Do people buy MG and YA ebooks?

I have a Kobo ereader. I purchased 7 YA books in the past month for my Kobo. To read myself. My 14 year-old read one of them on my Kobo...but he doesn't have his own Kobo and wouldn't use it enough for me to get one for him. I started a thread on this topic a few weeks ago. I too was curious about the YA ebook market.

I should add...that I mostly buy from Kobobooks.com and always books from tradional publishing houses. I have only bought 2 or 3 ebooks from ebook publishers...and never any YA.

Our own VJ Chambers has written and sold a number of titles. (Here.) Some of them are in print, too, but I think most of her sales are in the e-version.

Echelon Press has a teen imprint, Quake Books, and it primarily features ebooks. (Here.)

Hope that helps.

Mine sells well and consistently.

I buy them. E-book sales so far for BREAK have been negligible compared to hard copy.

Shady Lane said:

I buy them. E-book sales so far for BREAK have been negligible compared to hard copy.

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Yes. This, exactly. I did the percentages last year. The percentage of ebooks compared to the ebook sales of friends who write adult genre was noteworthy, too. The devices simply aren't yet in hand for young readers, so while we get some adult readers and some teens w devices (or reading via an app on a smartphone), the cost of the devices means that ebook buying in the teen & younger readers hasn't built up yet.

Presummably, that will change as the devices become more affordable.

And remember that YA and MG are hot, hot HOT in the industry right now. It's easier than ever to find a print pub willing to take a chance on the "next big thing." Just ask the lovely ladies who posted above me...who BECAME the next big thing!

Aaah!!! Melissa Marr? For real?

*chokes and has embarrassing fan girl moment* Wow. I love Melissa Marr. L-O-V-E.

I think what she said is pretty on point. Interestingly, though, I think teenage girls are more than okay with reading an entire novel on a computer screen. Perhaps if ebook publishers pushed the .lit versions?

The other issue, though, as I mentioned elsewhere, is cash flow. Teenagers often have jobs and their own money to spend on stuff like books, but they don't often have bank accounts or credit cards, making it difficult for them to purchase stuff online.

I don't have any real experience with MG, but I would think that between the genres, YA books would experience ebook growth before the MG books.

The Kindle boards just had this same discussion. The consensus seemed to be most of the YA eBook sales were to adults and MG isn't selling very well at all.

I do agree that parents want their kids to read. So when the prices fall to the point were parents won't freak if it gets smashed up (maybe under $100), or when phones start coming with 4"+ screens standard, then we'll see an explosion in YA and MG eBook sales (IMHO).

Yes.

I think more copies of my books have sold in Kindle and other ebook formats than in paperback. If not more, than it's pretty close. I make more per ebook too, so I have absolutely no problem with this.

I seem to attract the Rick Riordan readers who want more mythology - at least if you believe Amazon. A few months back my books were listed w/ The Last Olympian in the "Buy this+this+this" deal. Now it's The Red Pyramid. Somehow Amazon has tied our books together. *shrug*

I know I've had readers buy it and read on their Smart phones too. So it probably IS more adults, but then again, adults usually purchase the books for the MG's and YA's anyway.

By far, the biggest selling ebook genre is romance. Based on my research, YA/MG ebooks do not sell that well at all.

Excuse me, what's MG?

I expected romance e-books to sell like crazy - finally the high-powered executive doesn't have to cover up their romance novels with philosophical dust jackets, since nobody sees what you're actually reading on your e-reader...

MG = Middle Grade

Ah, thanks - some abbreviations are too culturally specific.

frandavea said:

By far, the biggest selling ebook genre is romance. Based on my research, YA/MG ebooks do not sell that well at all.

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Dave, I thought the same thing -- until I discovered Amanda Hocking. She writes YA and (according to the Toronto Star, here) collected $2 million on ebook sales alone.

My writing partner and I have an offer from a small publisher on one of our YA books -- print/ebook/small advance -- and we're debating whether to turn it down because of Hocking's success.

I know several teens with e-readers and my 10 yo has about 25 books on my e-reader.

Yeah, Amanda Hocking's YA ebook success has really blown all our predictions out of the water, huh?

valeriec80 said:

Yeah, Amanda Hocking's YA ebook success has really blown all our predictions out of the water, huh?

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The price point on some of hers may be helping too. I've seen at least the first book in the series at $.99. I'd like to know how she markets too.

For me a stumbling block is the price and the unknown quality.

There are self pubbed/Indie YA and MG but even at .99 I wonder about the quality. Reviews help a little but not all of them have reviews.

And while some MG books are reasonable I refuse to pay a lot of money for is a FILE. My gawd people! I'm not paying $9.99 or MORE for a virtual item.

I did notice Amazon pimping the Kindle to parents last X-mas so I do think they will catch on more with younger readers.

CheG said:

The price point on some of hers may be helping too. I've seen at least the first book in the series at $.99. I'd like to know how she markets too.

For me a stumbling block is the price and the unknown quality.

There are self pubbed/Indie YA and MG but even at .99 I wonder about the quality. Reviews help a little but not all of them have reviews.

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This is why virtually every ebook retailer allows you to download a sample (usually the first 10% or more). I won't buy a book until I've read the sample, whether they're self-pubbed or traditionally published. I did that with Hocking's books (which I love). I did it with Melissa Marr's book, too (which is next on my "to-buy" list, since I finished the sample).

I downloaded a couple of free ebooks from mainstream publishers a couple days ago (and I'm talking big-six publishers) and they were awful. Maybe it's just my particular taste, but I shouldn't be laughing hysterically if it's not a comedy...

One thing a lot of the mainstream publishers are doing wrong when it comes to ebooks is putting too much front matter in them. I downloaded one sample the other day, and it didn't include any of the actual book. It was just the title page, contents, and about 15 pages of praise and reviews. The sample ran out before the book started. At $9.99, I'm not going to buy a book when I can't at least read the first few pages, regardless of how great the reviews are.

cameron_chapman said:

I downloaded a couple of free ebooks from mainstream publishers a couple days ago (and I'm talking big-six publishers) and they were awful. Maybe it's just my particular taste, but I shouldn't be laughing hysterically if it's not a comedy...

One thing a lot of the mainstream publishers are doing wrong when it comes to ebooks is putting too much front matter in them. I downloaded one sample the other day, and it didn't include any of the actual book. It was just the title page, contents, and about 15 pages of praise and reviews. The sample ran out before the book started. At $9.99, I'm not going to buy a book when I can't at least read the first few pages, regardless of how great the reviews are.

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LOL! I've downloaded a couple aweful freebies too! From major publishers, and I think that explains why they were free...

But yeah, I'm going to download some samples and try out some indie books. I think I'll devote $5.00 a month to getting $.99 books and try them out.

And the thing with the samples from publishers- I think it's due to them putting up the literal first pages of the print book which are going to be the title page, copyrights, and that 15 pages of glowing praise. If they were smart they would start with the first chapter and make that available.

CheG said:

I'd like to know how she markets too.

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Like most windfall successes, I think most of her success is from word of mouth. She says on her blog that she sent her books out to review blogs, and the sales jumped up a bit, but that the really big jump in sales came from something she couldn't pinpoint.

It probably doesn't hurt that she seems like a genuinely nice person, who interacts with her readers directly.

nitaworm said:

I'm wondering if folks purchase ebooks in MG and YA?

Do they buy them to read themselves? Or for their kids? I know that I have kids and wouldn't spend that much on an ereader for them since they barely take care of their cellphones.

I believe the only way I would purchase one for them would be if they begged for it, or their school books were accessible on it.

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According to a recent survey (IIRC) 40% of teens have read a book on a computer and 17% on their cellphones. That absolutely blew me away.

Looking at our own sales figures (and this is in the UK, a little behind the US), YA ebook sales outstrip MG by a handy margin. Before last September, sales were negligible; but they quadrupled as soon as the Kindle was released over here. Then they doubled again on Christmas Day 2010 as lots of people got Kindles and tablet PCs. The top tens are slowly starting to mirror the print editions, which is a good indicator that ebooks are taking a real slice of the market.

PS: If your kids have cellphones or iPods, they probably have ereaders already - I read practically everything on my phone these days. I wouldn't look for kids to be toting around Kindles much; I think more likely they will want more multipurpose devices like smartphones and tablet PCs. The install base isn't quite there yet because that stuff is still a bit expensive, but the minimum you really need for reading books is a screen the size of an iPhone - a lot of the new Android handsets will be perfectly adequate, and cheaper too.

Well, all this talk of e-book MG and such got me curious so I decided to put my money where my mouth is and bought 3 MG books for my Kindle cold! Wow!

They are all $.99 books and come with good reviews. I'm sort of going to track my progress on my blog for anyone interested (points to siggie it's the Vow of the Pantser link).