Y is for Young Adult

Yep, going a rather easy route for today. Had planned to do this post earlier but had to go to work, anyways, let's talk about young adult stories.

I didn't read much young adult stuff as a teen. I read some in junior high (like books by the amazing Tamora Pierce) but in high school I moved to John Grisham, epic fantasy books and such. It wasn't until after college that I started reading YA more. And mostly it's because of the exposure I had to different books through twitter, blogs and online friends. YA has quite the online community and so I see those books far more often, though some adult ones get through.

While young adult books are popular right now (which is great) I do wonder when some writers who have never published something in the age range before suddenly puts out a YA novel. Sure, some might have had that idea for a long time and finally got the chance to do it. But some might be trying to catch on the YA trend, which I don't understand. If the novel idea is meant for YA then great, but I guess it seems weird to me to just write YA because they think that is what will sell. Guess I'm not on the selling end so don't quite get that viewpoint.

I didn't intend to write YA, as I discuss over on my Y post on my other blog, but I am not doing it because I think it will sell or because the genre is popular. The stories that caught my attention enough with their glitter and such just happen to be YA. (Okay, they don't really glitter or anything.) So, I just happen to be writing stories that are YA.

What do you think?
Is it okay to write because something is selling well?
Why write YA?