Caren Johnson Literary Agency

A few agent friends of mine and I’ve been discussing YA ever since the post Steph Kuehnert wrote about clarifying what YA is and what it isn’t. (Go here to read it.) I’ve been increasing my YA list steadily, but it’s been slow going. The reason for this is because I have very particular tastes in YA. What I really want are young women and men in their late teens and early twenties who are dealing with new or transitioning periods in their life. Their going to school, getting first jobs, dealing with girl/boyfriends and generally beginning to understand what life is. Though I’m past the age of high school and college, there is still part of me that identifies with this confusing interesting time of life. My tastes in YA directly reflect this. I adore Steph Kuehnert and Jenn Echols. Both of them highlight the funny and the painful experiences of growing up. The agents I spoke to had the same question as Steph, though. What is the difference between teen fiction and YA fiction and how do we know? A question like this means research and like any obsessive English major (or recovering English major) will tell you, it means buying more books than you can carry and reading them one after the other in huge gulping mouthfuls. It’s always struck me as interesting how clear something becomes when you’re exposed enough to it.

Now I read Ann Brashares (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series), Kristen Tracy (Lost It), Elizabeth Scott (Perfect You), Justina Chen Headley (North of Beautiful), Sarah Dessen (Just Listen, This Lullaby, The Truth about Forever), Laura Weiss (Leftovers, Such a Pretty Girl), Markus Zusack (The Messenger), Steph Kuehnert (I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone—had to see how it stacked up against the rest), and Jenn Echols (Major Crush, The Boys Next Door—again, had to see how they stacked up against the rest). I didn’t take notes as I read, but I did put down my immediate reaction in the back of the book after I finished. I laughed my head off after I read Lost It and re-programmed my ipod after reading Joey Ramone. I cried when I read Just Listen and I couldn’t stop shaking after Such a Pretty Girl. And I came away from all of these books with the feeling that the question Steph and my agent friends are asking isn’t what is a YA vs. teen book? The question is do the labels that the booksellers attach (YA/Teen/Tween) make a difference to readers. Will a reader not pick up a book because it’s in a certain section?

I think it’s harder for a reader overall to find books in a bookstore. Honestly there are so many that you’ll have to know what you’re looking for if you’re going to brave the sections. I think that it’s easier to have a giant section for all YA (using this as a catch-all phrase now for any book with a protagonist age 14-20) that is broken down into sub sections based on subject. The level of sophistication will differ per book, but I think the reader (and the reader’s parents) should have control over determining if a book is right for them or not. If we start trying to predetermine what is okay and what isn’t, we end up excluding some very interested readers. Of course I’m uncomfortable with the thought of a 14-year old reading a book like Such A Pretty Girl, mostly because it is so sophisticated and addresses some heavy topics. I’d rather they read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series or The Boys Next Door. But I remember back when I was 14 and devouring every V.C. Andrews book my mom had behind stacks of her textbooks on her bookshelf, I didn’t feel like I was reading something inappropriate. I just liked that the protagonists were in their teens and they always made it through the tough situations they were in. (I’m a happy ending kind of girl.)

As far as the labels of YA vs. Teen, I think they are outdated. YA came first as the catch-all phrase that defines every book for the 14-17 year old reader. Then the Teen label came along to include the older protagonists. But now that readers (and subjects) are getting more sophisticated, we’ll have to add another label. I think in the end we’re going to have to overhaul the whole system and redefine what the YA novel is.

Here at the agency we’re always striving for new and innovative ways to get the word out about our authors books. Check out this video about a guy trying to do the same thing—without really knowing what’s going on. I feel like most of my authors are like that and just wanted them to know that it’s better to start from somewhere than nowhere.

We’re expanding here at CJLA. We’re proud to welcome Rachel Downes as the newest member of the agency. She’ll be acting as an assistant to me and as a junior agent. She’ll start signing a few authors to start. Check out her bio below.

Rachel Downes is a junior literary agent at the Caren Johnson Literary Agency. She has a BA from Manhattan College in international studies and minored in economics and philosophy. She graduated as a member of Sigma Iota Rho, the national honor society for international studies students.

Rachel began as an intern for CJLA. She assisted on the following projects: Once Again to Zelda by Marlene Wagman-Geller (Perigee, November 2008), Where Am I Wearing? by Kelsey Timmerman (Wiley, November 2008) , The Old Fashioned Guide to Modern Girl Life by Jordan Christy (Center Street/Grand Central Publishing, Summer 2009), You Are So Undead To Me by Stacey Jay (Razorbill, Spring 2009), The Ex-Games by Jennifer Echols (Simon Pulse, Fall 2009), Skin Deep by Annaliese Evans/Anna J. Evans (Summer 2009), and The Briar Rose Series by Annaliese Evans/Anna J. Evans (Tor Books, beginning February 2009). She is looking to represent commercial and literary fiction as well as nonfiction in the following subjects: narrative, history, pop culture, humor, science, women’s studies and social science.

Rachel is a voracious reader and writer. She wrote for an independently-run student philosophy journal at her school, Praxis. She works closely with Caren to develop and nurture CJLA authors.