What GREAT news, unexpected to some but editors have been saying for months that when the economy suffers people read to escape and what better genre to read but romance.
When I opened the Washington Post, just another perk of being home, I saw this article
'Survey shows Reversal of Longstanding Trend' The National Endowment for the Arts stated. For the first time ... since the NEA began keeping track of American's reading habits in 1982 - less that five years after it issued its famously gloomy "Reading at Risk" report - the percentage of American adults who report reading "novels, short stories, poems, or plays" has risen instead of declining: from 46.7 percent in 2002 to 50.2 percent in 2008!'
It says the most significant rise is in young adult reading, due to books like Harry Potter and Twilight. '"Literary" isn't meant to imply "Highbrow". The NEA survey includes all fiction genres, including thrillers and romance novels.
Mysteries emerged this year as the most popular genre. The gain occurred in prose fiction, not dram and poetry.'
Unfortunately the percentage of adults reading ANY book not associated with work still declined by two percent. (Not surprising. Have you ever tried to make a reader out of a non-reading family member. It's a painful, tedious, often unsuccessful process.)
But all in all this is great news for our industry. It brings me hope as an unpublished author that there's still time and access for me to get my name on the spine of a book sold in Barnes and Noble or Borders or Amazon or a cover on a reputable epublisher.
No comments:
Post a Comment