Young Adult eBook Sales on the Rise
By
Laura Hazard Owen of paidContent.org posted an article this morning that shows a strong surge in ebook sales in what has previously been an under-represented market: teen readers. A Bowker study in 2011 demonstrated that YA readers were the lowest demographic, in fact, to adopt digital reading on devices, a fact attributed to the separation that many teens felt towards using technology for social interaction and academic assignments versus reading for enjoyment.
An infographic included in Hazard Owen’s article illustrates how the trend is shifting over last year’s numbers, as well as attributes the popularity of series like The Hunger Games and now potentially the release of the Harry Potter ebooks as tools that can help draw more teen readers into ebook use.
While the information from the American Association of Publishers would appear to prove that hardcover and paperback sales are actually on the rise over January 2011’s numbers, the article goes on to make the point that the apparently lower sales for last year have to take into account the high volume of books that were returned to the publishers for a loss due to the closing of the Border’s retail locations.
Even allowing for the effects of Border’s, across all three formats—ebooks, hardcover print, and paperback print—children’s and YA books just seemed to have had a far better year for sales in 2012. However, the real news is the startling jump in ebook sales for that category, with a more than 80% increase to bring the total to close to 25 million children’s and YA ebooks sold in January 2012.
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
- Jdemars
