I have an idea!
I was talking with Crissy my publisher at Samhain and I was asking her about the "young" book category she has up on the site, that currently has no books in it. I read a lot of what is called "mid-grade" books to my daughters. We buy out entire series of books at Barnes and Noble.
Considering how much I read, it was only natural that I tried my hand at writing a story. Well, life being life, I haven't finished it yet. See, it's not really a priority for me because I need to focus on the books that I'm contracted for and will make me money. Sorry, I love what I do, but I've got bills to pay and three kids to put through college eventually.
Anyway, I have this series in mind that when I get the urge, I work on it. One of the problems is that for this genre you really need an agent to submit anything. I'm terrified of looking for an agent. Down right scared spitless. With that in mind, you can see how I'm not staying up nights to finish this book.
To get back to the point, I was talking with Crissy about children's books and we were discussing kids' ebooks and saying how right now there's no market. Which got me to thinking, kids are so much more comfortable with new technology. Most kids I know not only have cell phones, but even the tiny ones have game boys and leap pads, and a ton of other gizmos. Why wouldn't they use an ebook reader???
Which got me to thinking more, why hasn't someone developed an ebook reader for kids? It would just need a cool casing and the ability to play games and kids and parents would love it. Think about it, you could buy your kid's favorite book, download it and they could carry the reader with them in the car and everywhere else.
Parents would like it because it was educational and promoted reading. Kids would like it because it was a gadget and had cool options. Win win.
So now I have this great idea, but can't do squat about it. I don't know anyone in the ebook reader industry. I know nothing about marketing products so that stores like Toys R Us would buy them. Heck, I can barely get my own books bought and they're under 10 bucks!
But mark my words, someone in the know is going to come up with this idea, or already has, and you're going to see kids walking around with ebook readers in the next 3-5 years.
And when that happens, I hope I'll have a book they'll be able to read!
Considering how much I read, it was only natural that I tried my hand at writing a story. Well, life being life, I haven't finished it yet. See, it's not really a priority for me because I need to focus on the books that I'm contracted for and will make me money. Sorry, I love what I do, but I've got bills to pay and three kids to put through college eventually.
Anyway, I have this series in mind that when I get the urge, I work on it. One of the problems is that for this genre you really need an agent to submit anything. I'm terrified of looking for an agent. Down right scared spitless. With that in mind, you can see how I'm not staying up nights to finish this book.
To get back to the point, I was talking with Crissy about children's books and we were discussing kids' ebooks and saying how right now there's no market. Which got me to thinking, kids are so much more comfortable with new technology. Most kids I know not only have cell phones, but even the tiny ones have game boys and leap pads, and a ton of other gizmos. Why wouldn't they use an ebook reader???
Which got me to thinking more, why hasn't someone developed an ebook reader for kids? It would just need a cool casing and the ability to play games and kids and parents would love it. Think about it, you could buy your kid's favorite book, download it and they could carry the reader with them in the car and everywhere else.
Parents would like it because it was educational and promoted reading. Kids would like it because it was a gadget and had cool options. Win win.
So now I have this great idea, but can't do squat about it. I don't know anyone in the ebook reader industry. I know nothing about marketing products so that stores like Toys R Us would buy them. Heck, I can barely get my own books bought and they're under 10 bucks!
But mark my words, someone in the know is going to come up with this idea, or already has, and you're going to see kids walking around with ebook readers in the next 3-5 years.
And when that happens, I hope I'll have a book they'll be able to read!
posted by Arianna Hart @ 1:18 PM
3 Comments:
At 6:41 PM,
Anonymous said…
Sounds like a great idea to me! I really do think that it would work well.
At 11:10 AM,
Anonymous said…
Yeah,
Eventually someone will take up that cause. I don't know if it would work well for grades 1-5, but by preteen age kids are pretty good about taking care of their own stuff. Well mostly, LOL
I could see where the whole idea would snowball if the reader was cheap enough. I would have given anything in highschool not to lug around huge textbooks to every class. If they had those suckers downloadable, I'd have jumped on the chance.
Smooches
Jewell
At 9:17 AM,
Anonymous said…
I *think* you can read e-books on X-B0X 360. I know you can on MP3 or MP4 players. The trick is getting the kids to read e-books. As a YA author in my other life, I'd be really interested to see if they would actually do it now. They just might since it's electronic and kids are so wired into anything electronic!
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