: Re: Are My Novels Middle-Grade or Young Adult? Having Trouble Figuring It Out I have written and thoroughly reviewed/edited three novels that I don't know if they would be marketed as Middle Grade
You haven't really provided enough details to make definitive calls for these, and to be honest you'd probably struggle to do that in the context of an SE question anyway. What I can do is give you some guidance on how you might be able to work out the classifications for yourself and see what we can do:
Reader Age: As a rough guide you're talking 8-12 for Middle Grade (MG) and 13-18 for Young Adult (YA)
Protagonist Age: Yes, as weird as it might seem to adult perspectives this matters to readers on the younger side of things. And in general kids will look to read slightly "up" - they prefer to read about characters who are similar enough in age that they can still identify with and relate to them but slightly older than they are right now. 10 year olds aren't generally interested in reading what 8 year olds are up to. So for the maximum appeal in a bracket the age of the protagonist should be right on the upper age of the bracket you're writing for or at most slightly over.
Length: Typically YA novels are going to be in the 50,000-75,000 range, whereas MG is going to be shorter, around 30,000-50,000. Fantasy works (for which dealing with kids going to the afterlife probably counts) can get away with being a bit longer to allow for world building.
Content: It probably goes without saying but MG stories need to be much more kid-safe than what would be permissable in YA. So no profanity, no graphic violence and no sexuality (you might get away with some chaste romance for older MG), in YA you can pretty much go to town - anything barring erotica is basically on the table.
Themes and Tone: The above content restrictions not withstanding that doesn't mean MG novels can't be a bit dark or scary, they generally will be looking to end on a hopefully if not happy note. The MG themes will generally be more orientated towards a immediate world - family, friends, daily life etc, and there doesn't tend to be much introspection or relection, YA will look wider and deeper, and the characters will look at themselves more. You can deal with darker themes and sadder endings.
OK let's see if we can classify your novels:
First Novel
OK, so the themes are pretty heavy - we're talking death, trauma, damnation, meaning of life. And it's a 20 year-old protagonist. This is not an MG book - it's older YA, possibly even "New Adult" - 18 to 20 is quite a leap in terms of life stage so depending on how the 20 year old was living life (before she died obviously) school kids may not be able to identify with her.
Second Novel
OK, so again heavy-ish themes (they die), again we've got some damnation/horror themes bubbling along. Pretty safe to say it's not an MG book, depending on how graphic it is you probably sit on the lower age-range of YA, maybe some advanced readers of MG age.
Third Novel
Hmm, again I'd go with younger YA - although the age of the protagonist may be an issue.
Fourth Novel
The only one that sounds to be MG to me.
As I cautioned earlier these aren't definitive - I don't have enough information and doubt I could have that without reading substantial portions of the books in question (and opinions do vary - there's no ironclad standard of what is or isn't MG/YA). But hopefully you can have a look at them yourselves and bearing this info in mind have a better idea.
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