There’s a new imprint at Penguin Random House UK called Dusk.
It launched today. First books this fall.
It’s a new-adult crossover list. Romance at the center. Fantasy welcome. Built for readers who do not stay in their lane—people who bounce between YA, new adult, and adult without asking permission first.
Carmen McCullough is publisher. Amina Parchment-Youssef is editorial director.
McCullough’s said this:
Some of the most exciting energy in publishing is coming from readers who don’t see themselves—or their tastes—in traditional categories. They move between YA, new adult, and adult. Between romance and fantasy. They find books through friends, creators, and online communities.
That is not a vibe statement. That is a buying statement.
If you have been told your book is “too old for YA and too young for adult,” or “too romantic for fantasy” or “too fantastical for romance,” this is the industry finally naming the shelf you’ve already been writing toward.
A few things to consider:
1. This is UK, not a US imprint clone.
Do not rewrite your query tomorrow as if every New York house just opened the same door. Watch what they acquire. Watch how they package. Watch whether the US houses follow or ignore this.
2. “New adult” is not a free pass.
It still needs a spine. Voice. Heat or wonder that earns the page count. A protagonist who is becoming, not just wandering. If the only new-adult thing in the manuscript is the character’s age, that is not enough.
3. Romance at the heart does not mean “add a kiss in chapter twelve.”
If they say romance is the heart, they mean the relationship is load-bearing. The plot should bruise when the relationship bruises.
4. Crossover is a reader behavior, not a marketing trick.
The readers they want already exist. BookTok, Discord, group chats, fan spaces. The imprint is trying to meet those readers where they already live. That is good news if you understand your book’s actual community. It is noise if you don’t.
5. First titles this fall means the list is being built now.
You will not see a full picture until those books exist in the wild. Covers, comps, author notes, and where they sit in shops will tell you more than this announcement.
If this news seems like it’s for you, here are some things to think about as you prepare a strategy.
First, don’t panic and rewrite your entire book just because of this announcement. 🙂
• Write down, in one sentence, which category fight your book keeps losing. Have you been told that your book is too (?) or not enough (?)?
• Write down who your book is for. Not “women 18–34.” Actual people. The friend who DMs you voice notes. The reader who reads romantasy at 2 a.m. and literary fiction on Sundays.
• Keep your book honest. If Dusk (or a US cousin) is the right home later, it will be because the book was already itself.
I have spent years watching writers shrink a manuscript to fit a box that was never built for it. Then watching the market slowly build the box afterward.
Do not shrink.
Finish the true version. Learn the language of this list. Then decide whether it is your door.
We’re not chasing imprints.
We just might be writing the kind of story an imprint has to invent a name for.
Always cheering you on,
Brandy