The State of the Picture Book

The debate about the future of the U.K. trade picture book market was addressed by Wayne Winstone, until recently of Waterstone’s, at a Children’s Book Circle event called “Death of the Picture Book…My Arse!” Far from believing that the picture book is in decline, Winstone claimed that sales are “vibrant,” ensuring the genre a consistent second or third spot in Waterstone’s among the children’s genres. In the face of publishers’ gloom, Winstone called on companies to support picture books more heavily and above all to increase their marketing spend on them. “The benefits can be substantial because a good picture book will backlist for years,” Winstone said. “We are not looking at a three-month sale, and a repeat sale becomes more and more profitable.” He also encouraged publishers to offer retailers more support with point of sale and added value items.

Outside the shops, Winstone pointed out the fertile background for picture books, which included the U.K.’s National Year of Reading. Despite Winstone’s upbeat talk, however, publishers remain concerned about the picture book market.

Changes at Scholastic

Scholastic U.K. has announced the separation of Scholastic Book Clubs and Scholastic Book Fairs into two discrete businesses so that the offer to schools and consumers is better differentiated. This division is in line with Scholastic’s operations in other parts of the world but has led to the departures of Miles Stevens-Hoare, managing director of the combined Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs division, and Jes Pepper, group operations director. New heads of the businesses will be appointed at a later date. In the meantime, there will be two transitions teams reporting to Kate Wilson, group managing director.

The changes at Scholastic U.K. came as it posted improved figures overall, largely because of strong frontlist sales rising by 37%, and “significant growth” in the sales of rights co-editions and special sales. The book fairs operation suffered falling margins, dropping 1.3% to 49.8% reflecting increased costs and strong pressures on all areas of distribution.

Publisher of the Year

Templar Publishing was named the Independent Publisher of the Year and Children’s Publisher of the Year in the 2008 Independent Publishing Awards earlier this month. Templar’s bestselling ‘Ology’ series (published very successfully in the States by Candlewick) and accompanying Web site was particularly praised by the IPG judges, who described the company as “a model independent… polished, considered and professional in everything it does. You can sense the passion, imagination, energy and strong philosophy of Templar.” For its success in the children’s section Templar was praised for its “innovative publishing and committed can-do attitude.”

Templar’s managing director Amanda Wood told PW she was “absolutely chuffed to pieces.” She spoke about Templar’s books and its special place in the market, saying, “Our books have old-fashioned values because we believe that children deserve them And, if books are going to hold up their heads against video games and the rest, we have to make them as good as we can. But doing the kinds of books we do—very lavish, full of information and a bit left-field—has sometimes felt like working against the tide. While we’ve always been very well-supported by the independents, the market is so price-driven we know it has been hard for the chains to support us. We are therefore especially thrilled to have won these awards.”

Jacqueline Wilson and Childhood


Wilson, at her recent
publication party.

To celebrate selling 25 million copies of Jacqueline Wilson’s books and to promote her newest title, My Sister Jodie, Random House Children’s Books commissioned a survey about childhood. The survey, whose results were published early this month, revealed that the majority of the population think childhood ends at 11, and that children are growing up much more quickly than in previous generations. Wilson, whose books portray contemporary childhood with all the real difficulties it poses, said, “I think children act like adults at an alarmingly early age. Most of my fictional teenagers want to stay out as late as possible and drink alcohol.” The findings of the research concluded that many parents give in easily to their children’s requests for greater freedoms.

On the Move

Wayne Winstone, formerly chief children’s book buyer for Waterstone’s, is now business development director at Troubadour, the school book fair business. Winstone, who cited the long commute to work as his reason for leaving Waterstone’s, will now be working from Troubadour’s office in Dorset, nearer to his home. Winstone’s influence on the market while at Waterstone’s was significant and the expectation is that he will play a similar role in the different market of his new job. “The exciting thing about school book fairs is that you are working directly with your customer,” Winstone told PW, “and having that interaction presents a whole range of marketing opportunities and interesting ways to enthuse children about books.”

Roisin Heycock has taken over as editorial director at Quercus Children’s Books. Heycock, who was previously assistant editor at Faber Children’s Books where she worked with Suzy Jenvey, took over the role from Jenvey when she left to become head of the children’s division at the PDF agency last month. Quercus is launching its first children’s list this month with Tommy’s Storm by Alan Healy and Hazel’s Phantasmagoria by Leander Deeny.

HarperCollins Children’s Books has restructured its children’s division following Mario Santos’s appointment last October as managing director of the children’s division. Rachel Denwood, editorial director of Macmillan Children’s Books, is moving to a newly created role of publishing director, focusing on younger fiction. Gillie Russell remains as publishing director in charge of developing and growing fiction for 10+.

Yvonne Hooker, senior fiction editor at Puffin, has retired. Hooker, whose authors include Dick King-Smith, Robin Jarvis and Jeremy Strong, among others. Puffin publisher Francesa Dow praised Hooker’s work, saying, “Yvonne is a rarity, possessing all the traits you would hope to find in an editor but seldom do find in the same person. She manages to combine efficiency with fun, attention to detail with a real sense of the bigger picture, wisdom with youthfulness. She is admired by colleagues, respected by agents and adored by her authors.”

Gillian Laskier has joined Egmont U.K. as group sales director. Laskier, who has most recently been running Tree Top Media and was previously with BBC Worldwide, will head up a 25-person U.K. and international sales team.

World Book Day

The U.K. celebration of World Book Day on March 6 was again marked by the distribution of £1 book vouchers to all U.K. schoolchildren. Designed to encourage children to become book owners, the scheme is sponsored by National Book Tokens and supported by all publishers. This year’s nine specially published titles £1 titles sold just under 400,000 copies in the first week of the distribution, 52,725 more than last year. The bestselling title was Martin Hanford’s Where’s Wally? (Walker Books), which sold 66,961 copies during the week.

In the Winners’ Circle

The 2008 Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize was won by Sally Nicholls for Ways to Live Forever (Scholastic/Marion Lloyd).

The shortlist for the 2008 Red House Children’s Book Award is:

Books for Younger Children: The Tear Thief by Carol Ann Duffy (Barefoot Books); A Dog Called Rod by Tim Hopgood (Macmillan); Penguin by Polly Dunbar (Walker Books); and Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Big Adventure by Kristina Stephenson (Egmont). Books for Younger Readers: The Perfumed Pirates of Perfidy by Charlie Small (Random/David Fickling); Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell (Macmillan); and Mammoth Academy in Trouble by Neal Layton (Hodder). Books for Older Readers: The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (Random/David Fickling); Teacher’s Dead by Benjamin Zephaniah (Bloomsbury); and Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (HarperCollins).

The Big Picture Campaign

Booktrust’s The Big Picture, a national campaign designed to raise the status of picture books in the U.K and to expand the market for them, will be promoted at the Bologna Book Fair by Michael Rosen, the Children’s Laureate. This will be followed by an exhibition in London beginning on April 17, to showcase work by the finalists of the Best New Illustrators competition. The Big Picture campaign is also being promoted through The Rough Guide to Picture Books, a guide to contemporary picture books, specially commissioned by Booktrust, which will be distributed free in Waterstone’s and Tesco supermarkets.