With the explosion of the Young Adult literature market, publishers are scrambling to meet the demand for more Twilight-esque reading material. The high school-aged protagonists in YA are attracting a much wider aged audience. St. Martin’s Press has noticed the interest twenty-something readers have for series like Twilight (Stephanie Meyer), House of Night (P.C. & Kristin Cast), The Mortal Instruments (Cassandra Clare), and Vampire Academy (Richelle Mead). Seeking to cash in on our rapacious reading appetite, St. Martin’s has branded this audience “New Adults” and seeks to publish books with coming of age stories specifically targeted at the twenty-something demographic. Protagonists will be “older teens” AKA college-aged or early twenties. Themes are finding one’s place in the world and discovering oneself.

The complete details of St. Martin’s Press submission contest can be found on Georgia McBride’s blog here. The contest begins Monday, November 9 and ends Friday, November 20, 2009.

I applaud St. Martin’s effort to publish books specifically aimed at my demographic, even as part of me feels that “new adult” sounds like “adult with training wheels.” Dorchester Publishing’s recently closed SHOMI line was also targeted to twenty-somethings. I liked SHOMI, so I’m glad another publisher seeks to fill the void.

The majority of heroines in Urban Fantasy and Romance are twenty-somethings seeking to define themselves and find their place in the world. They are starting new jobs, trying to make it on their own, discovering adult relationships for the first time. Even the hundred year old vampires, like Edward, struggle with these issues. How, then, will the “New Adult” market be different? I suppose I haven’t read many books where the protagonist is actually in college, except for Tom Wolfe’s I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS. Maybe I’m thinking of protagonists in graduate school, like Karen Marie Moning’s Highlander heroines.

In other news….Harlequin announced today a new digital-only publishing house called Carina Press with Angela James (former executive editor at Samhain) holding the reins. I look forward to seeing what they produce.