Trendspotting: Little Lit

By Angie Argabrite, Friday, June 22, 2012, at 9:01 am.

In February, sales of e-books for kids and young adults rose by triple digits, and experts say it’s not because kids suddenly made use of the tablets they got for Christmas. Instead, adults tearing through the Hunger Games trilogy ratcheted up profits while sales of adult e-books stagnated. Pottermore has further revolutionized children’s e-books by placing e-versions of the seven Harry Potter novels both on its own site and in Amazon’s lending library. One author who didn’t contribute to the growth: the late Maurice Sendak. Months before his death in May, Sendak told Stephen Colbert: “I hate those e-books. They cannot be the future. They may well be. I will be dead. I won’t give a sh—.” Roaring his terrible roars until the very end, it seems. Adults might well be loading up their e-readers with kiddie lit they wouldn’t want to be seen reading. Speaking of which … sales of erotic e-books such as Fifty Shades of Grey are also forecast to pick up, as they allow a nice level of discretion and privacy. Marketers take heed: Perhaps this is why social reading hasn’t really taken off yet.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2012 at 9:01 am. It is filed under Brainsnacks, Marketing, Technology, Trends, Youth and tagged with children's e-books, children’s e-books, children’s literature, e-books, exotic e-books, Fifty Shades of Grey, Harry Potter, kid lit, Maurice Sendak, Pottermore, publishing trends, Stephen Colbert, The Hunger Games, YA e-books, YA literature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.