‘‘ S
Neilsen
Giving children the choice: book loans and sales
PRING, World Book Day and the Easter holidays have been and gone but their impact on children’s book buying and loans,
are worth analysing.
Unlike the peak book-buying season at Christmas, World Book Day is solely about children’s purchasing, with children in the UK and Ireland being able to exchange their £1 gifted World Book Day token for a book of their very own. It is probably one of the only instances (Book tokens and gifting aside) that children can control their book acquisition without the need of a parent to step in. This year WBD celebrated its 25th anniversary and in 2022 so far Nielsen BookScan – which tracks and measures sales of print books – has counted just over a million books sold across 14 titles. Impressive numbers driven almost exclusively by children.
Moving on to look at Children’s book acquisition more generally, we can consider the insights from library loan data which is also tracked by Nielsen BookScan and has been provided free of charge to libraries since 2009. The loans data tells us that the two most significant categories in Children’s UK libraries are picture books and children’s fiction. In sales it is the same, but what is telling is the share of the market in each case. In the UK, 30 per cent of purchased books are fiction and 19 per cent are picture books. For loans of children’s books this increases to 32 per cent for fiction and 33 per cent for picture books. So, one in three of all children’s books borrowed from libraries are picture books, 14 per cent higher than the relative proportion bought through UK shops. We may surmise that this is being driven by the younger child who can help themselves freely to whichever book they would like in a library. Looking at the latest data from the Nielsen ‘Understanding the children’s
June 2022
book consumer’, which surveys 2,000 parents and children, we find that 69 per cent of 0-17s read books or have books read to them weekly, and when considering the youngest age ranges (those that might like a picture book, say) this proportion can be as high as 90 per cent, indicating the popularity of books among younger children. Despite the onslaught of alternatives out there such as YouTube and gaming and even, dare I say it, going outside to play or do sport, reading is still one of the top activities for children.
When we ask parents what would encourage more reading, interestingly one of the options ranked most highly is ‘More time at school to read own choice books’, which 14 per cent of respondents answered. The key phrase here is ‘own choice books’. Previous studies have indicated that children like control over their choice of books [Print Matters More, Farshore, 2018] and libraries offer such an unparalleled access for the younger reader or those without ready access to a wallet.
The titles at the top of the 2021 sales charts and those at the top of the loans charts, show some similarities,with David Walliams, Jeff Kinney and JK Rowling all appearing, indicative of
Title
the power of the brand name author. Overall though, backlist titles (those published before 2021) dominate the loan charts, showing what a valuable source of these ‘longlist’ titles libraries are, in contrast the top of the sales chart is almost exclusively front list (published in 2021) as we might expect. In looking specifically at picture books aimed at the younger reader, we see slightly more difference in the charts, although again brand authors dominate with a prevalence of backlist titles. Julia Donaldson’s The Smeds and the Smoos is the only title in the top 10 books for each 2021 top three picture books by volume sales through UK shops.
The full charts reflecting the most popular loans and the bestsellers demonstrate that libraries and bookshops are offering different services – although continuing to make sure that there are plenty of picture books and backlist titles is a must for both. In giving children ownership over their book choices we can truly see the tastes of our younger readers, which in turn will provide valuable insight to the trade, allowing publishers and authors alike to observe the popularity of titles that perhaps are not able to stay on bookshop shelves all year round. IP
Top three (2021) picture books by volume sales through UK shops. Position
Author
1 2 3
Superworm
The Smeds and the Smoos Greg the Sausage Roll
Title
Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson
Mark Hoyle & Roxanne Hoyle
Top three (2021) picture books by volume loans through UK libraries. Position
Author
1 2 3
Ruby’s Worry
The Smeds and the Smoos Little Monsters
Tom Percival Julia Donaldson David Walliams
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 45
Despite the onslaught of alternatives out there such as YouTube and gaming ... reading is still one of the top activities for children.
INSIGHT
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