Writers
’
FORUM
workshop: children’s books
with Kids’ Book Editor Louise Jordan
BABY STEPS INTO
A DIGITAL AGE
The Children’s Bookseller Annual Conference is always an
interesting affair attended by the great and the good of the
children’s publishing world. But this year the conference
was dominated by one topic… digital publishing and how
it would affect the children’s book market. Louise Jordan
takes a closer look at children’s publishing in a digital age
A
bout a year ago I was trying to check in would I be able to travel with suitcases that is to help the company to better under-
my suitcase at Poitiers-Biard airport – a didn’t weigh the same as a small house, but stand who the key consumers of children’s
tiny airport in south-west France. Sadly it I would also be able to ask authors to email e-books are.
was failing Ryan Air’s strict 10kg weight their manuscripts to me at The Writers’ ‘The difficulty is that all the research on
allowance for cabin luggage, mainly due Advice Centre – saving both postage and likely consumers points in different direc-
to the fact that it was stuffed with airport- my back (I invariably end up lugging tens tions. Is it teens, the cross-over market or
exclusive trade paperbacks which I had of manuscripts around with me at any younger children? We just don’t know.’
bought on my trip out. one time!). What Egmont, and other publishers,
Fast-forward to a couple of months About a month after this epiphany in the hope to discover through their trials is
ago when I was doing my weekly stint in Strand, I attended the Children’s Bookseller that digital formats will make storybooks
Puffin’s Strand offices. Dozens of manu- Annual Conference where the main topic appeal to a wider market, including those
scripts were littered across my desk as I of conversation was digital publishing. I children who find the traditional book
tried to create order out of the chaos that is have to admit I felt rather smug at being format off-putting or uninteresting.
the slush pile. As I sorted through the vari- one of the few there who actually owned
ous submissions my attention was diverted an e-reader but, much as I love it, I have Challenges
to the desk next to mine. to question whether this device, and others Something that all publishers are having
Firstly it was tidy – an amazing sight in like it, really have any relevance in the long- to think about is that the children’s e-book
itself at a publisher’s office! However the term future of children’s publishing. market requires a different approach to the
reason it was tidy was even more interest- adult market.
ing. It was because my neighbouring editor The start For a start, children are unlikely to have
didn’t have a chaotic pile of manuscripts in The e-reader launches of 2008, includ- their own e-readers. And even if they did
front of her but a single Sony Reader. ing the Sony Reader and the iRex iLiad, they probably wouldn’t be that thrilled
Now I knew about e-readers – of course, marked a tentative start to the e-book mar- with them as, at the moment, they simply
I did – but I hadn’t actually had the chance ket. Since then there has been a process aren’t ‘sexy’. It’s a bit like asking a child
to handle one in the flesh. And as she (very of consolidation and 2010 is likely to see who is familiar with the internet, games
patiently) showed me how it worked and the market come of age as more e-reading
explained its merits, it occurred to me that devices are launched. Expectations are
this would be an invaluable tool. Not only high for Amazon’s Kindle, a colour screen
device from Apple, a new books project
from Google and the UK launch of Plastic
Logic’s WiFi-enabled Reader.
Although it is impossible to second-
guess what the burgeoning e-book market
will mean for children’s and young adult
publishers, what is clear is that these pub-
lishers are determined not to be left behind.
The largest children’s publishing houses
have already launched e-book lists and
most are now preparing for parallel publi-
cation for their forthcoming lead titles.
Director of Egmont Press, Cally Poplack,
admits that the aim of its first e-book list
46 Writers
’
FORUM #99
WF99JAN46.indd 1 24/11/2009 10:15:26
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