Where Did All the Book Readers Go?

Horror stories from the publishing business

The headline seemed very innocent—but it caught people’s attention.

Over the next few days, several people mentioned this article to me. Some laughed at the story, and others mocked it.

But all the parents could relate to author Mireille Silcoff’s predicament: Her 12-year-old daughter is smart—but never reads books for pleasure.

“It felt like a parenting failure,” she laments.

Even though we’d read many storybooks when she was younger and we live in a house stuffed with books, I’d not managed to instill one of life’s fundamental pleasures in my kid

But she’s not alone. The number of youngsters who read for fun is collapsing.

Source

But the $100 payment did get results. Silcoff’s daughter did read a book—and then decided to read another one for fun.

It’s a small victory for literary culture.

But those in the book business can’t really celebrate. Paying people to read isn’t a sustainable strategy—especially if you’re paying five times the price of the book.

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I’d like to think this is an isolated situation. But paying people to read is more common than you think. I don’t know if the offers below are legit or scams, but they definitely suggest a growing desperation in the book world.

And it’s not just youngsters who are giving up on books. Even serious readers are abandoning contemporary literature.

“The literati aren't reading new releases anymore,” writer Naomi Kanakia warns.