At last, back after more than two weeks of internet trouble. Telmex, some times its really a pain. But as they say the rich are rich because they do not spend much money. Think thats why, Carlos Slim, the richest man of the world and owner of Telmex is so dam rich. The internet service is moderate. But I am back.
This week I have read several news that have left me thinking so much. News regarding Amanda Hocking, the USAToday news paper just said that she have sold, just in the month of january the thrilling amount of 450k books of a total of 9 titles. A self-publish author that has gain the attention of the major paper at the USA, this has to tell us something regarding the way this business is done. I wonder if the Big 6 publishing companies and all the people that do not believe that this way of business is a good business, still think of the old fashioned way of doing business. I know that the price of her books range between 99 cts and 2.99 dollars, but let us think how many books she had sold with the prices above 10 dollars that the "big 6" publishers sell. I think that not so much. I will do not do numbers, this have been done in several post at JA Konrath blog. Congratulations Amanda. Here is the link to the news.
Other news I want to refer also is one at NYTimes regarding the amount of eReaders sold the past christmas and how it has been used. Here we see that a good amount of eReaders have been given to Young Adults, and they have boosted the use of it and the numbers of the books sold. Here we see numbers of the Big 6, and they numbers are good. We can also see that a total of 20 million people read a ebook the past year. An other issue is that some schools are starting to allow students to use their ereaders at a specific time, with this some parents realized it would be a good christmas present. So as we read at this news, the YA market is the one that is boosting, at least in January, the sales.
To be fair with this staggering number of sales in January, we have to remember that the awful weather that we saw helped to boost reading time, hence the boost in sales, I do not think that a "normal" month the sales will be as high as their were, but I do think that this this a well stablished trend, and remember, as the financial analyst say, "trend is your friend". Congratulations to all those self-publish writers out there, you are in the right direction, and special congratulations to Amanda Hawking for those numbers.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Mexico and its lack of readers
Today, in the on line magazine of IBBY's Mexican Chapter, L de Lectura, I read about a survey that talks about reading in Mexico and some of the comparisons made ver the world. For example, at the question In the last 12 months have you read at least one book? The answers were UK 82%, France 71%, Spain 59%, and Mexico 27%. From these, only a 13% finished the book. A sad thing to see, but it is not like we did not knew, here in Mexico, that people do not read. It is more sad to see that in Germany they read 12 books per year, in Spain 7.7 books per year, but in Mexico a 2.9 books per year.
I can think of a lot of reason why are these numbers so low in Mexico, a lot of explanations, which could go from the psychology of the Mexican, as we have been conquered and always "dominated" to the simplest reason that we are lazy and prefer TV. All of them, that we could think about are correct. But I also can see a slight change in the trend, being that the Young Reader sector is a glooming industry in Mexico. They do read. We might not like what they read, we could say that it is commercial literature, I do not care, they are reading and really interested in what they are reading.
We have heard, so much that it has turned to a cliche, that if the Parent does not talk to the children and show them the benefits of reading, they will not read. But what about this: the parent is the one that read less, so how is the children or the young adult going to love literature if they do not see they parents or tutors reading. So I am starting to see a change of perspective here. The kids are the ones that are teaching their parents to read.
And there are some examples but I think that the more reliable and current ones are, The Twilight Trilogy and Harry Potter. These two books were written, at first, for a sector between 10 and lets say 18 years old (Twilight a 14-18) but they have been read by every age segment. So this books were intended for kids and the parents read them and started getting interested in reading. An incredible turn of events. A real shocker. At least here in Mexico.
So, I think that the government has to stop thinking about how to teach the young ones to read, and start thinking in how to start teaching the parents to read. They have to stop forcing the kids to read the classics, and start by giving them some reads that could, at first gave them the interest to read, and then when they are hooked, give them the classics.
I can think of a lot of reason why are these numbers so low in Mexico, a lot of explanations, which could go from the psychology of the Mexican, as we have been conquered and always "dominated" to the simplest reason that we are lazy and prefer TV. All of them, that we could think about are correct. But I also can see a slight change in the trend, being that the Young Reader sector is a glooming industry in Mexico. They do read. We might not like what they read, we could say that it is commercial literature, I do not care, they are reading and really interested in what they are reading.
We have heard, so much that it has turned to a cliche, that if the Parent does not talk to the children and show them the benefits of reading, they will not read. But what about this: the parent is the one that read less, so how is the children or the young adult going to love literature if they do not see they parents or tutors reading. So I am starting to see a change of perspective here. The kids are the ones that are teaching their parents to read.
And there are some examples but I think that the more reliable and current ones are, The Twilight Trilogy and Harry Potter. These two books were written, at first, for a sector between 10 and lets say 18 years old (Twilight a 14-18) but they have been read by every age segment. So this books were intended for kids and the parents read them and started getting interested in reading. An incredible turn of events. A real shocker. At least here in Mexico.
So, I think that the government has to stop thinking about how to teach the young ones to read, and start thinking in how to start teaching the parents to read. They have to stop forcing the kids to read the classics, and start by giving them some reads that could, at first gave them the interest to read, and then when they are hooked, give them the classics.
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