For example, I was reading Don Winslow’s: *The Force*, it’s obvious that his main demographic is for adults as the main protagonist is a detective along with the subject matter regarding police corruption and vocabulary used especially regarding law enforcement in this case, along with the font size not being ‘large’ but legible, another indicator on how if a book is made for either kids, teens or adults is the age of the protagonist and supporting characters, if their age is not specified in the book, you can still get a gist on how old they may be based on hints regarding their profession mentioned in the text for example, *he’s been promoted to Lt. Cmdr.* versus *she’s still in middle school*, you get the picture.
Secondly, if the protagonist or supporting characters have an full time occupation while talking using more advanced or complex vocab then it’s likely they are adults or if its a part time occupation while in high school with slang thrown in – they are teenagers, however if there is no mention of their line of work as in they are still at school along with them speaking in a simplified manner regarding their choice of vocab, it’s likely that the character is a kid.
The subject matter discussed from the text also contributes to the age demographic a book can be, even if it’s a dark topic for kids as a way to make them aware, it’ll be heavily adjusted for them to understand while not being too graphic or detailed as opposed to older audiences since they’ll dive deeper as the author at that point expects the reader to have an sound mind along with prior knowledge of the topic in hand on top of being exposed to harder vocab kids cannot understand.
Kids books tend to be happier for the most part, though there are children’s books that can contain darker elements, however they are adjusted in a way that does not scare them or freak them out, for parental guidance. YA books for teens – it varies based on genre, some have happy or positive tales while some are the opposite: covering either controversial or sensitive subjects like LGBTQ or mental health. Books for adults are broad, since there are too many genres to list from, but the most popular genres are crime, romance, or thriller.
by No_Pomegranate7134
2 Comments
When you say ‘classification’, do you mean marketing? Because books don’t have a classification in the same way that films do.
And marketing is just… marketing. It doesn’t necessarily mean a book was written “for” that audience, only that the publisher thought the book would make the most money if they stuck it in this particular section of the bookstore. There’s only a very tenuous connection there as to who “can” or “should” be reading the book.
Marketing to different age groups is really something that publishing has only come up with in the last fifty years or so. It’s a comparatively recent phenomenon in the history of literature.
I’m not really sure what you’re asking. Do you want to know if I was blindly given a book to read, would I come up with the same age recommendation as the publisher? Probably not always. Picking a target demographic to market to is something publishers do for sales and not necessarily representative of what’s inside the book.
Lately I’ve seen a lot of books on social media gain popularity that are written with the style and complexity of YA, but maybe themes for a bit of an older audience.