Small Press + YA Audiences

As a teenager in high school (and middle school), I bought all of my books in store at Barnes and Noble. If I fell in love with an author, enough to recognize their name, then maybe I'd buy their book on Amazon if I didn't find it in the store. I knew nothing about indie publishers, or that there were even hardcopy books I could buy that weren't from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. (For reference, I was in high school about three years ago.)

I buy books for my 13 year old bookworm from the bookstore, usually from one of the major chains, but if there is an author they don't stock that he really wants to really I will go to an independent bookstore. However, for myself, I pretty much read only on my kindle now, so you may be right!

I can't speak to teen habits, though I think it's possible that books being talked up on social media (Goodreads, BookTube, Tumblr, Instagram, other ones I'm too old to know about) could lead them to order titles they wouldn't find on the shelf. Depends on whether the teen is into that particular book-blogging culture.

But I know that, with indie presses, the distribution piece is key. You can tell which small presses have good distribution by browsing the shelves of B&N, Walmart, well-stocked indie stores, etc. For instance, I have consistently seen books from Flux, Sky Pony, and Entangled on the YA shelves at B&N. Not every book they publish will end up there (B&N has to sign on to the individual title), but there's at least a good chance. If the publisher doesn't have a strong team selling the book into brick-and-mortar stores, most of its sales are likely to happen online, which does seem iffier with YA than with, say, adult romance. I know that indie bookstores and booksellers (and libraries!) have been really important to the sales of my book.

Mary, I've wondered the same thing. Great question!

My teens have never had much spending cash, finding it impossible to have enough time and energy for a job when they're keeping up with advanced classes and extracurricular activities. Most of the new books they've received have been books they've asked for and received as gifts. Pretty much without exception these have been books by major publishers. One of my teens frequents a used bookstore and buys the occasional book there.

Otherwise, my teens have depended on the library. I haven't paid much attention to how many of its YA books are by indie presses. Not many, would be my guess based on all the books I've studied for agent and editor info. The majority of the time, when I've searched the library's database for an Entangled book, I could not find it listed. However, Entangled prices their books just low enough that I'll take a risk and buy a book from them if my library doesn't have it, which is good for their business. It's not something my teens have ever done, though, to my knowledge.

My one daughter has an iTunes gift card and has bought some digital books she reads on her phone. I've never studied what iTunes carries. I believe they carry self-pubbed books, so it's likely they carry indie press books, too.

YouTube book vlogs seem to be a trend in terms of teen followers. From what I can tell, some of these enthusiastic YA vloggers have large audiences (and are signing their own book deals, often paired with published authors). I'd be curious to know how many indie-pubbed books get exposure through their channels in any given month.

As for smaller or lesser known presses showing up in public libraries... it probably depends on whether the book is a hit in some way, like a critical darling. Adam Silver@ has done well with S0h0 Teen, for instance.

On another note, I just noticed an interesting contest with Eleph@nt Rock Books, publisher of The Carnival at Br@y, a Printz Honor Winner and Morris Award Finalist. It seems to be the only way they acquire YA manuscripts.

I'm sorry if this is rambling and incoherent; I came here to cure my insomnia and I think it worked!

RaggedEdge said:

My teens have never had much spending cash, finding it impossible to have enough time and energy for a job when they're keeping up with advanced classes and extracurricular activities. Most of the new books they've received have been books they've asked for and received as gifts. Pretty much without exception these have been books by major publishers. One of my teens frequents a used bookstore and buys the occasional book there.

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This is my teen as well. Interestingly, she'll read online fic on her phone (how??), but refuses to use an e-reader - she wants the physical book. She does use the library a lot, as well as the used bookstore and occasionally Goodwill. She's too cheap to shell out for new books, unless she gets a gift card.

Up until last year, I taught Spanish at a high school, and most of my reading students read books from the library or books on their phones. A lot of the reading they did on their phones was through websites where teens wrote their own stories (mostly manga/anime style or angsty-things). One family of super readers all used the overdrive app to rent e-books from the library and went through books like toilet paper.

At least Sky Pony and Entangled (and others, like Sourcebooks) seem to get a fair number of their YA books into bookstores. And a lot of adults love to buy YA.

When I was teaching teens a year or two ago, they mostly read on their phones. Some physical library books.

Our local library (which I utilize) only carries books that are really big. So like, they just got Geekerella, which has over 10,000 ratings on GR. But most of the indie titles I search for, no luck.

My kids find their books at the library, the school book fair, and the second-hand bookstores. If there's a book or author they love, we order from Amazon.

dtam3292 said:

As a teenager in high school (and middle school), I bought all of my books in store at Barnes and Noble. If I fell in love with an author, enough to recognize their name, then maybe I'd buy their book on Amazon if I didn't find it in the store. I knew nothing about indie publishers, or that there were even hardcopy books I could buy that weren't from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. (For reference, I was in high school about three years ago.)

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+1 and I was in high school until 4 years ago, and also have younger teenage sisters who're the same way. Also, most of the teenagers I know (and my friends who read YA) prefer to have the hard copy of the book, and would probably go to the best-sellers\on-sale books in one of the major chains' stores. My younger sister (15) also frequents the library and so she usually picks up what the librarian recommends her, which can be one of two things: the most checked-out book (which once again will be a very popular book\best-seller) OR if she's in luck and it's the teen librarian (happens rarely), she'd recommend other less-known books.

I hope this somehow helps

Okay, I work in a library and a lot of adults read YA because the language is simpler and we all have to work 60hrs to stay afloat. No one wants to read the dictionary after coming home from their third job. I ADORE reading books from indie presses. I have covered my boss' desk with indie-esq novels (Some are self-published some you've just never heard of) Either way, YA is HOT right now.

In my experience, teens are very good at finding a come-hell-or-high-water route to a book: libraries, bookstore, Amazon searches, finding the author's website, asking for help on Tumblr, seeking out pirated versions. If they want a book enough, they'll find a way to get it.

Best thing an author can do is make this easy for them. Clear buy links *everywhere*: on your personal site, on Goodreads, on Twitter, on Instagram, on Tumblr. Wherever you are, give the readers an easy path.

My son is part of a club at the library where they look at book trailers together. He reads graphic novels and novels, mostly mystery and fantasy. I suspect many of the graphic novels (middle grade books for the most part) are from smaller presses. Some of the other books might be too. I've never looked. He reads both middle grade and YA. He's even picked up an adult book or two. I could not afford to keep him in books if we purchased anywhere.

Manga is popular in our area. It's not published by the biggies at all as far as I know.