As our governing officials turn their attention to how to reopen our nation after the coronavirus recedes, this is a good time for writers to ask themselves, What’s next? What kind of books will consumers want to buy?
A Snapshot of Now
The seeds of readers’ intentions generally are found in today. Our world has been rocked. Everyone I talk to acknowledges that the future won’t look like the past. That’s partly because we aren’t the same as the person we were before we saw the agonizing scenes on our television screens and read of the suffering endured by those who are recovering from COVID-19. The statistics are staggering and beyond our ability to take in.
We now know what a pandemic can do to the health system and to the economy. We no longer expect to go to the grocery store and find the shelves burgeoning with everything we can imagine and even some things we can’t imagine what others use those ingredients for.
Ultimately, as a friend of mine said, “We’ve lost our innocence.”
But families also have found the joy of being together, sharing mealtimes rather than rushing off to the next soccer game. And new hobbies have sprung up, not to mention a renaissance of baking (yeast is much sought after and seldom found).
What’s Next?
My sense is that people will be more home bodies even once we’re free to roam. We’ve established the habit of staying home, and habits are hard to break. Plus we’ve discovered ways to keep our creativity flowing and most likely we’ll continue to pursue some of those outlets.
As I read our local newspaper today, I noted a variety of ways people are expressing themselves.
- Victory gardens. When you’ve been to the grocery store’s produce section and had to grab the last of the lettuce, onions, and garlic, it makes an impression on you. You start to think about how you wished you had a garden that would have supplied you with at least some of your veggies. Not to mention the assurance of knowing the person who handled your produce (you!). (And, yes, I live in California, where it’s time to plant gardens.)
- Sewing. We’ve all seen media features on people taking to their sewing machines to make face masks–some quite arty, others just pragmatic. But sewing goes beyond face masks, as people find it’s a soothing activity that requires focus and creativity in choosing what to make the fabrics to use. This weekend I discovered one of my grown daughters purchased a sewing machine and an ice cream maker, although she’s not a sewer or a cook. She’s looking for diversion.
Some Activities That Might Not Have Occurred to You
- Jigsaw puzzles. A local toy store, which is offering curbside pickup, reports puzzle sales are triple of last year’s. The owner, Steven Elliott, reports that the most popular size of puzzles are those with 1,000 to 2,000 pieces. The most popular subjects are puppies, kittens, nature, and the Golden Gate Bridge (a local icon for us). He points out that one person can work on a puzzle, or the whole family. And it’s not a project that’s complete after an hour’s investment. A puzzle “focuses your attention and takes your mind off other worries,” Elliott observes. He has thousands of dollars invested in puzzles that are on back order–proof that the hobby is nationwide. (Plus, ordering a puzzle from Amazon is a challenge; most are on back order.)
- Pottery. Two local artists decided to provide a creative outlet for kids/adults/families by creating a Quarantine Clay Kit. The kit includes clay, a tool kit, and instructions on how to create pottery art–a mask, a mug, or a pot. Customers order online, drive by to pick up their kits, and then drop off their pieces to be fired and glazed in the colors they choose. The artists have sold 250 kits so far, and 20 organizations around the country have asked for help in setting up their own clubs.
What’s Next for Books?
This flowering of interest in hobbies, arts, and crafts is likely to provide a boon for books that instruct readers on how to become more proficient and creative at their endeavor. The renewed discovery of how fun and diverting cooking and baking can be already has resulted in increased sales for cookbooks.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention an upsurge in children’s books. Not just books that make homeschooling more interesting for both child and parent, but also books for pure enjoyment. It’s a moment when a book-loving parent can encourage a child to fall in love with the magic of a great read.
I’ve just taken a peek at one aspect of how life has changed and how that will affect what books will be purchased in the upcoming few years. Has the pandemic affected what type of book you will be buying? What other types of books do you think readers will be searching for?
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Shelli Littleton
Janet, you are so right about the family time. When I’d normally dread cooking because we have some place to go … I’ve more time in the kitchen. And my daughter is in a ceramic class at her university. While she’s been disappointed that she’s missing out on that classroom hands-on experience, her instructor has them busy making pottery out of cardboard, whatever they have at home from boxes, etc. On pretty days, she’s staying outside and building her masterpiece, which has been good for her. Other than that, I guess I’ve always been a homebody, and my reading hasn’t changed. Give me Laura Frantz and Becky Wade any day.
Shirlee Abbott
I sense here a call to prayer–that people will carry out of the pandemic the best treasures and use them for God’s glory–as the Hebrew slaves carried treasure out of Egypt and offered it to build the Tabernacle.
As a Christian writer, I’ve added new items to my tool box of ideas. Some of them are lessons in doing and being good; others focus on the opposite, what not to be or not to do. It’s time to put these concepts to work building that tabernacle for God’s glory.
Janet Grant
Shirlee, I appreciate your reminder that the Hebrews carried treasures out of Egypt that they used to build the tabernacle. I do pray that we each carry treasures out of the pandemic to use for God’s glory on the other side of our Red Sea.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
If they could now come back to live,
I wonder what they’d teach?
They left all that they had to give;
low tide, Omaha Beach.
There they saw dismemberment,
traumatic amputation;
they were there for they were sent,
and death became their station.
What might they try to tell us now,
in this time of shameful glory?
Would they tell us why and how
sacrifice became their story,
or would their faces go stone-hard
at this pinprick to our self-regard?
Kristen Joy Wilks
We live at a small Bible Camp in the Cascade Mountains and have had a resurgence of late night basketball games with our family on the camp’s sports court. Also, we’ve enjoyed more family hikes and bike rides as well as doing various outdoor jobs around the camp together. I imagine that those fun cozy mysteries that involve baking and quilting and sewing and gardening will have good sales after this. Plus, kids who had to start reading more to stave off boredom will continue to read. I was talking with a friend and she thinks that their family will spend more time at home together after this is over as their joy of simplicity was rekindled. I imagine WWII books involving rationing and such will continue to do well. My sons want post-apocalyptic books … but they always do, especially if there are zombies. They tried to talk me into a zombie movie calling it current events, ha!
Janet Grant
Kristen, you probably are correct that cozy mysteries could well experience a resurgence, what with their gentle plots and lives filled with homey activities. And, yes, WWII with its shortages is something we can relate more vividly to now.
Carol Ashby
Living in a state with a governor who allows drive-up for liquor but banned curbside for craft stores and bookstores, I’m afraid we’re going to see the death of the local Christian bookstore and other small independent bookstores if they aren’t allowed to partially open soon. If that happens, shopping for just the right Christian nonfiction and looking at the extra features in a Bible will be a thing of the past. So will discovering new fiction authors by browsing. B&N here only stocks already-big names.
What Barnes & Noble chooses to stock (assuming the local one survives without curbside delivery) will limit options, forcing more readers to try to find what they want at Amazon, where a small publisher has a big disadvantage for discoverability compared to publishers with larger advertising budgets to buy Amazon and BookBub ads. I wouldn’t be surprised if this shuts down a number of smaller publishing houses.
My e-book sales in the UK doubled when they issued stay-at-home orders. Will people keep buying at the same level with they can go out to shop for things other than books or do things with people again? I hope so. I have good read-through, and maybe I’m picking up new fans who will tell their friends by text or social media. But I suspect not. I find it easy to picture some drop in reading as people use their time doing activities with people they’ve missed.
Has there been a surge in sales of pandemic or wartime deprivation books since this started? If so, will people still want those topics after it’s over? Any historical data on whether people want books that remind them of the crisis after it has ended?
Janet Grant
Carol, it’s sad to read about the lack of appreciation for the arts and healthy pastimes in your state. Yes, I fear for independent bookstores and also wonder how Barnes and Noble will fare since their physical stores garnered the majority of their sales before the pandemic.
Speaking of the pandemic, yes, sales of novels portraying the widespread mayhem of a virus gone out of control are experiencing a major boost in sales.
Will we want to read those books once this over? My guess is yes. I know the book club I belong to had selected last fall–by pure coincidence–to read The Demon in the Freezer this month. It’s a nonfiction book that recounts the Anthrax scare and the last outbreak of smallpox in 1970, plus the continuing search for a contemporary version of a smallpox vaccine. We decided we weren’t ready to read that book while we’re in the midst of the coronavirus, but we intend to read it when we feel a bit safer. We now see the book as relevant to us in a way we would never have guessed back in the fall.
Carol Ashby
The people of the state appreciate them a lot. The governor doesn’t. My relatives live in four other states, and they can all get books and craft supplies curbside. Sigh!
As soon as our bookstores can sell again, we should all use our social media contacts to urge friends to go buy a physical book, a gift card, a coffee cup, anything(!) at our local bookstores to kickstart their sales.
David Todd
I don’t really have any clue of what types of books my few readers will be searching for.
.
Given that I have over 5,000 books in my house right now I’m not really buying any more. Every now and then I get a public domain e-book for my research. As it happened, my wife went in the hospital with a burst appendix on April 3 and is still in, complications having developed. Of course, I can’t visit her. We video call on Messenger a couple or three times a day. We thought she might come home today but in the night she seems to have had a setback.
.
I’ve spent my time writing a genealogy/family history book—or rather finishing it after starting it four years ago and laying it aside. And doing significant decluttering. Tomorrow I hope to get back to creative writing.
Janet Grant
David, I hope your wife is doing better now. It’s scary enough being in the hospital, let alone having surgical setbacks.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
What’s next is sometimes defined in full by what’s lost, and I don’t want to.
The game must carry on, they say
(“Waiter, another round of port!”),
so deal the cards and let us play
although we are now one hand short.
He slipped away quite quietly
somewhere between the dusk and dawn;
we are gaoled and he is free,
and still the game goes on.
He’s taken seat at brighter table
and has been dealt a better hand,
while we continue as we’re able
to smile, and try to understand
why amidst the men we walk among
’tis always good that dies so young.