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Today's guest blogger, Vincent Lowry, is the author of a sci-fi adventure novel for young adults, CONSTELLATION CHRONICLES: The Lost Civilization of Aries. Below, he discusses new trends in publishing, and just how much of an impact they can have on teen readers today.

Today's guest blogger, Vincent Lowry, is the author of a sci-fi adventure novel for young adults, CONSTELLATION CHRONICLES: The Lost Civilization of Aries. Below, he discusses new trends in publishing, and just how much of an impact they can have on teen readers today.


Today’s young adults are living through a remarkable revolution in the publishing industry. From POD (Print on Demand) novels to e-books (stories sold on digital platforms such as Amazon’s Kindle), a teenager in 21st century has far more purchasing options than their parents or grandparents had while growing up.

Take Jenny Thompson, for example. She can’t drive a car just yet, nor vote in the next political election, but just last week she found a book on the social site Goodreads.com --- we’ll say it’s CONSTELLATION CHRONICLES --- and decided to add it to her digital “to-read” list, shelving it in the subcategory “young adult fiction.” Once she added the book, Goodreads immediately notified the author that Jenny was interested in his novel. Pleased about Jenny’s enthusiasm, the author decided to send an email thanking her and listed the book’s website as well as all the special deals available to Jenny so she could find the novel at the lowest cost. Jenny thought the book’s website looked cool (especially the book video/trailer). Better yet, she found that ordering on the website meant she’d have a signed copy with free shipping. She made the purchase, had the book printed directly for her (via POD technology), and received it within a week --- the signature inside reading, “Thanks, Jenny! I hope you enjoy the adventure!” She hopes she enjoys it, too. If she does, she might post a review on Goodreads and recommend it to her 200 plus friends on the same site (not to mention her combined 1000 plus friends on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter).

Now did Jenny’s parents or grandparents purchase books this way when they were her age? Not a chance! They most likely took a stroll to the nearest bookstore, selected one of the few mass produced paperbacks on the shelves, and bought it at whatever price the store dictated. No special discounts. No communication with the author. No nice handwritten messages with their name --- and the author’s --- inside the cover. Their copy was just one of thousands that had come off the assembly line from a large publishing house.

That’s a pretty awesome revolution.

Especially for a kid who cannot drive…

-- Vince Lowry