Americans are reading less so what does that mean.  I think that means the publishing industry has to make some changes.  For example, they won’t publish a book as a novel unless it’s 80 to 90 thousand words.  I personally think that’s ridiculous considering that most people would rather read a shorter book.  If the book is longer then put the other half in a second book.  They would even make more money that way. 

I also think publishers make it too difficult for new writers to emerge as authors.   They make you go through an agent but all the research I’ve done said that some literary agents are devious and deceitful.  As a virgin writer, how can you be certain that your agent is real.

That fact that it’s so difficult to get published means that there are less new authors.  This means that readers have less new books to choose from.  If you would look at the best sellers list at amazon.com and track it for a month, you will see that that list doesn’t change much.   Why?  My guess is that there are no new books for the old best sellers to compete with.  No wonder readers aren’t reading anymore. 

Another big reading discourager are schools.  Teachers should stop forcing kids to read genres that they don’t like.   For a long time I didn’t like reading because I thought it was boring.  I discovered reading was fun when I could finally pick my own book.  The book I fell in love with was the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.  My next favorite was Stephan King’s Needful things.  I enjoy fiction and that’s what I write.  I realize that there are certain classics that schools must force upon students but after those books are covered each student should be allowed the freedom to choose their own book.

I’m thankful that the problem is lack of interest and not illiteracy.  Americans can read, we just need to promote reading as a fun habbit.  That’s not such a difficult task, is it?