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It's a logical, necessary adjustment that fits accordingly with the times. No pun intended…seriously. :D

About time! Amazon has finally created a "teen" category out of their children's section as well.

Now if I can only get on that NYT list! :-)

Awesome!

I love the change! What I think is even more telling is the idea that the ebook format will now be included in the equation—it feels like the list will be much more reflective of what is selling.

I like it, as they can be very different types of books. But there will be some interesting calls to make. I mean, the first part of the Harry Potter series are middle grade novels, while the latter books are basically YA. Do you split that sort of thing up in the lists? Place them in one or the other? Both?

I saw the teen section pop up in Amazon but can't find it for KDP. Any clues?

As an author in this age group I approve

Progress, I hope! I'm a MG debut, and it's been an uphill battle just to get people to understand what MG means, let alone get noticed.

Yay! Maybe now there will be better awareness. I get the same blank stare and it makes my toes curl when I have to say "I write YA....yanno like....Twilight or Hunger Games." But the lightbulb finally flickers on.

It seems such an obvious thing; like it shouldn't be a new listing at all and that the separate lists would have been around a long time. Sure, there's some overlap between MG and YA (as there should be), but two lists for two quite different groups just seems something that should be automatic.

My only concern, as ever, is people inside the industry cooking up requirements for what should and should not be in MG or YA; trying too hard to enforce dubiously justified differentiations. I would like to think that the large numbers of adults that read YA books causes industry professionals to take pause with restrictions and requirements on category or genre. Overlap is inconvenient, but eliminating it makes for lesser books.

Verrry eeenteresting. I'm curious whether title competitions were involved, like the earlier split of the bestseller lists due to Rowling's domination, but nothing's on my radar there.

I write on the upper MG/lower YA borderline, so I wonder if the split will cause the categories to widen further and make things harder for those of us not working very clearly in one or the other. But eh, the industry is always in a whirl. And I'm all in favor of more awareness of the wonders of middle grade. ;)

Also, I'm with Natalie Whipple on the ebook point. It'll be especially interesting to see how much the ebook market affects children's lit.

That is fantastic for those of us who write MG! Thanks for the heads-up, Nathan!

I think that's fantastic for middle grade authors. We don't get enough attention and hopefully this will help spread the word for middle grade authors. More will be able to say they made the New York Times Best Seller list too.

That is totally wicked! And hopefully I will be on that MG best-seller list someday...

great idea...love a good list

Necessary! Wonderful! About time!

The next thing that needs to happen is a debut award for MG, like YA's Morris.

Old way: Up to 10 authors on the list.

New way: Up to 30 authors on the list (because they are expanding to 15).

What's not to like?

When I tell people (non-writing civilians) I write middle grade novels, I get asked if I mean that I write "so-so books." You know, not top-notch and not bottom of the barrel.
This category used to be known as "chapter books" a term which is now reserved for very young middle grade.
Anything to raise awareness.

Yay! I am writing middle grade and am glad for the distinction. Thanks NYT (and Nathan for posting the news).

I love that idea, mostly as a reader. My daughter is 8 and it helps to have the distinction. She is NOT ready for the themes of YA. MG is perfect. (And she loved Jacob Wonderbar FYI)

While I doubt it will help with public perception of MG, I think it is a great idea!

about time... funny how we praise people for doing what should've been done a while back....

Great news! MG rocks. I get that same blank stare.

I think we should just split the children — particularly the annoying ones.

Seriously though (because, of course, the idea of splitting children, particularly with an axe, is just a joke) this ought to bring clarity to the situation.

Finally! This is a great change!

As the parent of an 8-yo boy who is an avid reader, I think it's an awesome change and can't wait to see it!

I wonder if this reflects a trend towards greater sales in the YA and MG categories?

Interesting how little the general public, our ultimate customers, care about the hair-splitting distinctions that can preoccupy us writers.

This is such welcome news for middle grade books! Woot!

I think it's wonderful for both MG authors and that the NYT is keeping up with changes in books and publishing. It's a good sign.

A non-writer asked me a few years back what I was writing, and I said, "A middle grade adventure story." She looked horrified and replied, "Oh come on, you're more talented than that. You should show more confidence in your writing."

It was several minutes after the conversation was over and we'd parted that I realized she had misunderstood "middle grade" to mean "mediocre."

Is this change at NYT a good thing or not? Eh. It's a thing.

I just hope it doesn't turn out like another Amazon bestseller list. Those things amaze (and entertain) me. There seems to be a bestseller list for everything over there...and don't ever think those things are truly depicting sales. They don't mean a thing. So I hope the NYT keeps it real.

Great! A little late, perhaps, but great!

As a YA author, I have similar issues... When I tell people YA or teen, they think middle grade.

Okay, they don't think the words "middle grade" unless they are in the business, but that's the kind of story they think of....

Lovely, Beth. I cannot wait to read Small Damages.

Wonderful. My nana was my inspiration and I miss her still after 15 years

I very much look forward to reading this!

I'm on my way to read your essay. It's so special when writers share their root passions!

I loved this so much. Both your relationship with your grandmother and Kenzie's relationship with Estela show me something I wish I had more of, but really helped me appreciate the one relationship I had like this. Reflecting back on it sheds a bit of light on perhaps why I tend to gravitate toward friends who are in the generation of my grandmother's age group. There's a knowledge and kindness from these incredible women that you simply can't find elsewhere.

Loved your piece. So much. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reflect on so many great memories. xo

Your psychology explanation is very perceptive. I like it.

In view of having raised three girls and then a boy, your theory works for me!

I am a teen services librarian and I have noticed that in youth, females overwhelmingly dominate library readership and participation in library-related events. For example, my teen summer reading club has 800 participants, and the participation breakdown is 70% / 30% females to males. So...perhaps it is just a matter of appealing to audience because more females are reading YA fiction than males.

I don't have an answer, only observations. I was at the YA Fest this past weekend in Easton PA and among 30+ YA authors, writing in every conceivable genre, there were maybe 5 male authors. Two of them, Charles Benoit and Jonathan Maberry write in more traditionally male genres - noir and horror - and with male protagonists. Jennifer Hubbard writes (amazing) YA contemp with male protags.
I guess the (non) point I'm making is about the audience that came out to see these authors at the free event. They reflected the gender of the authors proportionally - overwhelmingly female. Perhaps that's something to do with it?

Why are most nurses and most elementary school teachers female (and thus relatively underpaid)? Because the male-dominated society at large stupidly undervalues those professions. The more money, awards, and fame that accrue to YA titles, however, the more men will become interested. The Hunger Games and Harry Potter have got a lot of attention, which will begin to show up in more male YA writers in coming years. (So I’m a cynic.)

For a simplistic explanation of why there are more males in MG and women in YA: it all comes down to respective audiences' interest in romance versus exploding toilets.

It's an interesting theory -- I wonder if it explains in part the huge proportion of superhero comic book writers who are men?

Since I don't write MG or YA, I'll only speculate that for some women, that was their favorite time in their life. (team sports, mean girls, BFF, jockeying for position or for that captain of the team)

I think you're right about the psychology. Many adult women (not YAs) like to read YA, though I can't understand why. Nostalgia? (the same as some women can't understand why I love sci-fi and fantasy)

Interesting stats, but not surprising.

I completely agree with your comment that what men like at 12 is pretty much what they like at 32. But do you think industry definitions are driving what is available to readers? Or are reader's interests driving the industry? What of the 13 to 16 year-old boys who are more interested in science than vampire lust?

I'm wondering if perhaps the 12 year old child in us makes us write y/a or middle-grade. Whereas boys of that age were more sports minded and outdoorsy, girls stayed inside and read, imagined, and daydreamed. It's the child in me that loved y/a, middle-grade books and I was an avid reader from 6 on up.

I think women are naturally more in tune to kids because they tend to be the ones who raise them, and are therefore more aware of the nuances in their behavior, more interested in it, and therefpre have more to say on the subject whereas men tend to concentrate on more "grandiose" subjects.

"What guys like at age 12 is pretty much what they like at age 32."

I now understand my husband. Eureka!

Are they really all female authors?

Look at the romance genre, almost all of the authors of romance are women or have female pen names. If you are a man and you want to write for Harlequin, you need a female pen name.

If you're female and you write thrillers, then you might consider using a male pen name.

Didn't Rowling use her initials instead of her first name so that readers wouldn't know she was female?

So who is the target audience and what gender of the author's name sells more books to that audience?

So as the teen services librarian pointed out, %70 of teen readers are female, therefore I would expect 70% of the author's names, whether real names or pen names, to be female. So they are actually on the low side.

I don't see how Dune or LOTR are considered YA. I love many older YA books, like The Hobbit and A Wizard of Earthsea, but other than Harry Potter I feel that modern YA tends to talk down to kids, and I don't like that at all.

Interesting idea. Here's a couple of thoughts. When I was 11, I decided I wanted to be a writer. For all of sixth grade, I wrote a ton, and I read a ton all through elementary school. When I hit 12 and 7th grade, I didn't exactly stop reading, but I cut way back; I spent a lot more time out and doing things with my friends. As for what I read when I *did* read, it was almost-exclusively adult fiction, except for some of the staples like S.E. Hinton books and things assigned for school.

Maybe the boys who are reading are not reading YA books.

1. Your theory works for me.

2. A lot of women who would write "clean" romance write YA, because there is one line for "clean" (not inspirational) romance.I think more women write romance than men, so being boxed in could be part of it.

I just did a post related to this topic, so I'm not going to go back through it all here; however, I will add that I think this is a bottom up change and that over the next couple of decades we'll see women dominating more than just the YA field.

Woman tend to gravitate towards support groups within their endeavors. I think that in and of itself helps women in the YA genre. The YA market in Romance Writers of America is one of the fastest growing sub-chapters within RWA. Now I'm not trying to be an endorsement ad for RWA but the information writers are able to attain as a member is substansial as is the opportunity to pitch agents and editors who are seeking YA. The vast majority of members within RWA happen to be women. The YA market is such a no holds bar genre right now that authors are able to go places within fiction that they are unable to go in adult fiction. Also too, the romance genre in general tends to be stronger sales wise than other genres like horror, thriller and mainstream fiction. Even during economic downturns, the romance industry is still going strong. I believe that contributes to the strong sales by female authors in the YA genre. Just two weeks ago I was at the RWA National Conference, agents and editors were salivating over finding the next Stephenie Meyer or Suzanne Collins. As different as those two series are the thing they do have in common is a love triangle. I'm not saying that men can't write romance, take Nicholas Sparks for instance, but the vast majority of YA that have ended up on that list and were written by women, have romantic elements if not full blown romantic invovlement between the protagonists. Now when you get down to the psychology behind it, teenage girls fantasize about romance, the happily ever after, and such. When you look at The Hunger Games popularity among teenagers, as brutal as it it, Ms. Collins still weaves a love triangle in between Katniss, Peeta and Gale. And Ms. Collins makes you want Katniss to get a HEA even more because of how bad her life had been. Most YA that I have found that has been geared towards boys rarely has a romantic element to it. Boys by the time they hit 12 are usually playing more video games than reading as part of the cultural psychology of young boys. Whereas teenage girls tend to want to be included in anything their girlfriends are doing so when one of them says you have to read this book, then everyone within that circle of girls is reading it.

Great post!
Maggie Mae Gallagher

What guys like at age 12 is pretty much what they like at age 32.

Nathan, I'm the same age as you and I feel this is a backwards causality. Actually, before the explosion of YA, I too pretty much read the same types of books between ages 12-25. (I am female)

HOWEVER, more teens are reading YA now than I did because there is more YA to read. The genre wasn't as big back then.

And yes, most of it is paranormal romance that wouldn't appeal to guys. However, Hunger Games definitely had cross-over appeal.

I don't know why more women write YA, but I don't think it's because teen years are more or less formative for females than men. It may simply be that so many women are mothers and we see what our teens are going through. Or it may be that Twilight inspired so many women writers. Also, a lot of writers are following the trend: they may have previously chosen to write adult romance or women's fiction, but are now writing YA because that's what's selling.

Good post,

I would have to say it is the same reason most teachers are women. There is something about nurturing children, making them understand that we have all been there, and something in them that wants to help and teach. When it comes to kids and teens, women dominate the jobs that have to do directly. Counselors, social services, libraries (school), teaching, administration in schools, etc. So I think writing for kids is just a natural extension.

That and high school is about crushing on that hot guy or being nervous about asking that girl to the prom. It's the purest of love, without complication of career and age pressure. And girls love reading and writing about love. And every woman has that perfect high school love story in their head. So there is that too!

But that is my guess...by the way. I am a teacher, so this is where I'm coming from. :)

And yes. I write romance-ish stories for both YA and adult.:)

Carey has a point. I, too, am a teacher. At a Middle School in San Jose. And even though I am not the only male teacehr there, we are in the minority. Of the 12 principals I've had over the last 25 years, nine were women and three were men.

And interestinly, when I divulged to one of my fellow teachers recently, (a woman, btw) that my debut novel was going to be published this summer, she assumed it was a MG or YA book. She was nearly shocked when I told her that it was NOT for kids. KILLER OF KILLERS is not even remotely for kids.

I have no idea why this would be, but I think it's incredibly interesting. I wonder, though, if there are more women writing YA or only more women getting PUBLISHED in YA.I think the answer to that would help determine whether author-factors or publisher-factors are more culpable.

It's a good question. There's a part of me that thinks there's some truth to the Victorian notion that women retain childlike qualities throughout their life in a way men generally do not. As the primary caregivers to children, it makes evolutionary sense for women to be able to relate to children.

Also, as more men become stay-at-home dads and dads are expected to do more and more childcare, you see more this "man boy" cultural stereotype. For example, the new NBC show "Guys with Kids." Also, the existence of Paul Rudd, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, et al. Maybe evolution at work.

All that said, I feel I gravitate toward young protagonists because it's an interesting time in one's personal development. Things are raw and new and surprising and you're not set in how to cope with the world. You're making things up as you go along. Improvisation is fascinating to me, and what are your teen years other than one, giant improv comedy/tragedy sketch?

As a female writer, I didn't set out to write YA, it happened more because for the stories I write, the age group is a better set of actors. While they may be limited by parents, they also have a greater freedom of imagination, etc.

Mentally, if I think about some fantastical creature coming up to someone and saying "hey you, time to save the world" the cynical adult will just walk off and pretend they didn't see it, while a teenager is more inclined to at least pay attention and go along with it.

How many 30 year olds would just follow along with some fairy declaring them the hero of the world? :-P Not to say it can't be done (in one of my adult stories, even, I do have adults dealing with it, but also in a more "grounded" space of angels/demons versus more out there creatures).

I don't think it has anything to do with the "nurturing" side of women - I frankly dislike children. I don't write YA for them, the stories end up being YA because it is what is best for the story and characters :-P

Long aside past, as for why there are more female than male - good question. I think part of it is that YA does tend to be more "romantic", not necessarily romance, but the fantasy of going off to a far off world, etc is a romantic notion that appeals to both male and female readers but that men may not feel the urge to write about. Though I'd be curious to know - how many YA readers are male vs female, it may just be the authors writing to the audience, similar to romance novels.

When I was in the YA target audience, I had already skipped into "adult books". Or rather I had moved into genrely speaking into Science Fiction and Fantasy novels. My sister on the other hand did the pure YA thing.

She transitioned out of YA and into mainstream fiction sooner than I did. She had an easier time of it, and mostly looks back on those books as being silly.

While I took a lot longer and found it harder to transition out of genre fiction, when I did, I moved more towards literary fiction -- except in rare instances mainstream fiction bores me.

I seriously doubt my sister would ever pick up a "Sweet Valley High" book again. Or for that matter, anything similar. She is more Erin Morgenstern, Sara Gruen, Jennifer Close these days.

While I am more William Gaddis, Cormac McCarthy, Junot Diaz, Margaret Attwood. I will though, cheat and read something by Brendan Sanderson, John Scalzi, or Alastair Reynolds.

Growing up, given my Robert Jordan, Piers Anthony habit, I don't think I ever experienced anyone telling me anything other than "Grow up, those books are garbage." Which I think caused me to gravitate more towards serious books.

While I think my sister went through a more natural "Oh, those books are fine for a girl, she will grow out of them." comments about her reading.

I think you've got a good theory Nathan, and not one I'd heard before. I was at the SCBWI conference in LA last week, and chatted with a lot of YA authors, all of the women. Most of us seem to agree that middle school is a time we'd rather forget! (Though some women do gravitate to MG.) Middle grade shapes gals too, but first loves, learning how to keep your friends while turning more attention to the opposite sex, and then there's the separation from one's parents - the angst, the trauma, the drama - all great fodder.
For me, there was never a question of what age I'd write for. When I began to write, the voice that came out was a YA voice (and it continues to be). That's the younger part of myself I most relate to still. Maybe that's the way it is for a lot of other women.
Thanks for sharing this idea - it is intriguing.

Oh Nathan, Nathan. Seriously?? Women tend to write more YA because they believe YA are worthy of their time and attention. Men write fiction and it's 'literary fiction'. Women write fiction and it's 'chick lit, women's lit' etc. But in fairness let's not forget R.L. Stine and other men who also write because they think kids deserve good writing.

linda-

Ummmmm..... You know I'm a man who writes children's books right?

I admit I haven't read all the books on the two lists, so maybe it isn't fair for me to comment, but I will anyway: the lists are weird.

I have no idea why some books are on the lists at all, why some are on both lists, why some rank higher than others—why isn't China Miéville higher, for example—or what idiot ever decided that The Lord of the Flies was a YA book to begin with.

One reason for the disparity: marketing. A YA author commented that she (SHE) didn't set out to write YA, that's how she was classified. There is some sexism at work here. If a book is about a child and especially if it has a woman author, I suspect it's more likely to be classified as YA, regardless of the content.

Here's another: Rowling used her initials and a central male protagonist to sell her books. Girls will cross gender lines, but boys rarely do. That's why ALL the books I read as a child had male protagonists. This only began to change for me as I got older and could find books of the sort I wanted to read with girls in them.

But mostly, these are stupid lists. Many of my personal favorites are on both, but not all, not in the order I would place them, and sometimes on the wrong lists.

I agree with Michael G.G. Boys, even in high school, tend to enjoy the typically MG book themes (slapstick humor and adventure), whereas girls, even in elementary and middle school, tend to enjoy the older YA book themes (relationships, loss). My theory is that more girls are reading books targeted to older audiences and more boys are reading books targeting younger audiences, and the authors are responding to this trend.

From another perspective, my MFA creative writing for children and young adults program was 95% female. the question us got kept getting was "how do we get more men involved?"

therein lies another long conversation, but the fact that the NPR list came in with *as many* male authors as it did is perhaps better than it was in the past when men were predominantly the ones getting published.

I like your theory about formative creative years, but don't know the psychology behind it. I have, however, read many YA novels, and never really thought about breaking down the numbers by gender. I do know that one hundred percent were written by people, so, food for thought!

I find it interesting that females dominate the YA field, but what I find even more interesting is that they don't dominate anything else. In fact, they not only don't dominate, they are not fairly represented.

From the article, this caught my attention:

"The results are dismaying: after reviewing catalogs from 13 large and small publishing houses (and eliminating genre titles unlikely to be reviewed), she found that only one came close to gender parity, while the majority had 25 percent or fewer titles written by women".

25% or fewer? It's really hard for me to believe this is representative of the author gender breakdown. In other words, that only 25% of writers are women.

In some ways, the question that the Atlantic posed is telling. Where are the articles asking why MG is dominated by male writers? Why literary fiction is dominated by male writers? In fact, why every single other genre is dominated by male writers?


I think it will be very interesting to see if independent publishing opens the door for these statistics to change, since women will have full access.

I'm not giving you a hard time, Nathan, though, for posing this question. I think it's really interesting that women have broken through to dominate YA, and the debate here in the comments about the reasons for that are interesting. I just think the underlying issue behind the question is also very interesting.

I agree with Mira. So woman slightly dominate YA and probably romance genre too, but men grossly dominate the rest of the genres by 75%? Is that true?

I calculated the percentage of woman authors on the 100 top scifi that this blog post linked to, and only 15%of the authors were woman. So men dominated that genre by 85%.

I agree with Mira that a more interesting question is why are men still dominating literature in general.

Ye Gods, the stereotyping of women in the comment thread is depressing. Because of course we're all naturally more nurturing and interested in children than men! That's why we should, like, stay home and take care of the kids when they're small. Or why we're just more naturally suited to be teachers or nurses and stuff. It's the natural way of things, you guys! It's biology!

@Selene - As an explanation it also doesn't make sense, because they why do men dominate Middle Grade?

Thanks, Mary Anne. I also had to look at those stats twice. 25 percent seems so low! Interesting about the science fiction list.

I also wanted to add why I suspect women were allowed to breakthrough YA. I think it was because J. K. Rowling, and then Stephanie Meyer, were so successful. Alot of money made there, so it probably got associated with the gender of the writer with the genre.

Just a theory.

I hope this doesn't get me in trouble, but I think it's because of the large crossover between contemporary YA and romance. Paranormal romances are huge in the YA category and many of the YA books I read feature a pretty traditional romance at the center of the book. So it makes sense to me that a lot of the YA readers later graduate to contemporary romance, which dominates trade fiction in terms of number of titles published and (I think) overall share of the market. With boys, on the other hand, they begin to drift away from reading around middle school in general, so they read these MG novels, and then sadly many of them are done reading for a long time or they graduate to nonfiction and magazines.

I think Jan Priddy, Eva and Michael G. G. have addressed the real question: who is reading what? Who writes what is determined by who reads it. The publishing industry classifies books but the names of the classes do not necessarily reflect who is reading these books.

The significant differences in MG and YA seem to be age of the MC, vocabulary, sentence complexity and voice. Usually, girls read more and at a more advanced level. Hence, more girls would read YA and more boys would read MC. As the boys reading MC mature, they move on to adult books if they are still interested in novels. I also suspect there is a lull for teen boys where they are not reading much but the teen girls are reading more. After that, young men and women both move into adult books.

Good grief.

First of all 25% fewer women than men does not at all mean %25 of writers are women. If you have a hundred male writers, 25% fewer female writers is 75 women writers. If there are 50 male writers, 25% fewer would be 38 women. Not good at all, but no the the reactionary gender apocalypse that is implied in the comments.

Secondly I'm glad the Atlantic mentioned the Jodi Picault issue. She complained that women writers weren't being reviewed in the New York Times. Well what isn't mentioned is that VIDAweb.org did a survey of women reviewers, and while a lot of publications (the Atlantic included) were dismal regarding the number of women reviewers they hired. Jodi Picaults nemisis, the NYtimes rather well 48 women reviewers to 52 male reviewers.

That said if you are truly interested in gender equity, then YA's 63 percent of writers being women is not in any way healthy. The only healthy statistic is 50 percent.

Anon, you are quoting incorrect statistics. It was not 25 percent fewer women than men. It was 75 percent fewer women authors than male authors.

And it was measured over the entire publication listof 13 publishing houses.

The world does pretty much treat everyone unfairly, including most men. But it can treat some people even more unfairly than others.

I also want to mention this is not really about who reads or writes what type of genre. It's about who is chosen for publication in that genre.

I believe women dominate the YA field because more women are responsible for the care, feeding, and upbringing of the YAs. Women know what their (YAs)interests are and can better apply that information to writing publishable books.

Interesting post! I agree with many of the comments here, especially by Bobby Shafer (daydreaming girls as future writers) and Beth (YA often offers clean-er romance). I also wonder if its just this period of development--girls spend a lot time talking to their friends about boys, dates (or wishing they had friends to talk about these issues) etc, and reading these books might feel like they have friends. Many successful YA writers tap into girlhood/teenage angst (think Judy Blume!) I read a lot of YA myself, and it taps into my younger self. But I write mysteries, also dominated by women (at least the "softer" types).

Anon @ 10:55, you are right about the statistics. I should've read more closer. So it's about 43 % women writers which is much more reasonable.

But the low percentage of women writers represented in the top 100 Science fiction/fantasy list is still staggering.

MaryAnn, you have to go to the original article for the statistics. I'll quote it again:

"Ruth Franklin at The New Republic did her own analysis of the literary glass ceiling. The results are dismaying: after reviewing catalogs from 13 large and small publishing houses (and eliminating genre titles unlikely to be reviewed), she found that only one came close to gender parity, while the majority had 25 percent or fewer titles written by women."

Of the 13 house reviewed, for 12 of them, 75% were male authors.

Unless there is something I'm missing, Anon's statistics are not correct.

I think it may just be hard to believe it! :)

Philip Heckman, Munk, and Diana bring up some valid points.

I'd say the bottom line is where the interest lies for the writer.

Nathan points out that SciFi is lower on the list for female writers. Is this just a lack of general interest in gismos and technology? I want to write about a theme park of dinosaurs! Rawr!

YA tends to have more of a leaning toward young love and first relationships. You look at something like Twilight -- it's not really about vampires (if you can even really call them vampires--She changes canon). It's about young love.

Maybe females just like to write about young love more than males? And we would rather write about dinosaurs riding the Tilt-O-Whirl.

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Thanks And Regard

If it's a temporary or contemporary trend - perhaps the influence and inspiration of Madelaine L'Engle?

Also, developmentally, adolescence is the time when social intelligence is developing. Is it too much to suggest that in general women might have a leg up in that arena and that's what YA is really about?

Some intrepid male author may pioneer a form in which young men can read about all those things that they largely lack in contemporary society - the initiations into manhood specifically as opposed to mere, and delayed, maturity.

Unless that's already been done - and the secret is that adult fantasy/sci-fi is actually all adolescent fare. :)

I wonder how many of the female YA authors on the list have children, and how old those children were when they wrote their successful books.

I think you're right on the male MG author psychology. It's easy for an adult male author to identify with middle school boys. I've noticed that especially as a youth coach--before 6th grade, they're little kids. In middle school, you can start joking around with them, but you're still someone they look up to. As they get older, they act and think more like adults-in-training. Connecting with our inner juvenile, in that sort of safe, middle-grade fiction way, is fun for adult males.

One of the reasons I settled on YA, however, is that my boys have always "read up" and read a lot of YA when they were younger (10 to 12 years old). It's easy, as a father, coach, and other youth group leader, to connect with my target audience. While being a parent is no more a requirement to write YA than being an elf is a requirement to write good fantasy, I think it probably makes for an easier path. Especially for moms who have another breadwinner in the household--there's a very deep connection to the target audience, and those writers probably spend a lot of time already telling stories to children.

Just a thought. Overall, I don't really think it matters much. But it's fun to speculate.

This could have a connection with the education we each receive. Reading the comments, I think we all agree that women are more and more dominating the areas of early education, and top students. The stat of 60% of students in college being women has some bearing all the way back to middle school. Girls are taught at an early age to be literate, to read, to succeed in academia. Boys more and more are being taught that the most lucrative and rewarding venture they could have is swinging a bat or catching a football (I say this in full knowledge of my self-love of football). But young adults read what they can connect to. And in a broad general sweeping sense, women can write better women characters than men can.

Just got done camping for four days at a Scout camp with my son.

Found this in my email. Extremely interesting observation, I think.

But when is the last time someone actually looked at the fact female writers (in my estimation), and women in modern publishing, in fact, outnumber males now?

This has been a running theme, in fact, on some blogs where the prize winners are calculated for "literature" versus "YA" or the euphamistically termed "chick-lit."
As if, if it is written by a woman, it can't possibly qualify as "lit," on its own. It must have its own category.

Why, in fact, are most Pulitzer and other major literary award winners men? Do they actually write better books than, say, Jane Austen?

And then, to go beyond who writes, and who publishes (agents, acquisition editors, etc), a study could and perhaps should be done on who, exactly, demographically--and not by guessing or opinion--is reading what these days?

J.K. Rowling's popularity isn't merely from kids reading her Harry Potter series. It's also from Scholastic taking a chance on her stories, and from teens to adults liking her stories as well--it's own "Lord of the Rings" phenomenon, for a new generation.

I laugh at any concern this might cause anyone. If more men read, more men likely will write. It's possible men may write something men might like to read, just as its possible women might write something women like to read. Or that men write something women like to read (50 shades of grey?) or that women write something men like to read.

As for the prevalence of women writing and publishing more YA than men...hahahaha. Like I said, someone should check to see the sheer number of women writing versus men; the number of women in the publishing industry versus men, and perhaps, the greater awareness of kids' tastes for "classic" YA versus middle-grade YA? Or even (shudder the thought) why there ever was a YA genre devised, considering most of us were reading "classic YA" like Jack London's stories and Hemingway and Fitzgerald in high school, before someone decided they were too deep or too well written or whatever for high school kids and decided they'd be better off and safer with the likes of "Mockingbird" or "Hunger Games"

As a female writer, I'm honestly just glad to hear we dominate any area of fiction! I thought the men dominated in all genres, so this is great news to me, esp. considering my critique partner thinks my book should be YA not middle-grade (as pitched). Yay!

Oops, forgot to sign my post.
Yvette Carol

This is what happens when the publishing industry is, in general, not as interested in female writers as male ones. Women who want to write gravitate to genres where they are more likely to be successful, and because the "important" genres are ones where male authors dominate, women end up writing in the ones that aren't seen as important. YA was given very little attention until recent years and wasn't seen as a "serious" genre. So it was just easier for a female author to break into that part of the industry.

I disagree with a lot of the other explanations being offered here. YA is more romance-focused so women tend to write it more? I think that gets the causation backward -- YA isn't inherently about romance, it's that a lot of YA authors (most of them women) decided to put that element into their books. And if the issue was that women are more "in touch" with teens because they do more childcare -- well, that's even more true of younger children, but men are still dominating in that publishing category.

And Nathan, I think your explanation misses the mark as well. In general, I'm skeptical when people posit an explanation for something like this that is based on the assumption of an inherent difference between men and women. It's too easy to assume that explains things when in reality there's usually a simpler, more concrete social factor (like the publishing industry's resistance to female authors).

Think of it this way: even if most women would say their high school years were most formative to them, and most men would say their middle school years were, presumably both men AND women think that adulthood is an important time in their life. But in almost every category of literature focused at adults, male authors vastly outstrip their female counterparts. That suggests that the distribution of successful authors isn't about author-interest nearly as much as publisher-interest.

Women read more fiction than men. Also, a lot of stay at home moms read a lot with their kids, so this might breed some story ideas.

Most guys I know read lots and lots of non-fiction, save for the gamers that will read tons and tons of fantasy novels.

Terin and Anon 8 a.m. Good points!

So, just to double-check, I went back to the article about the original research re. the 75% male/25%female ratio. I should mention that they don't consider the research conclusive or necessarily representative cross-industry because it excluded genre and commercial books, as well as having a small sample size. (Important point here, since many readers of Nathan's blog write and read commercial or genre).

The point of the research was to find out if the number of books (written by women) being reviewed reflected the gender breakdown of publication of books (likely to be reviewed).

So, they focused on book genres that are likely to be reviewed, and the 75%/25% reflects that.

Here's the link to the research, if anyone is interested:

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/82930/VIDA-women-writers-magazines-book-reviews/

I honestly think that it's just what happens to be "in" right now. Lots of focus on the romance. I know plenty of male authors in different genres that are not "in" at the moment, like sci-fi/fantasy for teens. They are known among kids who like to read that stuff, but I don't know if they would make it to the top 100 list when they have to compete with Twilight, The Hunger Games, and all the spin-off titles.