Will Children's Literature Make The Jump Form Print To Ebook Format?

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by NickyWithNook

Most children, active and otherwise, have tons of electronic equipment, including lots of portable electronic equipment. I don't know why they'd have more trouble taking care of an e-reader than a Nintendo DS.

Nintendo etc... are made for that target market.

Ever dropped your reader, or sat on the e-ink screen ?

[Elfwreck]

Children's literature can't really make the jump until teenagers can buy their own ebooks. Young kids, who expect their parents to provide them with books, can sometimes use ereaders (of various sorts, depending on item durability and child's carefulness), but they'll give them up as soon as they realize their reading choices are limited to (1) public domain classics, (2) weird free self-pub & indie books by authors they've never heard of, and (3) books their parents hand-pick for them.

The vast majority of ebook sales sites require users to be old enough to enter a legal contract. Or, of course, the kids can lie, with or without parental consent. I am nonplussed at the idea of teen readers getting used to the idea that they have to sneak past a TOS to get access to books. They can't even legally use library ebooks... OverDrive requires users to be adults.

Part of why kids have no problems with downloading MP3s and games? They can't buy them. There is no kids-shop-here online store of any sort. The transactions all require a credit card or similar financial arrangement--and most don't take gift cards, which are the only easily-accessible cards most kids have.

[theolightfoot]

I'm with you Mitch. I'm also a children's book writer who has solely published in e-book format. I've read to my kids on the iPad and they love it.
Kid's ebooks, I believe, are meant to be an interactive experience with parent and child. The idea is not to throw an iPad at your 4 year old and have them read it.
Nor will e-books replace print books or libraries for children. They are a supplement (think vacations, road trips--anywhere you can't take a stack of books).
Kid's ebooks are emergent, even moreso than novels. But as more parents get iPads and Kindle Fires, you will see greater demand for quality, inexpensive illustrated kid's books.
Check out mine: search Amazon, Nook Store, or iBooks for "The Hippo Campus" and "Tiger and Mouse."

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Children's literature can't really make the jump until teenagers can buy their own ebooks. ..........................................
Part of why kids have no problems with downloading MP3s and games? They can't buy them. There is no kids-shop-here online store of any sort. The transactions all require a credit card or similar financial arrangement--and most don't take gift cards, which are the only easily-accessible cards most kids have.

Excellent point - and one that had completely passed me by.
Also, of course, the readers would not be bought by children, for the same reason, even if they were to make economical sense.

[NickyWithNook]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Nintendo etc... are made for that target market.

Ever dropped your reader, or sat on the e-ink screen ?

I have dropped my e-reader, and my iPad. I haven't sat on them, but my kid hasn't sat on her Nintendo DS, her iPod Touch, or any of her other electronic equipment.

I wouldn't give my 2-year-old an e-reader, but I wouldn't give her any other kind of electronic equipment either. But I'd give a child an e-reader if I'd trust them with a DS or iPod Touch, and kids seem to get those around 5.

I did give my 9-year-old an e-reader.

[sonofpendragon]

I think in time they will have to. EBooks are not just nice convenient novelties, or rather, they may seem that at the moment, but in the long term, they will be the standard book; when it comes to this, then kids books will be ebooks too.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Children's literature can't really make the jump until teenagers can buy their own ebooks. Young kids, who expect their parents to provide them with books, can sometimes use ereaders (of various sorts, depending on item durability and child's carefulness), but they'll give them up as soon as they realize their reading choices are limited to (1) public domain classics, (2) weird free self-pub & indie books by authors they've never heard of, and (3) books their parents hand-pick for them.

The vast majority of ebook sales sites require users to be old enough to enter a legal contract. Or, of course, the kids can lie, with or without parental consent. I am nonplussed at the idea of teen readers getting used to the idea that they have to sneak past a TOS to get access to books. They can't even legally use library ebooks... OverDrive requires users to be adults.

Part of why kids have no problems with downloading MP3s and games? They can't buy them. There is no kids-shop-here online store of any sort. The transactions all require a credit card or similar financial arrangement--and most don't take gift cards, which are the only easily-accessible cards most kids have.

Perhaps it's a cultural thing but why would kids have a problem to ask their parents to pay for the books they have chosen? Such a conflict will only arise if parents believe that they have to monitor their kids' reading choices very strictly. Once they are old enough that their reading choice may be too risque for their parents' liking they probably know where to get the books for free on some sharing site or on an USB stick from some friends at school anyway.

[NickyWithNook]

I have my daughter's nook tablet signed up under my credit card and set up so no purchases can be made unless I put in my password. If she wants something, she asks.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

Perhaps it's a cultural thing but why would kids have a problem to ask their parents to pay for the books they have chosen? Such a conflict will only arise if parents believe that they have to monitor their kids' reading choices very strictly.

Kids often want to read things they don't want to directly discuss with their parents, even if their parents are fine with it. And there's a difference between "parents can monitor their books" (certainly, I had no secret hidden bookshelves for most of my teen years) and "child must ask parent, at time of purchase, for every book." Since Fictionwise eliminated micropay, it's very difficult--maybe impossible--to tell a kid, "here's $50; buy books with it when you find ones you like."

And of course, in most stores, the kid can't legally have their own account at all. The parent either has to let them access everything the parent has bought, or set up a separate account, and tell the child, "just ignore the part of the TOS about age." Which leads to them thinking, what other parts are okay to ignore?

Once they are old enough that their reading choice may be too risque for their parents' liking they probably know where to get the books for free on some sharing site or on an USB stick from some friends at school anyway.

Delightful response... "when they want to read controversial material, they should just pirate it. No problem."

Most kids, of course, will never think of any of this. They'll sign up for accounts without reading the TOS; they'll pester their parents to pay when they've picked out something they like. But much more often, they'll go the easier route of typing the name of the book + free download into a google search, and be reading inside of two minutes, rather than "search through store listings, sign up for account, install special software, call parent to computer, wait while parent enters credit card number, physical address & phone number (!!); confirm that software is properly configured, download book."

A sixteen-year-old can be handed $50 and sent to B&N to pick up "some nice books to read during the summer." The same child can't be sent to Amazon to pick up "some nice books to load on your Kindle"--unless someone is violating the TOS.

And hey, if it's okay to violate the part about "Amazon does sell products for children, but it sells them to adults, who can purchase with a credit card or other permitted payment method. If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.com only with involvement of a parent or guardian," why wouldn't it be okay to violate the part about "you may not bypass, modify, defeat, or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content?"

What makes one part of the TOS morally important to follow, but not another part?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

What makes one part of the TOS morally important to follow, but not another part?

The obvious answer would be "One part of the TOS is morally offensive, while another part is not."

In other words, if a TOS demands 3 things that are reasonable, and 1 thing that is a violation of my rights and and otherwise unreasonable, one might use civil disobedience approach against the offensive part and abide by one's agreement to the other 3., rather than an extremist approach against the whole thing, or the more laissez-faire approach of just not using the thing altogether.

Back to the thread topic, my two kids both have reading devices at their disposal. My 8-yr-old son has use of our PRS-350, and I'd love to find more of the stuff he likes at reasonable prices (or free from the library) for it. There's seems to be very little of the kind of stuff he likes available cheaply.
He therefore spends more time with paper books.
My 5-yr-old daughter is just learning to read, and loves the read along stories on her 2nd gen iPod touch.
She also like paper books at bedtime though, and uses the ipod for bedtime music.

ApK

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Delightful response... "when they want to read controversial material, they should just pirate it. No problem."

Teenagers don't steal. They also don't have sex, smoke weed and they certainly never ever drink alcohol.
I suggest you return to planet earth now. Once the kids start seeing their parents use ebook readers any kid over the age of twelve will know "get one of these and get all your further reading for free". They may just as well read the ebooks on the smartphones many of them have anyway. What you or I think about this is completely irrelevant. No one will be able to put that genii back into the bottle - not even the most draconian internet censorship laws - when you can basically put all the books you will ever care to read on a micro SD card that is smaller than your fingernail and costs less than 10 €. The kids don't even need the internet, they can use that nefarious sharing bazaar called school. Publishers should better start thinking about giving youth ebooks away for free to make money with the merchandise stuff.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by ApK

My 8-yr-old son has use of our PRS-350, and I'd love to find more of the stuff he likes at reasonable prices (or free from the library) for it. There's seems to be very little of the kind of stuff he likes available cheaply.
He therefore spends more time with paper books.

My library in Germany has plenty of ebooks for children and teenagers. Availability is (still) better than for the books aimed at adults as well. I could have my daughter have her own account but for now her reader shares my ID.

[5thWiggle]

@ ApK

try the Geromino Stilton series. Or the Magic Tree house series.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

@ ApK

try the Geromino Stilton series. Or the Magic Tree house series.

Yes, he likes both of those. We all like Magic Tree House, and have many as audiobooks (Wendy's gave them away in the kid's meals for a while).
Since he can read a Geronimo Stilton book in about 30 minutes, and rarely cares to re-read them, it's hard to justify $5 or $6 a pop for the ebook, when our library has the DTBs.

ApK

[5thWiggle]

Both are available as e-books (though not the entire series) in our library.