2013 Will Be The Year of Baby Boomer Novels, Merry Boomer Christmas!

That's my prediction: boomer literature will be the Big Discovery of 2013, as the publishing industry, and not just Hollywood, realize there is a market out there of 78 million boomers in the US alone and many more in the rest of the world. What the boomers did for YA (Young Adult) literature 40 years ago, they will now do for BB lit. History repeats itself!

Merry Boomer Christmas!

For news about boomer lit around the Net, including articles and posts on the Passive Voice, Boomer Café, Digital Book Today, the Kindle Nation Daily, Venture Galleries and more, check here

For great Christmas gifts for the boomer in your life, check the bookshelf of the Goodreads Group discussing BB novels here, there are some 40 BB titles, see here

Or go to the thread in the Amazon Kindle fora, here.

For the next great boomer film, QUARTET, featuring Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon and directed by Dustin Hoffman, check here. In the movie trailer you'll see the setting, it's just amazing! Look here: 


 

It's coming up in January 2013, don't miss it! 

Yes, boomer films and boomer lit have arrived! And it's not just about BB novels: there are BB short stories, BB poetry and, why not, BB non-fiction...

2013 will also be the year of Readers! Just look at this picture I took yesterday in Rome in my neighborhood bookstore:



These are people queuing up to pay! Such a long line, much longer than any you see in other stores in the area - we're in a deep recession in Italy, people aren't buying anything but they're buying books! Whoever said that Italians don't read...And whoever said that women read more than men? Just look at the number of men in that line...

Have a Successful and Happy 2013!
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Comments

Jo VonBargen said…
Wonderful post, Claude! Your photo in the bookstore cheered me so! I was beginning to think no one was buying books any more. Have a Merry Christmas, my friend, and may you have love, peace and prosperity in the New Year and always!!
Oscar Sparrow said…
There are many of us and that means a market. I'm sure you are right about the trend. It's about getting that visibility is it not? Will Amazon still rule the world at the end of 2013? Do have a lovely day tomorrow.
Nice, isn't it? When I saw the crowd in the bookstore, I couldn't resist - let's hope 2013 will confirm that the Book is Far From Dead! All the best to you, my dear poet friend!
Thanks, Oscar, today is Christmas Day in Rome and sunny, I hope you're enjoying yourself too!

Regarding the baby boomer trend in books (and films),I'm feeling optimistic: I noticed that trend about 2 years ago when researching the market for my book - at that time A Hook in the Sky was still a first draft but I had a fairly clear idea who the audience was for that book - Then I came across this article in the New York Times saying Hollywood was making more and more films for "silver-haired audiences" (they mentioned RED, The King's Speech and of course The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). The article also noted that boomers were going to the movies a lot more than expected!

So from an economic/demographic/marketing point of view, there's no question that there is a growing boomer market out there. And they want to read stuff that concerns them! They're retiring at the rate of 3.5 million/year in the US alone and of course that sort of trend is replicated everywhere else in the developed world, plus, naturally China. We're moving towards a much older world thanks to medical advances, a world where the third act in people's lives is going to be challenging, long-lasting and stimulating! We're in that third act already! So yes, I'm totally convinced that boomer lit is the Next Big Genre!
Patricia said…
Excellent post, Claude. Merry Christmas to you.
Mayura De Silva said…
Hi Claude,

Now that's what are you talking about, eh? ;) NEXT TREND OF PUBLISHING...

I've been to your Goodreads group and BoomerCafe too :) Interesting and yet I need to explore more in your group dear. Woah... I never knew about it all unless you told me :)

Did you change the header here? Something has changed as I feel and I really like it ;)

Have a Happy and Successful New Year too Claude ;) No time to wait now...

Cheers...
Thanks, Patricia, and to you!
Thanks Mayura, so glad you found the concept of boomer lit interesting! And I must say you're very observant: yes, I did change the header here - only very slightly: I used the same photograph but turned it into black and white and then passed over a brush to restore the color to the letters "circolo di conversazione", which is Italian for "The Conversation Club", which I find rather appropriate for a blog!

It also happens to be the setting of my first published novel, The Phoenix Heritage, Book 1, Flying in the Past: in Sicily,in the 19th century, there used to be lots of Conversation Clubs across the island (modeled after British clubs for men)- one for every town. Now there's only one such club left, in the old baroque city of Ragusa and that's where I took this photograph!In the Phoenix Heritage, the protagonist, an American computer whiz kid, walks into just such a club and meets the ghosts of all his ancestors going back 900 years - a unique way to find out about his family (his deceased father was Sicilian, that's why he's looking for his family roots there)! The whole idea for the novel came to me the day I walked into the Ragusa club and saw all the old members there, sitting among dusty, dark furniture and looking like ghosts, LOL!

Thanks for the comment and cheers to you!