for those of us who couldn’t attend BEA, Shelf Awareness writers are graciously relaying notes from some of the sessions.
BEA: Gen Z Readers’ Impact on Books, Booksellers
“If publishers don’t adapt, we’ll die,” said David Levithan, YA author and editorial director at Scholastic. “In the music industry, teens changed everything. We can choose to be scared, intimidated or deny it, or we can be excited about it.”
That was the theme of the BEA panel “The Gen Z Reader: Understanding the New Reader of the Post-Electronic Age,” moderated by Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children. Panelists seemed to have accepted that premise and want to meet the challenges raised by a tech-savvy generation hungry for information and entertainment.
Anastasia Goodstein, founder of Ypulse, said that teens now have “the expectation to get things instantly.” She contrasted the look of Seventeen magazine a generation ago, “when it had articles–now it looks like a graphic novel.” Goodstein and Ms. Charlie Schroder, Candlewick’s v-p of marketing and development, both emphasized the widespread opportunity young people now have to “participate” in stories, thanks to video games and virtual reality. Schroder went on to emphasize that where tweens and teens hit their passions, publishers will also find distribution channels.
Clique series author Lisi Harrison called authenticity the crucial element for teens. So long as readers feel the reading or listening or playing experience is authentic, they will engage. “Authenticity resonates with readers, and they need to feel that resonance,” Harrison said. McLean translated the implications of that statement for the industry: the distinctions that matter to the industry do not matter to teens. Whether a format is hardcover or paperback, for instance, is “irrelevant” to them, she said. But this can cause anxiety among booksellers who have often placed the “book as object” above all else. “How will our model mesh with consumer demand?” she asked.
Schroder said booksellers and publishers alike must participate in the solutions: “We need to look at returns and how we sell books.” She also mentioned enhanced print-on-demand and “browsing” experiences of books online. Tim Ditlow, publisher of Brilliance Audio, would like to see publishers open up content so that teens could create the audiobook equivalent of “mixed tapes,” just as teens once created cassette tapes of favorite songs. “If someone really loved a YA author’s work, wouldn’t it be great to take a section of a novel, a chapter or 3-5 pages of a scene they enjoyed, and mix it in with their own soundtrack?” he stated.
Levithan posited that the technology will drive these shifts: “The moment you can read a book on iPhone, everything will change.” He drew a parallel with the way that MP3 technology changed the music industry. Ditlow told the audience that he will try an experiment this fall with John Green’s third novel, Paper Towns. On October 16, Ditlow will make available seven platforms for the audiobook, including CD, MP3, Audible, Overdrive and Playaway. In a follow-up conversation, he explained, “It’s sort of a test, because there’s a lingering feeling that a cannibalization goes on, and I don’t believe that. I believe that each has its own demographics. [With YAs,] you have to get them where they live and breathe. They’re downloading at the library, at home from the Web–the more channels the merrier.”
McLean posed the larger question facing booksellers: “How do we serve this customer? The retail experience will be different, and retailers as well as publishers must change.” Schroder said there was a greater opportunity for booksellers to play an important role with parents and readers in an increasingly sophisticated network of information. “The curatorial voice is more important,” she said. “The bookstore being embedded in the community and having an understanding of the community gives you an edge.” Levithan also saw a crucial role for independents: “The market won’t shrink,” he said. “The stores that survive are the independents. Tower [Records] went under, but the indies remain–that’s what happened in the music business.” Goodstein saw booksellers filling the teens’ need for spaces they can go and connect with their peers: “The manga sections are crawling with teens. We have to create a space where teens can go and hang out,” she said. Goodstein cited Abercrombie and Fitch as a store that creates an experience for teens; Harrison said her most successful signings were those in bookstores where the mood “feels like the atmosphere of the book you’re there for.” Other panelists chimed in with Starbucks and Niketown as examples, and Harrison, continuing the music analogy, pointed out that teens “still love concerts.”
McLean called this a trend toward “experience retailing” and said that independents are uniquely poised to take advantage of it. “Independents can be nimble, and they have the opportunity to create an experience that can’t be replicated, and to let their communities lead them.”–Jennifer M. Brown
