Can You Read This?

One morning the name of the town on the road map you're reading seems unnecessarily small. Then you notice how microscopic the print on the medicine bottle has become. How the addresses in the phone book have become exasperatingly inscrutable. And how they're just not printing paperback novels very well anymore: the text seems like one big blur.

Welcome to the world of the incredible shrinking word. Fading sight is a common sign of aging, as are a host of more serious vision problems such as macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataracts. Others have been here before, of course. But because baby boomers are arriving in droves, these difficulties are getting an unprecedented amount of attention. Medical science has developed impressive techniques using lasers and corneal implants to correct vision defects. Some people, however, still need bigger type in order to read comfortably--and the publishing industry is coming to their rescue.

Traditionally, large-print books have been a sleepy area of publishing. But, according to the Lighthouse International, 17% of all people age 45 and older--about 13.5 million Americans--report some form of vision impairment. By the year 2010, when boomers will all have reached age 45, that total will increase to 20 million--a number that has not escaped publishing houses. "There's been a huge growth in the number of titles available," says Fred Olsen of Thorndike Press, the world's largest publisher of large-print books. "The number has probably doubled in the past five years."

Until recently those titles, whether classics or current best sellers, have been available mainly in loan libraries. Vernon Ellickson, 83, is a typical large-type reader. A retired farmer with macular degeneration, Ellickson goes to the library in Decorah, Iowa, twice a week to pick out his favorite westerns and adventure books. He never buys them. "It would cost a lot," says Ellickson, who often reads more than a dozen large-print books a week. Publisher Olsen says this is not unusual. "When you're on a fixed income, to pay for a one-time read is inefficient when you can go to the library. A lot of these people are voracious readers."

But several large commercial publishers are determined to change the habits of the large-type-reading public as it grows. This fall, Random House and HarperCollins are launching new divisions to capture the big-print audience. Says Michael Morrison, associate publisher of the HarperCollins adult trade division: "A lot of the reason there has not been an explosion in sales of large-print books in bookstores is that people don't even know they exist. Booksellers have traditionally shelved them in a section in the back of the store." But publishers intend to change that--by persuading booksellers to showcase these books near the front of the store and offer crowd-pleasing discounts.

Drawing these readers out of the library and into the bookstore is also a goal at Random House. Christine McNamara, director of marketing for the large-print division, observes that "nobody has tried this before. No one has gone after the market this way." Random House plans to charge the same price for a large-type book as for its conventional-type counterpart--and use the same covers to minimize the perception that these books are different. Says McNamara: "They'll look just as sexy and glossy as the regular trade edition--just a little bit fatter."

Publishers acknowledge that most large-type readers are older and have older reading tastes. Westerns, which have almost disappeared from bookstores, are still a thriving genre in large type. "Mass market and pulp westerns were popular in the '30s and '40s," says Thorndike's Olsen, whose publishing house offers hundreds of large-type westerns. The life stories of older celebrities are also naturals for this market. This fall Random House plans to publish large-type editions of John Glenn's memoir and a Rosemary Clooney autobiography. With the market expanding, however, publishers are adding blockbuster bestsellers and newsy titles--even Oprah's picks--to their lists.

For those interested in current events, the New York Times has a 40-page weekly digest of stories published in its regular daily paper. Similarly, Reader's Digest has a monthly large-size edition. "Circulation is going up," says Lesta Cordil, director of public relations for Reader's Digest. "It's not only aging baby boomers; we find that people who do a lot of computer use like the larger type. It's not just for older people anymore."

Publishers are careful to cater to baby-boomer vanity. Nowhere is there a suggestion that large-print books are connected with getting older. Instead, publishers emphasize that people are reading large-print publications on treadmills, or relaxing with them after a long day on the computer, or using them to read in bed without their glasses. But with the graying of the baby boomers, large-print books are likely to become a mainstream, front-of-the-store--and no longer secret--habit.