First of all, everyone at the “What’s Hot in Young Adult Fiction” panel knew each other. And if they were not busy pre-panel exchanging hugs and stories, they had their nose buried in a book (only a few of them were the books by the authors we were about to meet in the panels, having been torn through by these voracious readers already). There’s little question that the popularity of The Twilight Saga film franchise kickstarted a major surge in interest when it comes to both other YA series and in adapting those new series to the screen, but if this particular lit genre owes anything to Hollywood, it’s just that the rise of the YA movie has given way to other YA books to be published (and happy that is, as these readers are hungrier than ever for more stories to read and to love). As author James Dashner commented during the panel, held on the last day of this year’s Comic-Con, “there was no YA section when I was a YA.” But now that’s changed, and in a big way – of the eight authors who served as panelists (along with moderator Nathan Bransford, also an author), seven of them have written YA books that are certified bestsellers, and most of them have already sold the film rights to their biggest YA hits. But just which of the many books represented on the panel stage by their respective authors is going to be the next Twilight or Hunger Games?