Teens Take to New Technology

Ready for Prime Time     Authors     Textbooks     Retirees

Teenagers are a tech savvy group and have the numbers (31 million kids in the U.S. are between 12 and 19 years old), so publishers are adding new title eBooks for teens—not just public domain classics.  Farrar, Straus & Giroux is leading the way, but other young adult publishers are fast behind, according to Inside.com’s [Inside] Books.  “We’ve reached the tipping point—the technology is in the school, the kids know how to use it.  It just makes sense,” says FSG’s first e-author (for teens), and Jack Gantos, who also is a professor of children’s literature.

Kids still read books.  Some 62% of teens, polled for Teenage Research Unlimited’s spring survey, said they had read a book for pleasure in the last week.  Results for other activities: 98% watched TV, and 96% listened to music. 

“We think kids have less resistance to reading on their computers,” says FSG VP and director of marketing Laurie Brown, according to [Inside] Books.

<<previous     Focus on eBooks     next>>