Fountain of Knowledge

Young Adult/Middle Grade for those of you not 'in the know'

First off - if you haven't figured out yet that our genre discussions aren't always specifically about genres, this is your heads up (and probably not the last I'll give )

To me, the Young Adult/Middle-Grade markets aren't genres, they are markets. Any genre falls within them (though your odds of selling erotica or anything graphic to these markets is low).

But beyond that...some of the things I'm wondering about - how do you define either of these categories? What makes a story YA/MG as opposed to not? And...this is a discussion I heard a long time ago but have not since. Is there actually a need to set the stories apart from other stories? Tweens and teens read adult fiction. Adults read YA/MG fiction. Does there need to be a distinction?

And of course, add anything else you'd like.