Transgender Books in Transgender Packages: The peritextual materials of young adult fiction

The packaging of a book – its peritextual materials including front cover, blurb, acknowledgements, afterword, and author notes – provides information that can contribute to a potential reader’s decision whether or not to purchase, borrow, or read the story it encases. As such, the choices made by authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers regarding books’ peritextual features can offer important insights into the spaces books are intended to occupy within their contemporary market. This article examines the peritextual materials of a broad range of British and American transgender young adult novels published in the twenty-first century, in the context of the We Need Diverse Books movement and Time ’s “transgender tipping point” which coincided in the mid-2010s. In doing so, it shows how the field of transgender young adult fiction has developed over the last five or so years to include more variety, intersectional diversity, and Own Voices authorship, as well as considering how the commercial packaging of various books might usefully signal the audience each is intended to attract. While a growing area of scholarship, existing research on transgender young adult novels has predominantly focused on the stories or their pedagogical function for teenage readers. Taking a different approach, this article asks how a selection of Emily Corbett is a PhD Candidate at the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, University of Roehampton. Emily is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Young Adult Literature and Vice President of the YA Studies Association.


INTRODUCTION
In Are the Kids Alright? (2013), B.J. Epstein analysed how, and to what effect, LGBTQ literature for young people was shelved in The Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, UK. Epstein was interested in the ways the paratexts of the books -a term she employs to refer to peritextual material, any stickers placed on books, and where the books are shelvedprovide keys to how texts are perceived and how they are intended to be used by readers (32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39). According to her findings, LGBTQ young adult literature was located within its own section of the library with the problematic effect of 'othering' the texts shelved within it. For Epstein, this placement "implies LGBTQ topics are specialised and must be purposely sought out" whilst also keeping "LGBTQ people and subjects separate from more general ones" (34).
To the same effect, the books themselves "encourage [d] the view that they are for a select group -usually those who belong to that minority but occasionally those who just want to learn more about that group" (36) by including discussion questions, names of LGBTQ organisations, and helpline numbers. The peritextual components of the books Epstein surveyed demarcate a niche audience of LGBTQ readers, or at least those who are reading with the purpose of understanding LGBTQ identities.
Epstein's study demonstrates the important role that the peritextual features play in situating a book within a field of literature. However, her conclusions need revising in light of the subsequent developments in transgender young adult fiction that are the focus of this article. First, transgender titles were subsumed into the category of LGBTQ young adult fiction in Epstein's analysis, likely because that is how the books were shelved in The Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library. Moreover, there were only a small number of transgender young adult fiction titles published prior to Epstein's investigation and it is not clear how many of those titles were included in her paratextual analysis or indeed in the library collection itself. From the titles that were available, the majority depict the transgender character's transition narrative. The small number and range of texts available in the early years of transgender young adult fiction limited the scope of the investigation.
Since the mid-2010s, for reasons I discuss in the first section of this article, there has been a significant increase in the quantity and variety of the transgender young adult titles being published. In light of this fact, it is necessary and timely to consider the peritextual materials of a much more diverse selection of transgender young adult fiction published in the last five or so years. This is important for the publishing industry and for critics because peritexts are designed to "capture potential readers' attention and compel them to engage with a book's content" (Matos 85). As this article shows, a book's packaging provides information that can both factor into a potential reader's decision whether or not to purchase, borrow, or read the narrative, and can guide a reader's engagement with the text.
In spite of the peritext being recognised as "a key conduit through which negotiations take place between authors, the book trade and readers" (Matthews and Beam's I Am J (2006) in a discussion about how recent young adult novels that address nonnormative genders can be connected to the legacy of the tomboy in American books for girls; and Jennifer Putzi analyses the ways the author's note of Meredith Russo's If I Was Your Girl (2016) speaks to the compromises Russo made in the characterisation of her protagonist to portray transgender identity in a way which was easily comprehensible to cisgender readers. Collectively, these articles show interest in how tropes or features of the narratives are supported or problematised by the peritextual material. Each article provides valuable insights into transgender young adult fiction; however, they also demonstrate that critics have largely favoured the examination of the textual features of the corpus. Yet, as this article evidences, peritexts can be read in more detail to reveal the audience a book is targeting and the assumptions that the publishing industry makes about that audience.
The role the peritext plays as a method of communication between the publishing industry and potential readers means the peritextual materials in my research corpus are an important site for critical attention for two key reasons. First, understanding how transgender and questioning adolescent readers might be exposed to these narratives is vital for ensuring all teens are able to see their identities represented in the literature they read.
Second, as Mike Cadden has suggested, the peritext "has so much to do with assumptions about the implied reader" (vii) and so assessing how these texts are packaged helps us to understand the different types of transgender representation that are available in the commercialised book market, where cisgender readers constitute the majority of consumers.
In this article, I show how the field of transgender young adult fiction has developed over the last five or so years to include more variety, intersectional diversity, and Own Voices authorship, 2 and consider how the commercial packaging of various books might usefully signal the audience each book is intended to attract. My aim is not to provide an exhaustive list of texts, but rather to investigate how the decisions regarding the peritextual features made by authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers offer important insights into the space different types of transgender narrative are intended to occupy within the growing market of twenty-first-century young adult literature. I begin by setting out the key changes that have occurred in the field of transgender young adult fiction since the mid-2010s in the context of both the We Need Diverse Books movement and the "transgender tipping point" (Steinmetz).
Next, I analyse how a selection of transgender young adult titles are pitched to different potential readers using various signals that transgender characters or themes are included in their narratives, in order to interrogate the type of audience these books are intended to attract. Then, I consider how peritextual features are used to construct an identity for the author which brings readers' attention to the author's knowledge, expertise, and relevant experience to write transgender characters. Throughout this article, I make the case that peritextual features can usefully be read to reveal a book's target audience because they signal that book's approach to the representation of transgender lived experiences.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRANSGENDER YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Since the mid-2010s, in excess of one hundred young adult novels that include one or more transgender characters have been published in the US and UK. Compared with the "woefully low" (948) number of titles that appeared in the early years of publication as discussed in Robert Bittner et al.'s 2016 critical review, the field of transgender young adult fiction has seen exponential growth in both the quantity of titles published and in the variety of works available in the latter half of the decade. While transgender characters have been included in young adult fiction since the beginning of the century, 3 two cultural moments occurred in the mid-2010s and fostered an environment in which fictional titles that include transgender  To this discourse, I add that transgender young adult fiction is influenced by the sociohistorical context of its publication, as well as contemporary trends in the book market to which I now turn my attention. Readers imprint, US) and Arin Andrews' Some Assembly Required (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers imprint, US). With the number of titles published or scheduled for publication from the five major conglomerates in 2020 and 2021, these years will be the first that they have published more Own Voices transgender young adult fiction than independent publishers. It is important to note that these numbers may be distorted by the fact that the publishing schedules of independent presses are less accessible than the major conglomerates and that independent presses may have been more severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. However, whether or not the major conglomerates out-publish the independent presses, the increase in numbers from the conglomerates indicates that Own Voices transgender young adult fiction is seen to be increasingly desirable in a market that was dominated by cisgender authors only five years ago.
The field has also seen an increase in the intersectional diversity of the characters included in transgender young adult fiction since the mid-2010s by both openly transgender authors and authors who do not identify as transgender. In her investigation of LGBTQ characters in children's and young adult books (2012), Epstein argued that "the lack of [intersectional] diversity implies that it may not be possible to be [LG]BTQ and something else. One aspect of diversity seems to be enough" ("We're here, we're (not?) queer" 296). This Callender's Felix Ever After (2020) features a protagonist who identifies as a demiboy whose catfish revenge plot leads to a quasi-love triangle. 6 Since the mid-2010s, a transgender or questioning reader has been able to access an increasingly broad spectrum of transgender characters and has, therefore, more opportunities to see parts of their own identify reflected in the available literature. 7 Together, these key developments demonstrate a growing publishing appetite for transgender young adult literature which likely follows the widespread calls for diversity that gained traction in the mid-2010s. For Malinda Lo, the discourse on diversity in young adult publishing has "had a measurable impact on the number of LGBTQ YA books being published" as she can find no other explanation for the recent spike in publishing ("LGBT YA by the Numbers" n.p.). The increase of quantity, variety, intersectional diversity, and Own Voices authorship in transgender young adult fiction that the aforementioned titles evidence is undoubtedly tied to this discourse, but it is also indicative of the increased awareness of transgender identity in contemporary society and a greater freedom for transgender authors to write from their own lived experiences. This article now turns its attention to the peritextual features of a selection of those titles published during or after the mid-2010s to consider how packaging is designed to "entice consumers" (Yampbell 349) in the young adult books market.

APPEALING PERITEXTS FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES
Whether scanning the catalogues of online retailers, shopping in a book shop, or perusing the shelves of a library, a potential reader's engagement with a book as they decide whether to select it usually begins with, and is often limited to, the peritextual materials. These materials, according to Gerard Genette's definition, are "a 'vestibule' that offers the world at large the possibility of either stepping inside or turning back" (2) and consequently bear the responsibility of ensuring the book effectively appeals to its intended audience. The peritext provides an essential site for interrogation because how various elements are used to frame a book indicates which audience(s) the book is intended to attract.  symbolism which, while more immediately obvious to a potential reader than Felix's scars, offers a less nuanced approach to the representation of transgender identity (though it does not necessarily follow that the narrative will be less nuanced).   shouldn't change a thing. […]. She is who she's always been -[…] a devoted friend who is also transgender." Beast's peritextual treatment of Jamie is certainly more sensitive and empathetic than My Brother's Name is Jessica's treatment of Jessica. Nevertheless, in both instances the transgender identity of the character is revealed as an intriguing plot twist that attempts to capture and sensationalise the coming out process, positioning the potential reader alongside the surprised cisgender character. An exception is to be found in the blurb of Russo's If I Was Your Girl, which, though an Own Voices novel told from the perspective of a transgender protagonist, includes the centralised and emboldened statement: "Amanda has a secret" (Figure 6). The transgender identity of the protagonist, Amanda, is deployed as an exciting reveal to "lure readers in" (Yampbell 348) as they learn that, "at her old school, she used to be called Andrew" (If I Was Your Girl blurb). As I will show by reading Russo's author's note in the section that follows, If I Was Your Girl targets a cisgender readership and so this revelationary element of its peritext is likely designed to entice cisgender consumers by dramatising transgender issues. In contrast, Emezi's Own Voices novel Pet provides no hint of the protagonist's transgender identity in its peritextual materials, nor is trans-ness dramatized or sensationalised. If a potential reader does decide to open Pet, they do not learn the protagonist is transgender until a flashback explains that the protagonist shouted "Girl! Girl! Girl!" in response to being called "such a handsome little boy" (16) when she was three years old. Pet offers a nuanced example of the incidental diversity which Ramdarshan Bold and Phillips find to be "key to fully inclusive representation" (3). While the decision not to signal the protagonist's transgender identity in Pet's packaging has the potential to make the representation the book offers harder for a reader to seek out, 10 it also offers all readersboth transgender and cisgender alike -an opportunity to encounter a transgender protagonist who is fully integrated into the young adult book market.
The differences between the aforementioned descriptive and revelationary approaches taken by authors, editors, and publishers are significant. This is because the ways in which peritexts signal the inclusion of transgender characters hints at the various ideological attitudes the books adopt when portraying the lived experiences of transgender people, 10 It is important to note that many of Pet's epitextual materials -such as interviews, reviews, marketing, and publicity announcements -do signal the protagonist's transgender identity and so a potential reader who first encounters the book through these materials will likely do so with a preunderstanding of its trans-ness. While outside the scope of this article, the epitextual materials of transgender young adult fiction certainly provide interesting possibilities for future investigations.
Emily Corbett · Transgender Books in Transgender Packages implicitly demarcating their primary intended audience. As Jane Wangari Wakarindi has suggested, a book's packaging "act[s] as a window through which a reader is aided to a better understanding of the book, at a glance, even before delving into the core text" (95). Where the approach is descriptive, a potential reader can expect the transgender character to appear as a subject in their own story (albeit with varying levels of sensitivity across the corpus). Where the disclosure has been revelationary, the transgender character is portrayed as an object of cisgender scrutiny who, in the same way as Tom Sandercock has argued is the case for transgender characters in a selection of mainstream television for young adults, 12 I also recognise my limitations as a cisgender scholar who has not had the transgender lived experiences depicted in these narratives. For transgender young adult titles written by authors who have no personal experience or connection with transgender identity, the target reader signalled in the peritext is most often cisgender. The peritext provides a space where authors, editors, and publishers can show a potential reader that the portrayal of transgender identity is well-researched, as well as justify the author's reason for writing a transgender character because, as Friddle has pointed out, "the politics of representation" is an issue that "plagues" transgender books written by cisgender authors (127 Over the last five or so years, the increased public interest in transgender topics around the so-called 'transgender tipping point' has contributed to a young adult book market in which the peritexts of transgender titles do not necessarily "encourage the view that they are for a select group -usually those who belong to that minority," as Epstein found to be the case in 2013 (Are the Kids Alright? 36). As we have seen, both transgender and cisgender readers are in fact addressed in the peritextual materials -whether implicitly or explicitlyas the target market of a number of transgender young adult titles.

CONCLUSION
As this article has demonstrated, the packaging of various transgender young adult novels "create[s] an identity for the book and author, which helps the reader place it within a field of literature" (Ramdarshan Bold 24). While alerting potential readers to the growing quantity and variety of transgender representation in a field dominated by cisgender characters, various peritextual elements including covers, blurbs, afterwords, author notes, and acknowledgements offer clues about how transgender experiences will be portrayed which implicitly demarcate the book's intended readership and signal its position in the young adult book market. The books considered in this article are only a sample of the field of transgender young adult fiction, which is slowly remedying what Ramdarshan Bold and Phillips have deemed the "implicit refus[al] to acknowledge difference through the sheer weight of omission" (1). Though there is still much to be done to promote inclusivity in the publishing industry, readers have access to a greater proportion intersectional diversity, Own Voices authorship, and transgender representation in books which portray the lived experiences of transgender adolescence with sensitivity and nuance, starting from their packaging. However, this article has also shown that, counter to Epstein's findings in her investigation of LGBTQ literature in The Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, transgender and questioning readers are not always the audience most catered for in the peritextual materials of recent transgender titles. Transgender subjects are also often marketed to cisgender readers through the use of pseudo-anthropological language, curiosity, and sensationalism, to the detriment of the transgender and questioning adolescents who are seeking "the community on the page" (Jenkins and Cart xiii) that these books may provide.