----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Pattison" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Access-L" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 6:38 AM
Subject: Fwd: Large-print Books Have A Big Future
From: John Rae [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Large-print Books Have A Big Future
By Jane Sullivan
Sunday Age (Melbourne)
January 19, 2003
YOU'LL never guess the next big niche market for publishing. Apparently
we're all sick of staring at computer screens. Our eyesight is getting worse
as we age - an American study says that the number of people with
age-related eye diseases that will result in vision impairment will double
in the next three decades. So sooner or later, we'll be wanting large-print
books.
What - those daggy old things at the local library, colour-coded pink for
Romance, with embarrassingly bad covers? According to an article in the US
Publishers
Weekly magazine, a huge market for large-print books seems inevitable. And
if you think they're daggy, you obviously haven't seen the latest titles or
designs. Apart from specialist publishers such as Large Print Press and
Thorndike Press (which produces an astonishing 100 large-print titles a
month in the US), several big international publishers have entered the
field in the past few years, bringing out some of their most popular titles
in large-print editions.
HarperCollins does about 25 large-print books a year, released
simultaneously with the hardcover editions for the same price. It already
has a backlist of about 100 titles. The strongest of these is Harper Lee's
To Kill A Mockingbird, and the biggest print run so far is for Michael
Crichton's new thriller, Prey.
The readers aren't all elderly: the core audience is 45 and up, including
people who don't have failing eyesight but simply prefer large print. The
old stigma against large-print books is fading, Publishers Weekly says. Some
readers are young adults who have grown up with large print. There's even a
market among people who want to read a book while they are exercising.
What sells best is fiction and biography, with a strong market in health and
religious titles (perhaps reflecting the older readership). Most readers
borrow large-print books from libraries, though they are also beginning to
sell in larger numbers in bookshops, through mail order and the Internet.
The demand for large print in Australia is definitely increasing, says
Richard Churn, a director of large-print company Southern Scene. Rebecca
Walshe, publisher and managing director of Bolinda Publishing, which
publishes and distributes large-print books in Australia, expects there will
be "major growth".
They have both noticed that readers are getting younger and demanding
different kinds of books. The typical large-print customer used to like an
old-fashioned
genre book - a western, a romance or a murder mystery. While these are still
popular, there is more interest in non-fiction and literary fiction.
There are now quite a few titles by Australian authors: Number Five on the
Bolinda bestseller list is Amy Witting's I for Isobel. Other popular Bolinda
titles are Doris Pilkington's Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence, Ruth
Cracknell's Journey from Venice and Looking for Alibrandi, by Melina
Marchetta.
One dramatic change is the look of the large-print book. In the past I've
seen awful editions, with amateurish cover artwork and plenty of literals
inside,
as if vision-impaired readers aren't worth the same effort and quality
control as other readers. The new books are often indistinguishable from the
standard-print
editions, except for a discreet "Large Print" label on the spine or a
sticker that can be peeled off after purchase. Publishers pay a premium for
this. Walshe says replicating the striking tree photograph on the front of
Tim Winton's Dirt Music cost Bolinda $4000, but it was worth it to have the
same cover.
Price is one of the factors that stop large-print books from taking off in a
big way. The print runs in Australia are small (between 300 and 2000 copies)
and Walshe says that a $16.95 paperback sells for $24.95 in large print. So
you wouldn't buy it unless you had to.
But then people are prepared to pay more than the cost of a paperback to buy
an audio book, which is sometimes only an abridged version of the original.
Some of the people who buy or borrow audio books are visually impaired but
many more turn to them as a lifestyle choice. You can take in an audio book
at the same time as you're driving, washing, cooking or ironing.
Indeed, audio books are so popular, you wonder why they haven't just taken
over from large-print books altogether. The answer, it appears, is that many
people still prefer the physical experience of reading - the book in the
hand, the eyes scanning the lines, the turning of pages - to a disembodied
voice on a tape or a CD. They will read for as many years as they can, and
only seriously failing eyesight will drive them into the audio market.
I like audio books but on the whole I'm with the readers. There's something
about the intimacy, the concentration and the silence required to devote
yourself to words on paper that makes me an undying book fan. Large print or
small, I'll be reading for as long as my eyes will let me.
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Bolinda Publishing:
www.bolinda.com/largeprint/
Regards Steve
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