WINNIPEG - Once upon a time, teenagers lined up for concert tickets. Nowadays, they line up for books.
In less than a decade, Chapters-Indigo VP Trevor Dayton has seen Teen-Lit rise from the second-smallest to the biggest-selling category of kids' books.
"They experience books as a social phenomena, instantly communicating with others through the Internet," he says.
And the latest book to benefit from this, ahem, novel marketing trend is Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn. Haven't heard of it? If you've got a teenage daughter, we bet she has. She and millions of girls like her.
Breaking Dawn is the fourth and final book in Meyer's teen vampire romance series Twilight, and bookstores across North America will open their doors at midnight tomorrow so bloodthirsty young fans can sink their teeth into it right away.
Chapters (Polo Park & St. Vital) will host book parties with costume and trivia contests at 9 p.m. Friday, with Breaking Dawn going on sale at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Meanwhile, McNally Robinson will open its Grant Park location at midnight, where fans can purchase specially priced advance vouchers to speed things up.
Noting the Harry Potter line is the only other to warrant a midnight launch in recent years, Chapters GM Vince Eismendi quips, "It (Breaking Dawn) will be a learning experience for all of us."
In fact, pre-sales for the book are so strong, Breaking Dawn is currently at No. 2 on Amazon's bestseller list in Canada (it's No. 1 in the U.S.), with Meyer's other three books close behind.
Last year's Eclipse, the third book in the series, bounced the final Harry Potter tome out of the top spot less than three weeks after both were released.
Since 2004, Meyer has sold more than five million copies of the Twilight series in the U.S., and more than seven million worldwide.
A cross between Sweet Valley High and Anne Rice, the series charts the relationship of teenager Bella Swan and her vampire boyfriend Edward.
Bella's a typical teen, but Edward is anything but a typical vampire. He and his coven of "siblings" (the Cullens) can walk freely in the sunlight without turning to dust, and abstain from human blood on moral grounds (that doesn't mean they're not tempted).
Meyer has already confirmed Breaking Dawn will be the last book written from Bella's perspective, though the story is about to jump to the big screen with the upcoming Twilight movie.
Fans connect with the characters to the point of dressing up for book launches, and Twilight themed midnight parties are so popular that fan site www.thetwilightsaga.com contains a global party locater and a timer counting down the milliseconds until Breaking Dawn goes on sale.
