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Teenage Growing Pains Shannon Maughan -- 10/23/00 Experts discuss the successes and challenges of reaching teen readers There's no doubt about it. Teenage consumers continue to be a force to be reckoned with. The spending habits of this demographic group, 30 million strong (ages 13-19), have been under scrutiny for the past couple of years, as teens' unprecedented buying power has earned the notice of just about every industry with goods to sell. Statistics reported by Alloy Entertainment show that those 30 million teenagers spent $150 billion and also influenced more than $450 billion in purchases in 1999. They averaged $100 per week in disposable income. And they spent plenty of that cash on leisure activities and entertainment. Throughout 1999 and 2000, teen tastes prevailed in the entertainment industry, especially in music: the record-shattering sales of pop group 'NSync's sophomore CD last March (2.4 million copies sold in one week) is but one example of teens' purchasing clout.
Hoping to translate a demographic into dollars, children's book publishers have been among those courting teen attention. As a result, we've seen a growth spurt in YA publishing in the past year. But when it comes to getting all these new books into the hands of teens, many obstacles remain. PW recently spoke with a number of book professionals about the significant strides made in their efforts to reach teen readers over the past year, as well as the challenges that still lie ahead Catering to the MarketMarc Aronson, editorial director at Carus Publishing, a well-known champion of the YA genre, believes that 1999 was a watershed year for teen books. "Nearly everything we could have fantasized about is now true," he said. "In the early '90s we were asking, 'Is YA dead?' Now we have the Printz Award, the L.A. Times Book Prize, a book club [Teen People Book Club], teen reading groups. Finally, we've gone from advocating these things to actually having them." Other experts we spoke with for this article echo Aronson's positive view. "We have absolutely increased the number of YA titles we publish," said Elise Howard, v-p and director of paperback publishing for HarperCollins. "There's no question that we've targeted the teen audience as one that is poised for growth." And Leslie Morgenstein, co-president of 17th Street Productions and president of Alloy Entertainment, noted, "We have definitely moved forward in the past couple of years in terms of reaching this market."
To that end, Smith said, his company focused on making sure that the "look and packaging" of the books was on target. Much of the emphasis was on hardcover titles, both fiction and nonfiction. "We're selling more hardcovers to teens than we have in the past," he said. "The format and price point don't seem to be a problem for them." As an example, he mentioned Stargirl, the latest novel from Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli, published in August. "It has over 50,000 copies in print, which is huge for a hardcover novel," Smith remarked. Demon in My View, teenage author Amelia Atwater-Rhodes's follow-up to last year's In the Forests of the Night, has been another recent hardcover success. A small, jacketed hardcover published in May and selling for $9.95, Demon already has 35,000 copies in print, double what its predecessor did in the same time frame. "Teens know the author better the second time around," Smith said. Hardcover sales have also been exceptionally strong for The Official Backstreet Boys (Delacorte). Published as an unjacketed, large-size hardcover listing for $14.95, the July release currently boasts 500,000 copies in print. In 1998, Random/BDD had great success with a similar title on 'NSync that came out as a $6.95 paperback. But this time around, Smith said, "We wanted the [Backstreet] book to stand out from the other--unauthorized--books out there, so we went with a slicker-looking hardcover. That strategy has worked for us." In fact, it worked so well that Smith said, "I think we're going to experiment more with the look and packaging of hardcovers." At Penguin Putnam, v-p and director of retail marketing Angus Killick spoke of his company's attempts to broaden the audience for certain titles by using a variety of trim sizes. "The chains are very proprietary about where to place a book," he said, "so for some of our titles we want to get them shelved in as many different places as we can. There's no way that a nine-year-old kid g s to the adult fantasy section, and adults do not browse the YA section." As a result, Killick said, Redwall by Brian Jacques and The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer are two of the Penguin Putnam titles to be released in all three trim sizes--trade paperback, digest and rack. Still other titles will be published only in trade paperback and not in digest format, which many teens believe is "for kids." "We are treating teens as adults, which is how they want to be treated," Killick added. "If you produce books that look like adult books, they are more likely to buy them." More than ever, publishers are finding themselves at a crossroads, deciding if and where teen and adult tastes meet. According to Aronson, the age parameters of what is considered YA are blurring. "We have an artificial gap at 18 in our publishing world that d sn't correspond to anything else in the outside world," he said. "Other types of media see the teen market as 13-25, stretching from pre-high school to post-college. As we are no longer shying away from publishing older YA titles, we're seeing that our natural readership d s not end at 18. An 18-year-old who graduates from high school in May is not much different from the 18-year-old who leaves for college in September; she still has a lot in common with her 16-year-old sister. Publishers have a challenge in overcoming this barrier." Aronson cited Pedro and Me by Judd Winick, a graphic-novel/memoir released last month that discusses AIDS, as an example of a YA title that is crossing the typical genre boundaries. Aronson edited the book last year as executive editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. "Right down to sales conference our sales force could not decide where to sell Judd's book, in the adult catalogue or the children's," he said. "We felt strongly that it should be marketed as an older YA title," as it was. Thus far, positive feedback from booksellers indicates that the book is clearly reaching both teenagers and twentysomethings. Similarly, Nancy Pines, v-p and publisher, Pocket Books for Young Readers, remarked that her company's title Deal with It, while aimed at girls who are beginning to learn about their bodies, proved informative to an older audience, too. "We had many women in the office, some in their 40s, say 'I just learned something from this book.'" A Transitional AudienceWith the boundaries of their turf unclear, YA publishers are both fortunate and vulnerable--fortunate to be on the brink of a potential new market, but vulnerable in that the market may be snatched away from them. "Adult publishers will start to publish down to those older teens," said Aronson. "We'll feel the pressure when they reach into our world. We have to fight back by publishing up."
In simplest terms, publishing for older teens seems to be accomplishing what the whole YA genre was designed for--to serve as a meaningful, age-appropriate bridge between children's books and adult books. "Today's parents are the first generation to grow up with YA [books]," Aronson pointed out. "Their images of the genre are much more positive. They treasured YA books when they were teens and they are not so sure their kids should be reading adult books. It's a new factor for us to consider." The Potential of PartneringPublishers, like marketers everywhere, have learned that the best way to reach teens is to try to understand their world. This means knowing how teens spend their time, which TV shows and movies they watch, which magazines they read--and increasingly--which Web sites they frequent. In their search for solid entrée into the teen world, some publishers have discovered the power of partnering with brand-name entities. Between September and May of 1999, Scholastic published a six-volume, real-life diary series called Real Teens: Diary of a Junior Year in conjunction with Teen magazine. In the books, real teenagers (their names were changed) recounted their experiences during their junior year of high school. In August, HarperCollins launched a line of books under the banner of Seventeen magazine. "Like a lot of others in the market, we are actively pursuing brand entries for this audience," said Howard. The nonfiction Seventeen books, with titles like Seventeen: The Boyfriend Clinic, are styled after the content in the magazine's beauty and advice columns. A companion fiction series called Turning Seventeen deals largely with the romances, friendships and experiences of four high-school girls. Parachute Press packages all the Seventeen titles. Harper has two other big co-ventures in the works as well. The publisher has just entered into an agreement to create books with Boycrazy.com. The titles will be fictional, wholesome romances based on real-life boys featured on the site and are scheduled for fall 2001. They are aimed at "young YAs," according to Howard, and will have the "girl empowerment" tone of Boycrazy.com. Harper has a line of Teen People books slated for fall 2001 as well. In another strategic pairing, Penguin Putnam has joined forces with Alloy Entertainment (which merged with book packager 17th Street Productions this past January) to produce the AlloyBooks imprint. The partnership will earn the new paperbacks instant recognition from teens familiar with Alloy's mail-order catalogue as well as Alloy.com, which is one of the most popular sites for teenagers (averaging 1.5 million unique visitors per month, according to research firm Media Metrix). The first four Alloy Books debuted in August with such titles as D.I.Y. Beauty and Any Advice? among them. The line grew by four more titles this month, including the first two titles in Have a Nice Life, a coming-of-age series with a magical twist. These programs and others are sure to please Amy Alessio, teen coordinator at the Schaumburg Township District Library in Illinois, as well as her patrons. Alessio noted that series books are still immensely popular with the teens who frequent her section. "I interfile the series with hardcovers so the kids see everything," she said. Her teen readers enjoy the Body of Evidence and Fearless series from Pocket, Tom Clancy's Net Force (Berkley), Left Behind (Tyndale House), Making Out (Avon) and, she notes, "everyone's always asking for Christian series." Media tie-ins are another way publishers gain cachet with teens. This age group still enjoys reading about their favorite TV, movie or music stars. The Pulse imprint at Pocket Books has built a solid roster of titles inspired by such popular teen television shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, Roswell and Charmed. Random House is among those who have followed suit, publishing tie-ins to 7th Heaven. And delving further into pop culture, celebrity biographies and "fan"-oriented books continue to do well. Kendra Smith, spokesperson for Borders, noted that TV tie-ins and celebrity titles are among the strongest performers among teen shoppers in Borders stores. Teen Taste in BooksPublishers, librarians and booksellers have found that during the introspective years of adolescence, teens flock to self-help titles. Witness the astounding performance of the three volumes of Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul from Health Communications. Those three titles alone have sold more than 10 million copies since the first one was released in spring 1998. This success encouraged the publisher to launch the HCI Teens imprintlast April. The imprint's first list included such titles as Why Can't We Talk? and Feeling Great, Looking Hot & Loving Yourself. Fall titles include Teen Love: On Friendship by Kimberley Kirberger and co-authored by Colin Mortensen, a cast member of MTV's The Real World: Hawaii. These books join a fast-growing genre that includes such solid-selling self-help titles as Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty by makeup artist Bobbi Brown and Annemarie Iverson (Harper/Cliff Street); The Real Rules for Girls by Mindy Morgenstern (Girl Press), a guide to life and love; and The Teen Quiz Book by Annalee Levine et al. (Andrews McMeel), all of which are on TPBC's October Top 10 list. As teens further explore the issues in their burgeoning lives,the category commonly referred to as "problem novels" remains strong as well. "They love to read about serious problems," said Alessio. "The worse it is, the more they like it." She cites Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (FSG), about a girl who has been raped, and Monster by Walter Dean Myers (HarperCollins), about a boy on trial for his part in an armed robbery/murder (and winner of the first Printz Award), as popular titles. "I can't keep them on the shelf," she noted. Books on the supernatural and divination (astrology, numerology, etc.) click with teen readers as well. The Power of Birthdays, Stars & Numbers (Ballantine)by Saffi Crawford and Geraldine Sullivan, Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation (Llewellyn) by Silver RavenWolf and Beyond Blair Witch (Random House/Three Rivers) by N.E. Genge were all mentioned as favorites of Alessio's library patrons or selected as "Hot Picks" or "Top Sellers" on the TPBC Web site. More publishers are beginning to zero in on these interests, too. In July, Random House kicked off a Blair Witch Files series, inspired by the movie of the same name,chronicling the spooky adventures of Cade Merrill, a 17-year-old Blair Witch hunter. Next spring, Penguin Putnam will kick off an AlloyBooks series called Sweep, about teens who are exploring Wicca. Graphic novels, diaries, suspense stories, revisionist fairy tales and historical fiction round out a broad list of categories that hold appeal for teen readers. Traditional fiction for teens has not lost its luster, either. Such notable authors as Francesca Lia Block, Robert Cormier, Caroline Cooney, Gary Paulsen and Joan Bauer have strong followings and still sell lots of books. And the attention paid to all things teen is making room for new voices as well. First novels abound, so much so that Teen People Book Club has initiated the NEXT Award, a contest in which club members vote for the year's best first novel for teens. Nominees thus far include Drawing Lessons by Tracy Mack (Scholastic), When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune by Lori Aurelia Williams (S&S), Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison (Harper), Harley, Like a Person by Cat Bauer (Winslow) and Life Is Funny by E.R. Frank (DK Ink/Jackson).
Harper's Howard commented, "We're discovering how deeply interested in topical nonfiction teenagers are." Book searches by Borders customers bear out this trend. "Kids are often looking for books that contain real-world scenarios," said Smith. "We've had requests for titles on violence in schools and similar topics." Jan Dundon, children's coordinator at Anderson's Books in Downer's Grove, Ill., said she has "visited schools twice in the past two months, talking about dealing with bullies. More educators are looking for ways to discuss violence with their students." To Market, to MarketKnowing what teens want to read is only half the battle, however. The challenge of getting books into teens' hands remains. For the most part, publishers and booksellers have still not been able to surmount obstacles of the past--where to shelve YA books, how to merchandise them, how to get them reviewed. "There are big problems in retailing and merchandising books," said Morgenstein of Alloy. "We are not seeing the same success that TV, film and movies are. Sales of teen books have not taken off. Part of that is because teens don't have a place to go, they don't know where to find their books." The largest bookstore chains, Barnes & Noble and Borders, continue to wrestle with issues of how to merchandise and display teen books in the most effective way. "We are working on some exciting things, but we can't talk about them just yet," said Smith of Borders. She confirmed that Borders is evaluating information from a Borders teen case study and other research done by Ella Garrison, manager of children's national events, and her colleague Drew Waller. "We know we have teens in our stores already," Smith continued. "We are focusing on how to take that to the next level." At Barnes & Noble, director of children's books Josalyn Moran described some recent changes. "In April, we changed the signage in our stores from 'Young Adult' to 'Teen Fiction' and 'Teen Series.' We felt the new moniker is one that teens are more comfortable with." Moran also cited a monthly display in the teen section and the first teen "purchase-with-purchase" promotion this fall, where customers who buy a Tamora Pierce title can purchase a CD storage case for $2.99. A cross-merchandise table and window display during Teen Read Week was expected to raise awareness of the genre. Further, B&N's director of corporate PR, Debra Williams, said, "We are in the process of exploring options to see what else we can do to attract more teens." Both Williams and Smith noted that the magazine sections in the majority of their stores, as well as individual in-store events like writing workshops, were drawing good teen traffic. For the independent stores, Dundon of Anderson's believes that old-fashioned handselling is key. "YA books are my passion," she said. "And we've been lucky to have staff that feel the same way. Our teen customers have come to trust us. The most important thing is to make them feel welcome and to let them know that you're interested in finding a book they'll enjoy."
Predating Fresh Print, Susan Hawk, director of library marketing for Penguin Putnam, launched Preview, a sampler/magazine for librarians and teens, in summer 1999. "It started off because we had done chapter samplers in the past and found them to be a useful tool," Hawk said. "We thought we could make them more interesting and include not only chapters but other information like author interviews." Preview has been a hit with librarians, teachers and booksellers, and to Hawk's surprise, with teens, too. "At first we thought teens wouldn't like it, but we have been getting more requests from teachers and librarians for copies to give to teens. We've begun to include teen comments in the magazine and hope to do more of that in the future. I'd also like to start doing teen reading group tours for authors." Publishers are continually searching for new ways of telling teens about the plethora of books that awaits them, but it's not easy. "There are almost zero reviewing opportunities for teen books," Aronson lamented. "If there were more vehicles for teens to hear about new books, I think it would create a demand in the stores." A growing roster of teen magazines and retail catalogues/"magalogs," like the ones from Alloy and Skechers USA, are making inroads by reviewing and mentioning books, but many publications still don't cover them in a major way. The audience that reads teen magazines, however, is one of the most coveted. It incorporates a good number of what Carter calls "underground readers." According to Carter, "Many teens think it's not really 'reading' if they are not reading fiction. There are lots of underground readers who are reading things we don't consider legitimate. If I ask them, 'Do you read?,' many teens say 'No, but I look at People magazine.' " Teens have always loved magazines (witness the longevity of Teen, YM, Seventeen). But the launch of Teen People magazine in January 1998 (guaranteed base rate will reach 1.6 million in early 2001) seems to have taken the teen world by storm. It challenged popular longstanding titles and opened the door for a spate of such new titles, including Cosmogirl, Jump and Twist. The advertising revenue obviously is holding steady, as there are other launches this fall, including Teen Vogue.Teen People's reach has proved to be powerful, as it inspired the creation of Teen People Book Club, a division of Bookspan (formerly Book-of-the-Month Club). "We had been thinking about doing something for teens for a while," said TPBC editorial director Calkhoven. "But when Teen People launched and was such an immediate success, the timing seemed right. We spoke to them about a joint venture and we've been very pleased with the results so far." What helps TPBC stand out is its teen Review Crew, a group of teens across the country that supplies book reviews and commentary found in the mail-order catalogue and on the Web site. With Internet use continuing to rise among teens, this kind of promotion, which crosses media boundaries, is becoming the norm. "We have a huge advantage when trying to reach teens," said Morgenstein. "We have mail-order catalogues, which drive traffic to the Web site. We send targeted e-mails, create e-zines and do all kinds of cross promotions. We try to hit teens in as many places as possible." Aronson of Carus Publishing welcomes the challenge of creating a relationship among his company's properties. "I'm starting a book line, and we are developing a Web site and hoping to do some things with Cicada [a literary magazine for ages 14-up]. We want to reach kids on all levels." Other book publishers are stepping into the arena as well. A teens@random Web site has just launchedand Harperteen.com is in the works. Hawk at Penguin Putnam said her company is looking at online promotion options and added, "We need to build a bigger presence for teen books on our Web site." Scholastic.com features a teen area related to its TAB Teen Book Club, where kids can voice their opinions and recommend books. "New technology as a promotional tool has become a staple of our approach around here," stated Pines of Pocket. "It played a huge role in last year's launch of Francine Pascal's Fearless series [in partnership with Pocket, Alloy created a Web page featuring new, original content and activities inspired by Fearless's heroine]. And the Internet has been one of the most effective choices in promoting the books tied to WB-aired shows." In addition, several Web sites covering teen books, like Teenreads.com, Favorite Teenage Angst Books (www.grouchy.com/angstbooks.html) and Reading Rants! (www.tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/jen/index.html) are gaining popularity and depth. And still more encouraging, recent research (from MTV and Philips) indicates that surfing the Net d s not take time away from teens' reading; instead, it has been shown to take time away from their TV viewing. While the Web and e-commerce sites like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com draw lots of teen visitors, the Internet is still not an ideal mechanism for selling goods to teens, who generally don't have credit cards of their own. "The business models of e-commerce are problematic, when teens have to go get Mom's credit card to make a purchase," said Morgenstein. "We're optimistic, though, and are 100% committed to figuring it out." One more immediate solution that some teens have turned to is using sites like Cybermoola.com, Doughnet.com, RocketCash.com and Icanbuy.com. These sites allow kids to shop online using money held in an account that is created for them by an adult. Moving a step beyond Web browsing, publishers are beginning to explore e-book publishing options. "Just like everyone else, we're busy acquiring e-book rights and we have a couple of ideas that we're developing for 2001," said Pines at Pocket. "The market isn't there yet with teens, so we're being very careful about what we're going with." From methods tried-and-true to those brand new, it's clear that publishers, booksellers and librarians are keeping the teen book genre alive and well. And with 30 million potential readers out there to benefit from their efforts, the atmosphere seems well-timed for success.
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Teenage Growing Pains
Oct 23, 2000
A version of this article appeared in the 10/23/2000 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline:
