18.09.15

Children’s conference: how to grow the market

FICTIONCHILDREN’S & YA

PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN’S

10TOP

10TOP

BY CHARLOTTE EYRE

Publishers and authors should look to create online content in order to widen the reach of their intellectual property (IP), speakers from The Bookseller’s Children’s Conference have said ahead of this year’s event. However, in a period when children’s print book sales are growing ahead of the wider market, others stressed the importance of print books as the foundation of the business.

This year, the conference is focused on extending the reach of stories. The event, which takes place on 29th September, is titled “Invention and Reinvention—Growing the Children’s Market”, and includes speakers from Penguin Random House, Bonnier, Walker and Waterstones.

Dylan Collins, the c.e.o. of SuperAwesome who is appearing on a panel about using IP, said publishers needed to exploit their

brands across multiple channels. “If you look at the trends about where the kids are, they are consuming content across all different types of channels, so why would you make it more

difficult for the audience to engage with your brand?” The publisher’s role of nurturing the author hasn’t changed, he said, but what has changed is where that author needs to be. “Authors want to reach as much of the audience as possible so publishers’ skillsets and remits have to widen.”

Walker communications manager Paul Black, who is featuring in a session entitled “Making the Most of a

Heritage Brand”, agreed that a book cannot succeed by itself. “If you were to just have the book as your channel to consumers it would very quickly be swallowed up by all the other activity out there.

“I think you have to start with your book then spiral out from there on your

activity—always keeping the source at the centre.”

Author C J Daugherty decided to take on much of her own brand building herself by creating a YouTube

series based on her YA book series

Night School (Atom). Daugherty, who will talk

about her experience, said: “YouTube is a big part of my marketing plan. I make my own book trailers, absorbing the cost of production in order to control the quality.”

For Daugherty, authors must extend their own brands because “big publicity pushes [from publishers] are expensive and publishing budgets are getting smaller”.

Catherine Stokes, head of sales and marketing at Nosy Crow, said her strategy was to “push the Nosy

Crow brand beyond the book”, citing its recently launched online shop of illustration prints, but said the importance of the print book was paramount, adding “getting the book itself right is still the most important thing”.

Quarto publisher Rachel Williams, who launched the Wide Eyed Editions imprint last year, agreed, and said reading on paper had advantages over consuming content digitally.

She said paper “boasts unique advantages for

concentration, enjoyment and critical thinking”, and that the fact that print minimises multi-tasking (readers are more likely to jump between screens than jump between book and screen) is an advantage.

For Laura Main Ellen, lead children’s bookseller from Waterstones Piccadilly, print books are often a welcome release from the dominance of screens. “I spend so much time on Twitter and YouTube, I like putting my eyes to paper. It’s the same for children. “

14 CHILDREN’SCONFERENCE PREVIEW 15CHILDREN’S

CONFERENCE PREVIEWwww.thebookseller.com18.09.15

www.thebookseller.com

I was at a dinner recently when Harry Potter came up in conversation. There were people from four different

countries around the table, but although we’d each read them in our own language, the Harry Potter books had been a major part of growing up for all of us. Assisting in the creation of shared emotional experiences that unite people across cultural boundaries is one of the best parts of working in international rights. As the children’s and YA sectors are currently performing so well against overall market performance worldwide, the present climate offers particularly exciting opportunities to maximise international growth in children’s publishing. Alongside the financial reward from translation deals, international sales can be used to underwrite investment in picture book talent as costs are shared by several publishers. In an age where technology and social media are making the world increasingly connected, children and teenage readers are able to engage with authors and publishers more than ever, and as marketing and PR move increasingly online, publishers can co-operate across geographical and linguistic borders to maximise a book’s success.

Despite the positive outlook for the children’s book market, securing international deals is not without its challenges. No translation markets have

been left unscathed by the global economic downturn, and publishers everywhere are being more selective. Not all British books have international appeal and no two markets are the same; as rights sellers we need to keep constantly up to date with changing market conditions worldwide. Cultural and religious differences mean that taste

can differ significantly between countries and, in some markets, we need to work with local publishers to overcome political conservatism and create opportunities for children and teenagers to understand each other’s worlds.

Once found, though, translation deals

offer an opportunity to export the UK’s creativity and culture to readers around the world. International sales enable children who grow up on opposite sides of the globe to inhabit the same worlds and share cultural and emotional experiences, bringing us closer together.

Clementine Gaisman handles rights for children’s and young adult titles at the Intercontinental Literary Agency and will be talking about international markets at The Bookseller’s Children’s Conference .

COMMENT: ADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET

Clementine Gaisman

Translation deals offer an opportunity to export the UK’s creativity and culture to readers around the world

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POS LAST TITLE AUTHOR PUBLISHER ISBN PUB DATE RRP ASP UNITS

1 1 The Scarecrows’ Wedding Donaldson, J & Scheffler, A Scholastic 9781407144689 Aug 15 £6.99 £4.42 4,425 2 New What the Ladybird Heard Next Donaldson, J & Monks, L Macmillan Children’s 9781447275954 Sep 15 £11.99 £7.05 2,867 3 4 Frozen:My Busy Book - Phidal 9782764323519 Oct 13 £7.99 £4.46 2,436 4 3 The Dinosaur That Pooped the Bed! Fletcher, Poynter and Parsons Red Fox 9781782951797 Aug 15 £6.99 £4.44 2,426 5 6 The Tiger Who Came to Tea Kerr, Judith HarperCollins Children’s 9780007215997 Feb-06 £6.99 £4.19 1,999 6 5 Goodnight Peppa - Ladybird 9780723299318 Aug 15 £6.99 £4.11 1,946 7 8 Tales from Acorn Wood: Fox’s Socks Donaldson, J & Scheffler, A Macmillan Children’s 9781447273400 Jan 15 £5.99 £3.50 1,738 8 Re Stick Man Donaldson, J & Scheffler, A Alison Green 9781407108827 Sep-09 £6.99 £4.24 1,730 9 10 Tales from Acorn Wood: Postman Bear Donaldson, J & Scheffler, A Macmillan Children’s 9781447273424 Jan 15 £5.99 £3.64 1,687 10 9 Tales from Acorn Wood: Hide-and-Seek Pig Donaldson, J & Scheffler, A Macmillan Children’s 9781447273431 Jan 15 £5.99 £3.48 1,615

*Week ending12th September 2015

POS LAST TITLE AUTHOR PUBLISHER ISBN PUB DATE RRP ASP UNITS

1 1 The Shepherd’s Crown Pratchett, Terry Doubleday Children’s 9780857534811 Aug 15 £20.00 £11.64 13,764 2 New How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury Cowell, Cressida Hodder Children’s Books 9781444916584 Sep 15 £12.99 £8.36 6,609 3 2 Paper Towns Green, John Bloomsbury 9781408867846 May 15 £7.99 £4.58 4,576 4 3 Girl Online Sugg, Zoe Penguin 9780141364155 Aug 15 £7.99 £4.89 4,149 5 6 Listen to the Moon Morpurgo, Michael HarperCollins Children’s 9780007339655 Aug 15 £6.99 £4.81 3,242 6 9 Gangsta Granny Walliams, David HarperCollins Children’s 9780007371464 Feb 13 £6.99 £4.37 2,745 7 7 Demon Dentist Walliams, David HarperCollins Children’s 9780007453580 Feb 15 £6.99 £4.38 2,724 8 5 Paper Towns Green, John Bloomsbury 9781408848180 Dec 13 £7.99 £6.06 2,207 9 8 Katy Wilson, Jacqueline Puffin 9780141353968 Jul 15 £12.99 £8.06 2,192 10 Re Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Rowling, J K Bloomsbury 9781408855652 Sep 14 £6.99 £5.01 2,118

*Week ending12th September 2015

Tom FicklingEditor, The Phoenix

1 Why do you think there is a resurgence of interest

around illustrators and illustration at the moment?

I don’t think kids are having a resurgence in their interest,

just publishers. Kids have always loved illustration. As

adults we carry around all this world-weary ennui and

forget that when we were younger we were more “Woah

spaceship! Cool!”. lllustration-led events are so captivating

and interactive. Kids love drawing and doodling and they

love watching it too. At Phoenix 75% of those who attend

our events go on to buy our books. I’m not sure many

publishers can say that. But also we have some simply

brilliant illustrators in the UK. People such as Chris Riddell

show that being a storyteller doesn’t just mean writing,

it’s illustration too.

2 How popular are comics in the digital age?

More popular than ever. I never bought into this

“physical things are dead” nonsense. It was one of those

silly predictions, like everyone who said the Segway was

the next big thing. You go to France, the US or Japan and

everyone is reading comics. Both physical and digital.

Online, offline, on every device, in papers, books . . .

In our experience children love picking up a paper comic

and curling up in the corner somewhere to read it. And

rather brilliantly we find that parents love seeing their

kids do that too.

3 Is the internet a threat to comics?

The internet is only a threat to authoritarian dictatorial

regimes. For everyone else it’s a glorious source of

communication and information (and cat gifs).

4 What can publishers learn from the comic book world?

That given a choice most reluctant readers will pick up a

comic over a novel every time. Like Art Spiegelman said:

“Comics are a gateway drug to literacy.” The only trouble

with comics is that you don’t get many new and original

ones because they are quite expensive to make.

THE BOOKSELLER CHILDREN’S CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

Catherine Stokes left will be talking about joint branded publishing with Kate Wilson, Nosy Crow’s m.d., and Katie Bond, publisher at the National Trust.

Dylan Collins is appearing on a panel discussion about knowing and growing intellectual property.

Laura Main Ellen will give her bookseller’s perspective to the panel on how bookshops and publishers can work together.

Rachel Williams will speak about the importance of print in relation to Quarto’s new imprint Wide Eyed Editions.

C J Daugherty will describe how she turned her YA book series into a YouTube brand.

QUESTIONSWE ASKED...4