Market Report - Queer Young Adult Literature by Aimee Shaw

Queer YA

Queer YA is a sub-genre of YA literature. Although similar to YA in regards to the protagonist's age and inclusion of complex issues, queer YA differs in its focus on an LGBTQ+ protagonist.

Originating in 1969 with John Donovan's I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip, the genre's inception coincided with the height of queer activism.[1] Published weeks before the Stonewall uprising and at a time when same-sex relations were illegal in the US and criminal for under 21s in the UK, the book and many of the publications that followed mirrored the angst and issues facing queer youth.[2]

A long censored topic within literature, the rise of queer YA supports Michel Foucault's theory that the queer community had begun ‘to speak in its own behalf, to demand that its own legitimacy or "naturality" be acknowledged'.[3] With this in mind, this report will answer how societal acceptance has shaped the landscape of queer YA and secured it as a profitable and ever-growing genre in the market. It will also explore the impact queer YA has on the LGBTQ+ community.

Evolving Landscape

Due to the friction surrounding queer life, the initial queer YA texts primarily centred around the protagonist's struggle with sexuality, self-identity, parental and societal acceptance, and injustice. Although a realistic portrayal for many, William P. Banks argues that this custom is ‘reductive when rendered as a canon of available literature,’ as it reduces an LGBTQ+ person's life to the conflict of their sexuality.[4] Alongside this, within the first four queer YA publications—Donovan's I’ll get there. It Better Be Worth the Trip (1969), Isabelle Holland’s The Man Without a Face (1972), Sandra Scoppetone’s Trying Hard to Hear You (1974) and Mary W. Sullivan’s What’s this about Pete? (1976)—the protagonists had to wrestle with parental divorce, alcoholism, violence and death.[5] This ‘persistent twinning of homosexuality and hopelessness’, as argued by Hanckel and Cunningham, undoes the beneficial work of queer YA.[6]

Consequently, much of the contemporary queer YA narratives differ from this approach, and this change coincides with the rise in societal acceptance towards the LGBTQ+ community. According to Ryan Joe, this development came in 2003 with the publication of Boy Meets Boy and now, the conflict of queer YA rarely concerns sexual identity.[7] Predominantly, contemporary queer YA narratives reject the propensity of popular culture to place differing sexualities as other—such as the queer-normative depiction in C. S. Pacat’s Captive Prince (2013).[8] By positioning ‘queerness [as] immutable’, it, instead, allows the audience to escape to a world where queer existence is not up for interrogation and is not dependant on the permission of others.[9]

Impact and Audience

Although the LGBTQ+ community has witnessed a rise in societal acceptance and legal reform, only 46% of queer people feel that they can openly talk to their families about their sexualities.[10] Therefore, with more rounded characters and plots that renounce the requirement for sexuality as a conflict, queer YA offers its audience a window into a more accepting world. Also, by rejecting out-dated stereotypes and, instead, authentically portraying queer, the genre strengthens the representation of the LGBTQ+ community.

Employing Judith Butler's theory that representation functions to either ‘reveal or […] distort’ assumptions, the dismissal of stereotypes, combined with the alteration of narrative conflicts, distorts the socially perceived visuals and comprehension of LGBTQ+ and advances societal acceptance.[11] GLAAD also reinforce this by publishing numerous studies that attest to the link between inclusive and accurate content and its ‘significant effect on’ the audience's perception of LGBTQ+.[12]

Although targeted towards young adults, adults account for 55% of the YA readership.[13] This opportunity to reach a larger demographic lends itself to the notion that ‘YA is a growth area’ for booksellers and publishers.[14]

Sales and Publishers

Demand for queer literature has risen exponentially in recent years, and between 2013 and 2016, sales increased by 225%.[15] According to Hachette, within this category, the demand and sales of queer YA observed the most increase.[16] Originally a niche market, backed primarily by small presses, many mainstream publishers have begun to invest heavily in the genre.

Responding to the demand for LGBTQ+ representation in YA books, mainstream and major publishers have almost tripled their publication of queer YA since 2013.[17] With Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster all engaged in the genre, mainstream publications of queer YA have observed a ‘522% increase’.[18] They have also almost doubled their average yearly publications since the 1990s, and the number continues to grow.[19]

Pride Month and Social Media

During pride month, publishers and distributors focus their advertisements and campaigns on LGBTQ+ inclusion.[20] From Waterstone's ‘celebrating pride in books’ to Penguin's pride month reading list, they dedicate their advertisements to queer history and publications and, thus, increase the traffic and audience for queer YA.[21]

Alongside this, the campaigns ordinarily run alongside the social media hashtag #pridemonth. With Instagram recording ‘116 million interactions’ on the hashtag in 2015, the pride month campaigns broaden the audience for queer YA,[22] and as social media platforms are mostly frequented by the 16-24 age group, this promotion reaches both the intended audience of queer YA and its adult readership.[23]

Challenges

Despite a growing tolerance towards the LGBTQ+ community and the resulting rise in queer YA sales, the genre has not been without its challenges. In 2019, eight of the ten books on the American Library Association's Top 10 Most Challenged Books list featured queer content.[24] The reasons given were varied, but ranged from the effect of the content on young people to the opinion that queer narratives represent the ‘deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young’ readers.[25]

The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused an issue for publishing and sales, as bookstores and libraries have closed down due to a lack of funding and caused book sales to plummet. However, despite the uncertainty, fiction sales ‘rose by a third’ during the first lockdown,[26] and, unlike many other genres, YA observed a 6.4% increase in sales compared to 2019.[27]

Conclusion

With publishers and authors intent on responding to the demand for authentic LGBTQ+ portrayals and diverse conflicts, the publication averages and sales of queer YA continue to grow. Moreover, with awards and competitions run annually by several organisations, such as the Lambda Literary Award and the Stonewall Book Award, the genre and its diversity strengthen. Also, partnerships between Bonnier Publishing USA and GLAAD, who pledge to publish at ‘least four titles [a year] for young readers’, only seek to increase the queer YA genre.[28]

Ultimately, with increased advocacy for queer rights and representation and the rise in societal acceptance that follows, the genre is only set to expand further and rightfully cement its place as a strong contender within the current literary market.

SOURCES

[1] John Donovan, I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip (Harper, 1969).

[2] Steven Dryden, ‘A short history of LGBT rights in the UK’, The British Library. Available from: https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories/articles/a-short-history-of-lgbt-rights-in-the-uk# [Accessed 3 March 2021].

[3] Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume One: The Will to Knowledge, trans. by Robert Hurley (Penguin, 1990), p.101.

[4] William P. Banks, ‘Literacy, Sexuality, and the Value(s) of Queer Young Adult Literatures’, The English Journal, 98 (2009), 33-36 (p.35), JSTOR. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40503258 [Accessed 25 February 2021].

[5] Isabelle Holland, The Man Without A Face (J. B. Lippincott, 1972); Sandra Scoppettone, Trying Hard to Hear You (Harper & Row, 1974); Mary W. Sullivan, What’s this about Pete? (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1976); Derritt Mason, ‘Introduction: Notes on an Anxious Genre: Queer Young Adult Literature and Culture’, in Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture (University Press of Mississippi, 2020) pp.3-26 (p.3).

[6] ibid.

[7] David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003); Ryan Joe, ‘LGBTQ Lit for Children and Teens Comes of Age’, Publishersweekly, 07 June 2016. Available from: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/70579-lgbtq-lit-for-children-and-teens-comes-of-age.html [Accessed 16 February 2021].

[8] Diane Raymond, ‘Popular Culture And Queer Representation: A Critical Perspective’, in Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader, ed. by Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez (Sage, 2003) pp.98-110 (pp.103-104), Google Scholar. Available from: http://readingqueer.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Popular-Culture-and-Queer-Representation1.pdf [Accessed 19 November 2020]; C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince (Gatto, 2013).

[9] Mikaella Clements, ‘'Why would I close the door to a queer person?' LGBTQ fantasy comes of age’, The Guardian, 14 January 2020. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/14/lgbtq-sex-fantasy-fiction-books [Accessed 26 February 2021].

[10] ‘LGBT facts and figures’, Stonewall, 8 March 2016/ Available from: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/media/lgbt-facts-and-figures [Accessed 3 March 2021].

[11] Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Routledge, 1999), pp.3-4.

[12] ‘Introduction’, GLAAD, 2021. Available from: https://www.glaad.org/sri/2019/introduction [Accessed 24 March 2021].

[13] Caroline Kitchener, ‘Why So Many Adults Love Young-Adult Literature: Over half of today’s YA readers are over the age of 18.’, The Atlantic, 1 December 2017. Available from: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/why-so-many-adults-are-love-young-adult-literature/547334/ [Accessed 16 February 2021].

[14] Andrew Forster, Manager of Waterstones Truro, Conversation with Aimee Shaw (21 October 2019).

[15] ‘Sales growth of books in the United States from July 2013 to June 2016, by genre’, Statista, July 2016. Available from: https://www-statista-com.ezproxy.falmouth.ac.uk/statistics/699580/book-genre-sales-change/ [Accessed 16 February 2021].

[16] ‘Important Milestones in LGBTQ Publishing’, Hachette Book Group, 2021. Available from: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/articles/important-milestones-in-lgbtq-publishing/ [Accessed 15 February 2021].

[17] Malinda Lo, ‘LGBTQ YA by the Numbers: 2015-16’, malindalo.com, 12 October 2017. Available from: https://www.malindalo.com/blog/2017/10/12/lgbtq-ya-by-the-numbers-2015-16 [Accessed 3 March 2021].

[18] Alaina Leary, ‘Where Are All The YA Books About Queer Girls?’, Bustle, 17 June 2019. Available from: https://www.bustle.com/p/young-adult-books-about-queer-girls-are-on-the-rise-but-theres-still-so-much-to-be-done-17992777 Accessed 16 February 2021].

[19] Mason, p.4.

[20] Pride month is a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community that commemorates the Stonewall uprising.

[21] ‘Celebrating Pride 2020’, Waterstones.com, 2020. Available from: https://www.waterstones.com/campaign/Pride [Accessed 16 February 2021]; ‘There’s a Book for That: Pride Month Fiction’, global.penguinrandomhouse.com, 3 June 2020. Available from: https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/theres-a-book-for-that-pride-month-fiction/ [Accessed 16 February 2021].

[22] Olivier Laurent, '35 Million People Shared Their Pride on Instagram This Weekend’, Time, 30 June 2015. Available from: https://time.com/3942588/instagram-pride-weekend/ [Accessed 2 March 2021].

[23] ‘Share of respondents who had their own social network profile in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2015 to 2019, by age*’, Statista, June 2020. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/271879/social-network-profile-creation-in-the-uk-by-age/ [Accessed 24 March 2021].

[24] ‘Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists’, American Library Association. Available from: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 [Accessed 16 February 2021].

[25] ibid.

[26] ‘Coronavirus: Book sales surge as readers seek escapism and education’, BBC News, 26 March 2020. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52048582 [Accessed 16 February 2021].

[27] Jim Milliot, ‘Trade Publishing Segment Shines in a Flat 2020’, publishersweekly, 25 February 2021. Available from: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/85666-trade-publishing-segment-shines-in-a-flat-2020.html [Accessed 2 March 2021].

[28] Emma Kantor, ‘GLAAD and Bonnier USA Partner on Publishing Program’, publishersweekly, 17 May 2018. Available from: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/76903-glaad-and-bonnier-usa-partner-on-publishing-program.html [Accessed 16 February 2021].

Words by Aimee Shaw

Image from Unsplash

Edited by Emily Gough