I recently attended the Independent and Small Press Book Fair at the NYCIP where Richard Nash gave the keynote speech. Amongst the numerous true and thought-provoking statements that Mr. Nash made that night, there was one item that he brought up that got me thinking. While discussing the amount of time it takes to read a book, he pointed out (excuse the paraphrasing) that adults who have jobs, work later than they used to. He used Mad Men—if you don’t know what this show is and you are on the internet, stop, go to Hulu or AMC.com or wherever you can and watch it—as an exemplar for this. In the show, the men get off at 5 and by the time they drive home, eat dinner, and put the kids to bed it is around 8 pm. This leaves about 3 hours of free time for the adults to read, watch tv, or do whatever they wish before they go to bed. Today’s, average working adults does not get off at 5 and by the time they get home, eat, and put the kids to bed it is more likely 10 pm. Granted, this is an extreme generalization, but the point is that adults do not have as much free time as they used to. As publishers, how do we get these adults with no, or limited, free time to read rather than watch tv, play a video game (yes adults play video games), or surf the internet. There are enhanced ebooks such as the iPhone app for Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Monroe, which keeps track of where you are in the book and the reader can toggle back and forth between audio and ebook. Something like this allows for busy parents on the go to read and continue “reading” while they are driving to soccer practice. But this is just one example out of how many books that are out there. After thinking about this issue for a while, the question came to me: Are we focusing too much on adult books?
I look at something like Scholastic Book Club’s Facebook page which is nearing 60K fans and has developed a great community with great conversation, it is something any publisher would love too have in their social media pocket. All of the fans are parents, teachers, and people who have nostalgia for the long time provider of children’s books. What do most of these adults have in common besides their love for Scholastic Book Clubs? Most, if not all, have kids. They read with their kids and like to discuss books that they read with their kids. If they are reading with their kids and not reading in their free time, should publishers be publishing as many adult books as they do? Should there be a focus be more on YA and middle grade books that families can share and read together?
I also think the rising popularity in YA books with adults is something that should be looked at when considering these questions. I only have a few friends who have yet to read The Hunger Games series. How many people do you know who have read the Twilight series? I went into a Barnes and Noble the other day and the fiction section was dominated with YA on all of the tables. As I was writing this, I saw a tweet linking an article in the LA Times talking about adults reading YA. Should there even be a distinction between YA and adult books? Should books that will appeal to everyone be marketed as such, or is there just nostalgia about reading YA novels as an adult? What is “adult” and what is “YA” and who is reading what?
Me personally, I think good books are good books and should be marketed as such.
