& #39;s. But because bookstores had no place on the shelf and didn& #39;t want to make one, 1/ https://twitter.com/carlywatters/status/1387432632569454600">https://twitter.com/carlywatt...

They& #39;d take the New Adult books being experimentally published and shelve them in romance or YA, or just plain Adult depending on the genre. As a result, NA got a reputation for being mainly college romance. So when agents say they& #39;re not looking for New Adult, 2/

It& #39;s because publishers "aren& #39;t publishing it" (at least with that categorization) because bookstores won& #39;t shelve it. Books with mc& #39;s in that age range now go to Adult or get aged down to teen for YA, so that they have a chance of being shelved somewhat properly, or at all.

When we say we& #39;re not looking for NA, it& #39;s because poor planning and an inability to shelve it killed it. If you& #39;re writing about older college-aged mc& #39;s up to late twenties, safer to just call it Adult in your query.

I will add, NA does well online because methods of categorization differ from how physical bookstores shelve books. So there& #39;s a reason you see it actually used in self-publishing circles or webcomics, etc.