“There’s No Such Thing as Too Many Books”: How Exclusive Editions of Books Cause FOMO in the YA Community

Abstract

This article looks at how identities within the YA community are established and maintained through the affirmational practice of collecting, and how discussions about YA on social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube stem from social aspects of collecting. In addition, this article also examines the negative aspects of collecting. The rising popularity of YA book subscription boxes and Advanced Reader Copies highlights the increasing demand from collectors for limited, exclusive editions of novels. Fear of missing out is a significant driving force behind compulsive collecting habits within the YA community. This fear is exacerbated by the way in which some YA fans grant 'authority' to those who build the biggest collections and perceive large collections as a symbol of devotion to a particular author or series. Drawing upon a mixture of ethnographic experiences, analysis of social media posts, and Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, this article argues that collecting can be a positive way of bringing YA fans together on an international basis, while also unintentionally creating barriers for entry which may exclude others from the YA community.