One of the constant dilemmas during the writing of my current book has been: Is it Young Adult (YA) or Middle Grade (MG)?
At first, I had intended it to be YA, pitching its readability and adventurous plot complexity along the lines of the SF & Fantasy that I had read as a kid. Not a problem I thought. Then, as my research into the market got deeper, I began to worry that I had blundered into the MG category instead. Still not a problem, except was my language too adult? Was my page count too large? At 90-100K, I was well above the 60-80K recommended for MG.
So that's when I decided to find out once and for all where I stood. It's not a cut-and-dry distinction (nothing ever is), but a clear picture formed from my research:
Ruthanne Reid explains it succinctly: It's all about the perspective of the protagonist: In MG, the protagonist is more inwardly focussed, concerned with how the events of the novel relate to her, and less about the big picture or future implications. In YA, the protagonist is more worldly, capable of assessing the impact upon those around her, and the world itself. She is more likely to become pro-actively involved in events, influencing their outcome with a perspective wider than herself.
In MG, the protagonist probably becomes a hero through chance and self-preservation. In YA, heroism comes more from helping or saving others.
Babette Reeves has a similar commentary.
YA Highway discusses this and other criteria, such as romance, age and more adult material.
The romantic tone of my book doesn't concern me at this time; I have nothing more than some subtle hints. But I expect to deal with these issues more in the 2nd and 3rd books of this trilogy.
The final criteria that I cared about was age. Typically, the hero should be a few years older than the reader. I think I'm breaking the rules here, since my heroine is 12 and yet my audience is probably 10-14. I'm not sure how editors and publishers are going to react to this yet, but two of my readers are 12 and 14, and both are enjoying the characters and plot, so hopefully I'm not horribly off track.