[jasonzc]

Not to be too much of a downer, but are you aware that about 10% of the people buy something like 90% of the books? Couple that with rising illiteracy rates and the coming age of novelty (virtual reality is about to take off for real, finally), and I get the distinct impression that in another ten years or so it really will be writers writing for other writers.

Is there hope for a new renaissance? Will other countries pick up the U.S.'s slack? Am I just in a black mood? Have you ever felt you're clinging to a dying artform?

 

[Terrence OBrien]

How does the 10/90% compare to the past 50 years?

 

[56139]

Well my son is fifteen and he's a video game junkie. And he loves to read - in fact, he actually came in my office twice in the past few months because he was out of books. He picked up and read This is Not A Test and Anna Dressed in Blood. (Yes, Anna Dressed in Blood) He's more of a Furnace/Maze Runner kinda reader most of the time, but he was jonesin' for a book.

So, all hope is not lost if my son likes reading.

 

[Eric C]

Harry Potter and all the YA best sellers and now New Adult and you're worried readers are dying off? Is there hope for a rennaisance? We're in one.

 

[Paul Clayton]

You are correct.  Currently there are as many people who read as there are people who build ships in bottles and who practice Slam Kabuki Dancing.  This doesn't look good.

 

[Cory]

There are more people literate now than there have ever been in history. It's easier now than it has ever been to gain access to books and literature.


Your worries are a little out of place.

 

[Guest]

With all due respect, you're 101% wrong.

I've been running a ereader/ebook/publishing blog for the last 5 years so let me share a few points.

1) eReaders and reading tablets are getting people to read MORE. They are also getting people who have never read to read.

2) Lots of the new big hits (as someone else mentioned above) are adding new readers - HArry Potter, Hunger Games, 50 Shades, Twilight.

3) What eReaders and ebooks do is they reduce the friction. Buy anytime, buy cheap, classics for free.

For a long time the problem was that other forms of entertainment were evolving while books were getting killed by Publishers.

All that's changed now.

4) The world is growing bigger and bigger in terms of both readers and readers who want books in English. China & India alone will become a bigger market than the US for English books in 20-30 years.

5) We're at the early stages of the current revolution. I don't know how much 'money' there will be for authors. However, the amount of readers will be MASSIVE and getting to them will be SO MUCH EASIER.

*****

You're literally at the beginning of a golden age of reading and writing. If your primary motivation is to squeeze money out of readers or books or authors, then things arne't good because there's going to be a lot of chaos. But if your primary motivation is either to read books or to write books and be read - then you couldn't be born at a better time.

Seriously, think about it. You can publish a book and market it cheaply and get it into people's hands and can get people reading your book from the get go. No having to impress a Publisher to get published.

*****

All the stuff you hear is a product of the consumer creating machine. They don't want people reading because then they don't remain sheep. That's why you see people who are looking to make money push the propaganda that reading is dead or that going into writing is stupid or that books aren't cool.

Look at the actual facts. At what's really going on.

 

[Terrence OBrien]

"If your primary motivation is to squeeze money out of readers or books or authors, then things arne't good because there's going to be a lot of chaos."

And there's going to be a lot of money made. Chaos has a history of offering great opportunity.

 

[Nope]

.

 

[NathanWrann]

Well my son is fifteen and he's a video game junkie. And he loves to read - in fact, he actually came in my office twice in the past few months because he was out of books. He picked up and read This is Not A Test and Anna Dressed in Blood. (Yes, Anna Dressed in Blood) He's more of a Furnace/Maze Runner kinda reader most of the time, but he was jonesin' for a book.

So, all hope is not lost if my son likes reading.

Anna Dressed In Blood was a very good book. Starring a male main character with a cynical point of view, I would think that it would appeal to a 15 year old boy (though, in general, that isn't a very big market)

 

[timskorn]

I write for numero uno.  Only number that matters!

 

[56139]

Anna Dressed In Blood was a very good book. Starring a male main character with a cynical point of view, I would think that it would appeal to a 15 year old boy (though, in general, that isn't a very big market)

I know, it was a very good book, but it's definitely not his usual fare...and when his book did come in (Maze Runner Two, whatever it's called) he preferred ADB over the teen boy book. Which I thought was totally cute

This Is Not A Test is 100% a girl book - even though it has the zombie apocalypse and that's what attracted him in the first place. It's got a lot of teen girl sexual tension and groping. LOL...which I also thought was cute because his big complaint about the book wasn't the sex, but that her father was an abuser.

 

[JeanneM]

You're right, Jason. We're doomed. May as well just give up. LOL

 

[jnfr]

In some form or another, there will always be books. Even if the human species crashes and we once again end up writing stories in the dirt, there will always be books. And storytellers. I worry about a lot of stuff, but that's not even in it.

 

[JRTomlin]

You're right, Jason. We're doomed. May as well just give up. LOL

Yep. Civilization is doomed I tell you. DOOMED!

What's more the sky is falling.

 

[Zoe Cannon]

Reading is still many times pore popular than most forms of entertainment. Even if only one in ten people buy books regularly, that's still pretty impressive. I mean, if one out of every ten people regularly engaged in some other form of entertainment, with most other people dabbling in it now and again, we'd see it as hugely popular. I don't know why we have this idea that everyone should like to read. (I don't understand people who don't like to read, but that's a different issue.)

 

[JumpingShip]

There have always been a small group of avid readers and there always will be. I think what is happening now is that the next group--the casual reader who maybe reads 2-4 books a year, is growing due to the ease of getting books via their iPad, Kindle or other device.

At the same time social media hypes certain books and the hesitant readers, who might read a book every year or two, are starting to up their reading to become casual readers. I know several people who hardly ever read a book but were so curious about 50 Shades of Gray that they bought and read them. Some of those people will look for books like it, and in the hunt, come across other books not quite the same, but that pique their interest. Some of those people never looked before because it didn't occur to them.

 

[Speaker-To-Animals]

Surveys have shown that Generation Y is actually reading more books that previous generations. Big difference sometimes between perception and reality.

 

[tensen]

2012 - 1/5 of American Adults (21%) report they read a ebook in the last year.
      Average number of books read in 12 months - 25 ebooks compared to 15 non-e-books
2009 - 14% of US adults Can't read
2007 - 1 in 4 adults read no books in the past year.
2004 - Only 57% of American adults read a book that year.
1/3 high school graduates never read another book
42% of college graduates never read another book after college


You've heard of the 80/20 rule right? The Law of the Vital Few. 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers.

Note the one thing to consider is the population keeps increasing. So the percentages that read may go down. But we aren't as concerned with the percentage of people reading as in losing the number of people reading. The reading population keeps on aging. One major benefit of ebooks is for older populations, because they can increase the font size, instead of having to purchase a Large Print book. LP books in the past have been problematic, in that not all titles were made in LP... and people didn't always want to carry them around since they were embarassed in needing them.