Young Adult
Teenage readers are the most perceptive audience in publishing. They will spot a false note immediately.
Our YA review covers voice authenticity, stakes, coming-of-age themes, pacing and the specific content and market considerations that define Australian and international YA publishing.
What our editors look for in Young Adult
- 1
Voice — authentic teen perspective without condescension
YA lives or dies on voice. Teen readers are the most sophisticated audience in publishing when it comes to detecting inauthentic voices — adults writing what they think teenagers sound like. We assess whether the voice is genuine, consistent and honours the intelligence of its intended readership.
- 2
Stakes that feel genuinely teen-sized
A common error in YA is either over-inflating stakes (save the world) without grounding them in personal consequence, or under-inflating them (social drama only) without connecting to the larger arc. YA stakes should feel both personally urgent to the protagonist and universally resonant to the reader.
- 3
Identity and coming-of-age themes
YA is, at its core, about becoming. The best YA novels give readers a framework for understanding their own experiences of identity, belonging, family and first love. We assess whether the thematic content is handled with nuance and specificity rather than in generalised terms that will not resonate with the target readership.
- 4
Pacing — faster than adult fiction
YA readers expect faster pacing than adult genre fiction. Chapter lengths are typically shorter, sub-plots fewer, and the main narrative line clearer. We map pacing across the manuscript and flag where the story is moving too slowly for the genre — and where things are moving so fast that emotional moments are not being given room to land.
- 5
Age-appropriateness and content considerations
Content in YA exists on a spectrum from clean to mature. We assess whether the content of the manuscript is appropriate for its target age range, whether mature content is handled with craft and purpose rather than for shock value, and how the manuscript positions relative to publisher expectations for YA versus New Adult.
YA sub-genres we cover
“The voice in this manuscript is one of its strongest assets — specific, funny and consistent with a seventeen-year-old who is observant enough to see through the adults around her but not yet sure what to do with what she sees. The issue is that this voice disappears in chapters eight through twelve, where the prose flattens into more generic third-person narration. The chapters covering the family confrontation need to be rewritten from inside her perspective rather than hovering above it. The most important scene in the manuscript cannot be its least distinctive in terms of voice.”
First Light
Results in 15–30 minutes
- Full YA-specific editorial review
- Voice and age-authenticity assessment
- Stakes and pacing analysis
- Australian YA market notes
- 1 resubmission credit
Questions YA authors ask
What is the difference between YA and New Adult?
Young Adult fiction has protagonists typically aged 14–18 and is shelved in the YA section of bookshops. New Adult fiction typically features protagonists aged 18–25 dealing with post-school transitions, and tends to allow for more explicit content. The NA category is stronger in the US market than in Australia. We assess which category your manuscript more naturally belongs to and what the implications are for market positioning.
What word count is appropriate for YA?
Most YA novels run 60,000 to 90,000 words. YA fantasy and science fiction can run longer, up to 100,000 words for debut authors. YA contemporary tends to sit at the shorter end of the range, 60,000–75,000 words. We flag if your word count is significantly outside the expected range for your YA sub-genre.
Do you review YA with dual POV?
Yes. Dual POV is common and commercially successful in YA, particularly in romance-adjacent narratives. We assess whether both POV characters have genuinely distinct voices — one of the most common technical failures in dual POV YA — and whether the POV switches are being used strategically rather than for convenience.
What Australian publishers and awards are relevant for YA?
Allen and Unwin, Pan Macmillan and Text Publishing all have active YA lists in Australia. The Inky Awards and the Children's Book Council of Australia awards both have significant YA categories. Writing for children and YA programs are offered by the Australian Writers' Centre and SCBWI Australia. We include specific Australian market notes in every YA review.