Big Five Publishers Launch Dedicated 'New Adult' Imprints

Four of the Big Five publishers have launched imprints devoted to 'new adult' fiction, a category for readers aged 18–24. St. Martin's Publishing Group introduced Saturday Books in 2024 as a sibling to its YA imprint Wednesday. Other imprints include Berkley XO (Berkley and Penguin Young Readers), Requited (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), and Scarlett Press (Simon & Schuster), all founded in 2024. HarperCollins has invested in the category but lacks a dedicated imprint. These imprints aim to define a genre that has lacked consensus since its emergence 15 years ago. The lists are largely romance-oriented: Berkley XO's fall launch includes romantasies and a contemporary romance; Scarlett Press features formerly self-published romance authors Kayla Edwards and H.M. Wolfe. Entangled, an early New Adult imprint, saw success with the 2023 romantasy blockbuster Fourth Wing. Publishers emphasize New Adult as a category, not a genre, and see it as a response to readers aging out of YA. The term gained mainstream traction in the early 2020s via BookTok. Publishers are betting on the category's longevity beyond social media trends.