Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Riding high (Updated)

The rest of the publishing industry may be in the doldrums but according to The New York Times we are riding high:

Juvenile books overall, including paperbacks, were up 3.1 percent, to 900.9 million copies. Net revenue in the juvenile segment, the largest of all categories in terms of copies sold, increased to $3.66 billion, from $3.4 billion.

Perhaps surprisingly, sales of children’s books, which includes the rapidly growing young adult segment, are not expected to rise strongly over the next few years. “If it weren’t for Y. A., this sector would be in worse shape than it is,” Mr. Greco said.

Given that picture books and middle grade are doing crap,1 the article leaves me wondering how fast Young Adult sales have been growing? I suspect the answer may be google related or I could just, you know, ask the people in the biz I know, but, well, I’m lazy and there’s this book to be writ.

So I’ll settle for going YAY! And hoping those sales remain strong for the next forty years.

Update: Gwenda reminds me that this excellent Newsweek article cites growth figures of 25%.

  1. Though I hear middle grade is about to start improving. [↩]

Posted by Justine at 12:18, 2 June 2008 under Liar, New York City/USA, Praising, Publishing business, Young Adult literature | 12 Comments »

Comments

  1. Gwenda Says:

    In that recent Newsweek piece, the state was 25% growth for YA over the last few years.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 12:31 PM

  2. 2. Justine Says:

    Thank you, Gwenda! I knew my laziness would be rewarded.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 12:33 PM

  3. Nichole Says:

    Actual research is SO overrated. Sometimes it’s just easier to make up random statistics that sound truel And frankly, I NEED you to keep writing the new book! Now that I’ve finished How To Ditch Your Fairy, I need to have the warm fuzzy feeling that there’s more wonderfulness to come. :)

    June 2nd, 2008 at 12:48 PM

  4. caitlin Says:

    I work as a kids/YA bookseller and so many adults (including my Dad) are reading mostly YA. The genre is brillaint and I wish so many great YA books existed when I was a teen. Thanks to you and the other members of the YA Mansion for reading such great books.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 12:56 PM

  5. Hillary! Says:

    I MET KELLY LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!
    She told me to read Gwenda Bond’s blog.
    I met her at BEA. Twas very fexcellent!

    June 2nd, 2008 at 1:08 PM

  6. David Gill Says:

    I don’t know about sales, but the explosion of galleys littering my office floor tells me that there are almost twice as many YAs on the market than two years ago.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 3:04 PM

  7. Lori Devoti Says:

    I saw Sharyn November on a panel at WisCon last weekend. She said the growth in YA was no surprise, that 15 years ago it was picture books, then early readers, etc. That it was like watching the lump in a snake’s throat after it swallowed a rat–that you could just see it moving along down the line, natural progression and all that.
    Lori

    June 2nd, 2008 at 4:48 PM

  8. caitlin Says:

    whoops! I meant writing — sorry brain a bit wonky since I moved this weekend.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 PM

  9. Suzanne Says:

    The worrying part is whether the fact that picture books and middle grades are down means that we’ll see the reverse of Lori’s snake-digesting-a-rat phenomenon (…eww) — if younger kids now aren’t buying books (or having books bought for them), does that make it likely they won’t be book-buyers when they’re teens?

    The other possibility, as Caitlin pointed out, is that the growth isn’t teen-driven at all, but adult. Which is a good thing. Break down those ghetto walls!

    June 2nd, 2008 at 7:52 PM

  10. 10. Justine Says:

    Suzanne: I think November’s argument is more one about demographics. There was a mini baby boom and when those kids were little their parents bought them pictures books and as they grew a little older middle grade books and now they’re teenagers and gobbling up YA.

    It’s not that the littlies now aren’t into picture books; it’s that there aren’t as many of them as there were.

    This still could spell bad news for us YA writers as these teens become adults. The good news is anecdotally the current YA boom has brought in many adult readers and quite a few of the teen readers seem to keep reading YA even as they hit their 20s.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 PM

  11. capt. cockatiel Says:

    Poor kids with not as many picture books… Maybe their parents should just read them Shakespeare? To, I don’t know, ensure a love of reading at a very young age?

    Hahaha.

    June 2nd, 2008 at 8:54 PM

  12. Carrie R. Says:

    I always figured the recent boom was because my generation (X-Y) watched TV and were lazy readers but the current generation spends time on the computer and are better readers (reading blogs, articles, text messaging, etc).

    June 3rd, 2008 at 11:53 AM

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