The Future of Young Adult Fiction?

While the reading level of young children has remained steady over the
last 30 years in the United States (and the United Kingdom as well I
believe) the literacy level (as distinct from the ability to read) has
been dropping for high school and college graduates. (http://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/24/AR2005122400701.html)

It's one thing to be able to read and spell words (even complex words)
and another thing to understand what one has read and still another to
make the leap from reading and understanding to doing so for pleasure.

So as the number of people who will pick up a 300+ page novel to read
declines every year what does that mean for the fiction writer? I
don't care about the publishers, they will come up with whatever plan
floats their bottom line, (I heard on NPR that some publishers are
trying to do away with advances and just pay royalties) but what can a
writer do to make themselves more palatable to the under-literate
masses? J.K. Rowling has proven that fiction aimed at children can
still be profitable, but what about those young adults who didn't pick
up a copy of Harry's adventures in textual format and waited for the
big screen adaption?

I write as a hobby, something I enjoy doing without the expectation of
making any money, let alone a career. But I do like to start
conversations about such things. As I often do, I look to Japan for
neoteric ideas. (Not because they are the only source of such, but due
to language barriers they don't percolate over to the English speaking
world very quickly. (Excepting to the Japanophile culture.) It
constantly amazes me that a culture that is so strict socially can and
will throw in everything including the kitchen sink when it comes to
consumer and entertainment products.)

Since the 1980s one of the more popular young adult fiction formats in
Japan has been the "Light Novel" or a slim (normally paperback) book
which includes interior illustrations to catch the potential reader's
attention, simplified language to facilitate understanding, and short
paragraphs (often only 2 or 3 sentences long) driven primarily by
dialogue (internal or external). The overall effect is a quick, easy,
and apparently pleasing read for folks that would not sit down with a
more traditional fiction novel.

My command of written Japanese isn't up to reading even a "Light"
novel so I have instead read some fan translations (mainly the
_Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu_ series* and a few others) and found them
to be as advertized, a quick, painless, and quite enjoyable reads.
This says as much about the skills of the volunteer translators as it
does about the format.

This is an interesting subject to bring up because there are some
light novels that will be (or already have) made a commercial debut
here in the US. "Seven Seas Entertainment" has released volumes 1 and
2 of _Strawberry Panic_ (about 200 pages each) and look to have a
number of other series releases in the pipe. These are not comic books
(manga) they are prose (light and simple prose) with interior
illustrations.

So, is this something that will catch on in the US/UK? I think it
will, but more importantly will there be room for English speaking
authors to move in and capitalize on the new market? If there is room,
would "respectable" novel writers want to "slum" down there with the
under-literate masses?

---


* "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia" is a series of stories about a
high school girl who unknowingly shapes reality.

references
http://www.gomanga.com/news/press_026.php
http://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Panic-Manga-Sakurako-Kimino/dp/1933164794/
.

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