[SIZE="3"]Just as I'm starting a YA series...[/SIZE]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6343693.html

What? 15-17 year olds don't like to read?

Duh!!!! They're too busy drinking and having unprotected sex. Do you know how hard it is to read a book (especially a hard cover) while having sex without spilling your drink?

While I'm not sold on the YA series (I personally don't think it'll go over very well), I'm not at all surprised by this study. Like most announced studies, it just states the obvious for all those oblivious to what is going on around them.

Good luck with that YA series though.

I don't buy it. Suppy and demand kind of indicates to the contrary. Wandering the bookstore, it seems like the young adult market is more popular than ever. There are series after series, and -big- ones too. Harry Potter aside, there's Lemony Snicket, His Dark Materials, Abarat, and that's just off of the top of my head (not to mention the revival of Narnia!). Books that are geared towards the YA crowd, but are of such quality that they wind up attracting kind of an ageless audience. If whippersnapper readership really is down, then someone else is picking up the slack. But in any case, I don't think it's any threat to your plans for Jack.

I'm with Scott - the YA Jack series as planned is the way to go. I can see the YA Jack being every bit as popular as Harry Potter (or more!), just without the magic spells.

Besides - you have a "secret weapon" in all of us "grown-ups" who are already fans of RJ. We're all readers and so I'd bet that those of us with kids have at least one kid that also loves to read. And I, for one, will be buying the YA books for myself, if for no one else anyway.

"Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!", "Fire when ready, Gridley!", "Don't give up the ship!". "Nuts!" Sorry, the "secret weapon" analogy got me into my military history mode. Anyway, I agree that you should "endeavor to persevere" as Chief Dan George said in "The Outlaw Josie Wales".

I don't buy it. Suppy and demand kind of indicates to the contrary. Wandering the bookstore, it seems like the young adult market is more popular than ever. There are series after series, and -big- ones too. Harry Potter aside, there's Lemony Snicket, His Dark Materials, Abarat, and that's just off of the top of my head (not to mention the revival of Narnia!). Books that are geared towards the YA crowd, but are of such quality that they wind up attracting kind of an ageless audience. If whippersnapper readership really is down, then someone else is picking up the slack. But in any case, I don't think it's any threat to your plans for Jack.

Most of those series are read by kids younger than the 15-17 year olds...

Narnia and Lemony Snickett are popular with the 9 and 10 year olds...Hardly what I would call Young Adult.

Supply is always a bit behind demand. All of these series books spawned after the Harry Potter craze started. The demand is waning, but suppliers are still pushing out the product hoping to ride Harry's coat-tails.

Same thing happened with Horror in the 80's.

I can see the YA Jack being every bit as popular as Harry Potter (or more!)

Are you on crack?

The Harry Potter books are unrivaled in popularity...Nothing is going to come close to those sales for eons...Those kinds of numbers happen so rarely...Every seven or eight years something hits really big like The Divinci Code, Scarlett, or Bridges of Madison County. THose titles all outsold your typical Bestsellers (King, Koontz, Clancy, etc...) by the millions...it's unfair to put that kind of expectation on your humble host.

Are you on crack?

No. Why? Are you? Rudeness does not help make your point.

The Harry Potter books are unrivaled in popularity...Nothing is going to come close to those sales for eons...Those kinds of numbers happen so rarely...Every seven or eight years something hits really big like The Divinci Code, Scarlett, or Bridges of Madison County. THose titles all outsold your typical Bestsellers (King, Koontz, Clancy, etc...) by the millions...it's unfair to put that kind of expectation on your humble host.

Eons? I think you exaggerate. Perhaps I do too. But to quote Mark Twain, ""Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

Are you on crack?

No, I don't think webby's on crack. You might be, though, considering...

The Harry Potter books are unrivaled in popularity...Nothing is going to come close to those sales for eons

...you seem to have no concept of time. Eons?

Having visions you claim are accurate foretellings of the future IS a sign of substance abuse...

No. Why? Are you? Rudeness does not help make your point.



Eons? I think you exaggerate. Perhaps I do too. But to quote Mark Twain, ""Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

Well said Webby! We don't know what will be, we're not psychic...........we just know what we like. I still think this series will take off. No one will know how well until the first is published. Projections are just guesses after all. For now I'm content to just sit back and anxiously await the first in the series. We're all entittled to our own opinions, some of them we choose to ignore, and rightfully so.

Well said Webby! We don't know what will be, we're not psychic...........we just know what we like. I still think this series will take off. No one will know how well until the first is published. Projections are just guesses after all. For now I'm content to just sit back and anxiously await the first in the series. We're all entittled to our own opinions, some of them we choose to ignore, and rightfully so.

Exactly. I bet J. K. Rowling and her publisher had no idea what a phenomena Harry Potter was going to be before it happened. We'll just enjoy the stories and see what happens.

When my son was about 8 he discovered Captain Underpants. Pretty stupid but he actually WANTED to read. I bought him the whole set. Of course now at 13 he doesn't want to have anything to do with it.