According to PEW RESEARCH, 24% of people polled don't read books at all. 75% stated they did read, and 1% didn't answer. These are promising numbers and show that a healthy amount of people do read, but...
"Overall, Americans read an average (mean) of 12 books per year, while the typical (median) American has read four books in the past 12 months. Each of these figures is largely unchanged since 2011, when the Center first began conducting the surveys of Americans’ book reading habits."
That's not a lot of books being read. Compare that to TV/Internet viewing trends:
"The average adult (18+) spends nearly 6 hours a day on video consumption. "
(source Q1 2018 Nielson Total Audience Report)
To put that in a different way, 2,190 hours a year spent watching some form of video. The average book of 300 pages would be 10 hours a book, times the four book average would equate to 40 hours a year.
So why such a large difference in the mediums?
The traditional excuses are:
- Not enough time
- Not enough money
- Not sure of investment of time on a new book
- Too tired
- Too hard
Not enough time. This is one that I deal with on my own, as a full time father, husband, consultant, entrepreneur, author and YouTuber. I work 18-hours days 7 days a week, and yet I still manage to find time to read. Granted, I enjoy it, I need to do it to research and continue to learn. But as with everything else, it comes down to time management. But I do understand one key point with the time crunch. The inability to sit and read and finish in a single reading is a huge issue I believe because of the "instant gratification' mindset which many have become accustomed to. So as I started writing Novellas and getting them in the hands of people the #1 comment has been, "I love I can read this in under two hours."
Not enough money. The average full sized novels can range from around $14-20. This can test some people's discretionary dollars. The solution with the Novellas is that a 6"x9" is priced at $7 and the Pocket Edition versions $4.25. Even though this is a HIGHER cost per word count, it is a less expensive proposition at the time of purchase which seems to sit better with the readers who have purchased the Novellas.
Not sure if the book is going to be good. Investment on time on a new book. The other benefit of a Novella's shorter read time, is the speed that someone can examine and browse to see if it's a potential 'fit'. The feedback I've received so far with the Novella experiments has been positive. There seems to be less fear with the size and form-factor of the Novella vs a full-sized novel.
Too Tired. This one is tough. If you're just looking to veg out in front of the TV and that's how you mentally decompress, there's no magical formula on books which will address this.
Too hard. This is something I HEAR A LOT! It hurts my head... I can't read... It's too difficult... Which is becoming something I am hearing more and more as I talk with young people. So I even came up with a solution here. What I discovered was, it wasn't necessarily that the reading was too hard, rather it was the descriptive paragraphs defining the sights and smells and thoughts of a character were too dense and not as interesting to the reader as DIALOG was. I watched my kids and had them trace with their fingers where they were reading and I watched them jump past the descriptive text and went to dialog.
"So tell me something..."
"Yeah?"
"Why did you skip the paragraph above the dialog here?"
"Because I like it when characters are talking to each other..."
"Ahhhh I see."
"Do you?"
"Yes, indeed."
This was interesting for me and I tested it in 2017 when I wrote my trilogy Magic Really Sucks. All the folks who read it noted it was more dialog heavy and roughly 85% of the readers preferred it. Which was amazing for me to discover. So with my Novellas, I have continued that formula and the reduced page count (Usually around 60-65 pages at the 6"x9" form-factor) combined makes for an 'easier' read.
So far, I have created four Novellas, "Three Simple Rules", "The Rusted Blade", "Infernal Justice" and "Hairy Situation - Origins." I am publishing them through Lulu.com and am enjoying the experiences I am having with the readers.
I invite you to try similar projects. This is with the goal of getting people reading and enjoying it. There was a time when I was growing up and the perception of an author was one of prestige and respect. Now the respect for the printed word is not the same.
I created NovEps.com with the goal of getting Novellas out and want to elevate reading to a new level. I'm tagging all my Novellas posts in Instagram, Twitter, etc. with #MakeReadingGreatAgain and #MRGA
Here's some of the art I'm using to promote the Novellas so far,
I have also borrowed the old comic book layouts for these projects since I discovered the form-factors of these are roughly the same size as old-school graphic novels. And if you look at the average price of comics today and factor in many of the storylines span 5 or 6 issues, I wanted to present the readers an option for a full self contained story at a fraction of the price and still give them some of the nostalgia of what comics used to be. (That's a whole different post!)
You can learn more about these Novellas at:
RAIMAZ Publishing
NovEps.com
And the Real-Time Storytime Show (Hairy Situation is a Novella based off the Live YouTube show I do every Sunday.)
Thanks for reading!
Rob
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