This isn’t a new debate, but what’s got me thinking about it recently are two main things:

1. Julia Lawrinson’s Losing It, which is frank, honest, groundbreaking (and beautifully written) exploration of female sexuality
2. Hardie Grant Egmont’s Commissioning & Managing Editor Marisa Pintado’s speech at The Emerging Writers’ Festival publishing trends session, where she explored the new genre of ‘New Adult’

For those unaware, the theory is New Adult follows on from where YA drops off and covers issues facing those in early to mid-twenties: sex, drugs, alcohol, university, graduate jobs, relationships, independence and so on.

Those issues deemed too old for traditional YA, but too young for adult books.

This is something I think about a lot, especially when I hear rumours of publishers who might change details of a manuscript to fit either YA (lowering ages, removing some of the more ...

Self-published writers, or ‘indie’ writers as they refer to themselves are, are a growing bunch. Many writers are now by-passing traditional publishers to do it themselves. Is this the future? Are writers becoming so disillusioned with publishers that they have to do it themselves? And what do you call a self-published person? An author? A writer?

Titles and labels mean a lot to me. I love them. In relationships, I feel safe knowing where I stand (are we a casual fling? Am I your girlfriend? Are we in an open relationship?). In life, to know my role (I’m a daughter, employee, boss, sister and many more).

In writing, I find many labels are slapped on by the person instead of given by a company or someone else. You might have noticed the use of the word ‘writer’ instead of ‘author’ above, however ...