On the second professional day at the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF), which was held from November 13 to 15, optimism from exhibitors was palpable despite the smaller crowd. Most exhibitors were too busy to attend any segment of the conference program, which offered 20 major discussions on aspects ranging from rights to retail of children’s titles.
For deputy managing director Clare Somerville of Hachette Children’s Group, “picture books that are more classical with painterly illustrations are popular at CCBF. We received a lot of enquiries about Paul Thurlby’s series, Jo Weaver’s Little One, Alison Murray’s Hare and Tortoise, and Heather Lyons’s Kids Get Coding series. There are so many Chinese publishers looking to buy, and their interests are wide-ranging. This is the reason behind our bigger booth size this year: to cope with the many appointments and to display a wider selection of titles.”
Somerville, who joined the Shanghai Visiting International Publisher Program, had visited the seven-story Shanghai Book City (which dedicates a huge area for children’s titles) and several boutique children’s bookstores prior to CCBF. “Chinese publishers are definitely looking for ideas and know-hows on marketing and reaching out to their audience. They have the building blocks in place: a big population that will only grow further with the two-child policy; a strong retail network; intensity of focus on children and reading; and immense government support. These translate into market stability and robustness.” The collaboration of Nielsen with Beijing-based Openbook, she added, “will provide improved and timely information, statistics, trends and insights for those already working n the Chinese market or those interested to start working it.”
Over at London-based Windmill Books, chairman Ashley Brown was on-site to get a clearer idea of what Chinese editors and publishers want. “We were here since the first CCBF in 2013, and all three editions have been good for us.” Back in 2013, Brown met with several Chinese publishers, “and while they were interested in our series, they wanted less running copy and chunked texts. And so, since we own the artworks and images, we made a special series based on those requirements, and the Spotlight titles on history has been very successful here.” Brown, whose company has been working with Chinese publishers in the past decade, finds China “a very buoyant market, and we are not just selling rights, we are also exporting our titles directly. We work with publishers directly and also through rights agencies.” Series such as The Ultimate Visual Guide and Facts at Your Fingertips, and Children’s Encyclopedia were popular at the fair.
As for California-based East West Discovery Press, their first CCBF was packed with nonstop meetings, some scheduled, but many were drop-bys. “Our company is in the niche segment of bilingual titles, and we work with overseas publishers to offer around 50 languages to the American school and library market,” said publisher Icy Smith, adding that “the U.S. is hungry for Chinese language books especially those aligned with the Common Core standards, and it is a part of our mission to find great quality titles to fit that requirement.” Meanwhile, Smith’s own book on the giant bronze masks of Sanxingdui (based on an ongoing archaeological discovery) had attracted many Chinese publishers. “They are really fascinated -- as the title explores a topic that they have yet to publish or write about -- and with the other three titles of our World History series. It is amazing to note that Chinese publishers and readers are looking for, and keen on, overseas publications on their own history.” Another hot title is John Olivas’s Endeavour’s Long Journey, which celebrates 19 years of space exploration.
MMS (Macmillan Marketing Services), on the other hand, is all about distributing physical and digital titles from about 20 publishers, including BookLife Publishing, Caboodle Books and Curious Fox. Its first CCBF had “far exceeded our expectations with so much interest from a fast-moving market that is focused on education and consumerism,” said sales director Andrew Macmillan, adding that the majority of his appointments were looking for mid-level science titles (“not history or geography”), graded readers (“especially the Red Rocket Readers from New Zealand”) and picture books such as Karen Hodgson’s Boris the Boastful Frog, Tanya Fenton’s Three Silly Chickens and Yiting Lee’s Mr White. “These picture book authors, coming from small publishers, have neither the funding to come to China nor the experience to deal with the market. So we are helping them to enter new territories using our rights and marketing know-hows,” said managing director Tricia Macmillan, who brought 600 titles, mostly thin readers, to CCBF.
In China, The Magic School Bus remains the biggest seller in the children’s market. “We had a special promotional campaign on November 11, and we sold 270,000 copies,” said Wang Yue, head of children’s division at online bookstore Dangdang, which sold half a million copies of the series in an average year. In total, the store sold 110 million copies of children’s books (print only), up 20 million from the previous year. “The recently enacted two-child policy is a boon to Dangdang and everyone else, and we are looking forward to the expansion of the current market of 370 million kids below 18 years of age,” added Wang, who is working on hitting sales of 150 million copies and ramping up rights-buying activities next year. “We are going to identify good books for the market, work with publishing partners to translate them, and provide an even bigger selection for Chinese children.”
