Borders Ink and Teens
Thanks to supernatural hot tickets Harry Potter and Bella Swan, the teen market is booming. Or as booming as anything can be right now. It’s also bolstered by manga like Naruto and Vampire Knight, edgy superhero novels and the indie comics that appeal to the art students.
Borders is hoping to capitalize by adding a new section targeting teens called Ink.
According to the Wall Street Journal, it will stock “graphic novels, fantasy and young-adult titles together” along with all kinds of other teen merch. The facebook fanpage already has over 1,000 fans. I don’t have time to see how many of them are actually teenagers.
Hopefully, this will make the teen books easier to find. I had a hard time finding a Scott Westerfeld title the last time I was in a Borders. However, sometimes this kind of branding can be the kiss of death. Older teens are too embarressed to go there, thinking of themselves as too mature and adult readers feel preverted if they flip through a slighty suggestive manga underneath the fleetingly hip teen signage.
Thoughts?
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Here’s a question: will older teens be scared away when an old fogy like me hangs out in the Ink section?