Sep

Crossover Appeal Leads to Increased Sales in YA/MG Ebooks

As good news from the publishing abounds in both the print and digital realms, one area in particular is experiencing a full-fledged revival. Both the young adult and middle grade genres, tabulated in terms of sales in the children’s book category, are posting numbers that show a clear rise in sales.

One of the reasons for this popularity is the mass appeal of one series evolving into a full category, for example, the popularity of The Twilight Saga led to a wealth of titles in the young adult paranormal category. In addition to a larger selection of titles within a genre thanks to the marketing appeal of key books, more and more adults are making the switch to YA titles, meaning there’s an even broader audience for these books.

Also, more and more YA titles are being made into film adaptations, which can lead to stronger sales for the remaining books in a series as moviegoers purchase books to find out what will happen to the characters from a popular movie.

Finally, it would appear that some of the original trend in YA ebooks is shifting. From the beginning, teen readers were the demographic that was least likely to adopt digital reading, opting to reserve their handheld devices for other social pursuits. But whether it’s the older audience or that teens are finally coming around to ebooks, more YA titles than ever are garnering better sells numbers in digital than ever before.

Mercy Pilkington (1087 Posts)

Mercy Pilkington is a young-adult author and a teacher in a correctional facility. She does not have a single textbook in her classroom. With the top-of-the-line technology at her disposal and the low reading ability of many of her students, there’s no need for standard paper texts. Instead she relies on e-readers, iPads, desktop PCs, Polycom video conferencing equipment for virtual field trips, live streaming for science demonstrations, and text-to-speech read-aloud software to teach English and science. Within the next ten years, public school classrooms across the country are going to look a lot more like Mercy’s classroom because the educational possibilities with these kinds of technologies are limitless. Have a question? Send an email to mercypilkington@yahoo.com