Well, it looks like we may be over the "new media" hump for children's and new adult books in the e-reader category: It seems like a lot of kids got e-readers, whether the Nook, the Kindle, or the Sony e-reader for holiday gifts. As a result, HarperCollins for example, saw the percentage of YA e-book sales go from 6% of books sold to 25% in the four-week period after the holidays.
And parents are reporting that kids are turning away from TV to read their new ebooks as entertainment, esp on all these snow days the US has been having.
Of course, because the classics, which are no longer in copyright, are often offered free, many kids are reading things like Little Women, which doesn't affect current new book sales much.
But kids are also appreciating that they can get the newest in their favorite series by downloading them immediately. Apparently Harry Potter was very popular in hardcover as kids wanted the new episodes as soon as they were launched. And now with their e-readers they can be the first on the block to read the latest.
Hopefully publishers will discover how to make e-books and apps (it is all very tentative and confusing at the moment, with a lot of hesitation and experimentation, with fears of going in the wrong directions) work as a business, and hopefully some of this new technology will reflect jobs and financial rewards back on us creators who create new content for new books...
Right now it is kind of the wild west out there... to be continued!!
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