Publishing Practices of Overseas Young Adult Literature and Their Implications for the "Going Global" of Contemporary Chinese Literature: Based on an Analysis of Amazon′s "Best Books for Teens and Young Adults"(2020—2024)

The international dissemination of contemporary Chinese literature has become an increasingly important topic within global cultural exchange; however, its integration into mainstream international publishing networks remains limited. Young adult (YA) literature, as one of the most dynamic and commercially influential sectors of the contemporary book market, provides a valuable perspective for understanding how literary works attain visibility, legitimacy, and transnational circulation. This study examines the structural characteristics and emerging tendencies of overseas YA publishing by analyzing Amazon's "Best Books for Teens and Young Adults" lists from 2020 to 2024. Although these lists primarily reflect English-language publishing practices, their editorial authority, market impact, and wide readership make them a valuable entry point for identifying dominant trends in contemporary YA publishing. The purpose is not to represent global YA publishing in its entirety, but to leverage this influential corpus to identify key industrial patterns and explore their implications for the international presence of contemporary Chinese literature. The dataset comprises 100 titles selected annually by Amazon's editorial team. The selection mechanism combines professional editorial judgment with indicators of market performance, giving the corpus significant industrial representativeness. A mixed content analysis approach was employed. For each title, publication metadata, imprint information, and paratextual materials were collected from publicly available sources, supplemented by professional evaluations and reader-generated commentary across multiple online environments. The combination of professional, market oriented, and reader generated materials allows for a clearer understanding of how YA books are produced, presented, and circulated in contemporary publishing ecosystems. The analysis identifies six major patterns. First, YA publishing within the sample is dominated by large international publishing groups, while independent presses contribute to ecosystem diversity and innovation. Second, the ethnic composition of authors demonstrates increasing cultural plurality, with writers from diverse backgrounds—including those of Chinese descent—achieving greater visibility. Third, genre fiction constitutes the predominant textual form, and limited perspectives remain the most widely adopted narrative modes. Fourth, visual design has become a crucial means of symbolic communication, as cover aesthetics create recognizable visual identities and enhance the capacity of books to circulate within image driven digital environments. Fifth, works of medium to long length dominate the corpus, and publishing in series has become a stable strategy for sustaining reader engagement and expanding narrative worlds. Sixth, multimodal media strategies that coordinate print editions, digital formats, audiobooks, and social media engagement highlight the increasingly integrated nature of contemporary publishing. Based on this, the study proposes several pathways for strengthening the international circulation of contemporary Chinese literature. These include developing publishing projects that align with global genre expectations while presenting culturally distinctive themes, adopting editor-guided collaborative production models to support coherent narrative construction, enhancing visual identity systems capable of communicating cultural specificity, and establishing phased and sustainable promotional frameworks for long-term overseas operations.