Six out of ten best seller books

The other day while waiting to check out at the grocery store, I noticed a rack of books beside the impulse items.

"The Diary of a Wimpy Kid"

It turns out that this is a series of books with the same title, plus a different title for each in the series. Just like the Chicken Soup series.

So I checked out best sellers online, and found that six out of ten best sellers are either kid books, or aimed at the youth market.

Thinking it was just because of the Christmas season, I found a calendar on that page that lets you check for past week's best sellers list. In June 2011, the same was true. Six out of ten best sellers were for kids or youth.

This could be handy information for aspiring authors.

[Glenn]

Thanks Bozo,

I didn't care for "Wimpy kid". (Not what happened to moi in school)

And

After reading Book #1 - "Hunger Games" - where 100 children are selected
by lottery to kill each other in a filmed month long National TV Show Until
just one is left alive...

I slept with my flashlight under the covers.
(Not really - but the book IS Highly Disturbing to my delicate sensibilities.)

Burnt to death, hacked up, tortured --OH and after you die -
You aren't done.

NO.

They turn you into some kind of Undead Kid-Monster and
send you to Try to EAT the winners of the games.

A bit gory for me.

But it IS a good idea to read some of the Best Sellers - just to figure out
what people WANT to Buy.

Good idea - Bozo.

Thanks,
Glenn

OH - The Hunger Games Movie will be out soon. They plan to SCARE US
In film too.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Bozo

So I checked out best sellers online, and found that six out of ten best sellers are either kid books, or aimed at the youth market.

Thinking it was just because of the Christmas season, I found a calendar on that page that lets you check for past week's best sellers list. In June 2011, the same was true. Six out of ten best sellers were for kids or youth.

This could be handy information for aspiring authors.

Hi Bozo,

Thanks for the "heads up" on that!

I've wondered (as many others have) how (or if) regular bookstores will "survive"...

As many people know, the Borders book chain closed this year. I loved Borders!

However, the trend seems to be going against bookstores... As people buy more and more books in "electronic" form...

(Dien puts his hand up.) I'm guilty as charged, too!

I love my ebooks... But I also love bookstores. What a dilemma!

I hope that bookstores survive... Though I'm not optimistic... I think they may survive as "specialty" stores (kind of like the way you can still by LP records, in specialty stores, if you want them)...

However, one class of bookstores have done alright - and that's bookstores that focus on children's books!

When you think about it, a physical children's book can offer things an ebook can't - such as textures right in the book, for example. Or pop-ups!

Ebooks can offer new things, too (like animations, or music). However, I think "real" printed kid's books will survive, since they do offer things that ebooks can't...

Maybe other "physical" books should do the same? E.g. When you read Huckleberry Finn, you should be able to feel in the book some of the mud from the banks of the Mississippi river!

I came across another advantage of "real" books the other day - which is the resale value. Ebooks have no resale value (not legally, anyway)! On the other hand, if you buy a physical book, after you read it, you can sell it and get some of your money back (if you want to do that)...

Anyway, just a few "musings" on the topic of "real" books!

Best wishes,

Dien