By and large, the mood was unexpectedly upbeat at the recent China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair, which concluded its three-day run on November 17. Few exhibitors seemed fazed by the sluggish Chinese children’s book market or the rampant practice of heavy discounting. After all, they have seen these happening elsewhere at one time or another.
For many, CCBF is fast becoming a venue not just to meet Chinese publishers and distributors on their own turf but also to connect with those from the Asia Pacific region and beyond, including Latin America, Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. PW spoke with several publishers to share their perspectives on the fair and the market.
The market for English-language books in China is growing, said publisher Philippe Werck of Belgium-based Clavis, who has a warehouse near Shanghai and whose team is busy doing live-streaming e-commerce at the fair. “The rights market has also picked up. I already have several meetings with state-owned publishing houses that definitely have the means to buy rights. So I remain optimistic about this market.” For Werck, “books are important but people are even more important. And if you want to do business in China, you have to build the relationship, and if you are there for them during the difficult times, they will appreciate and remember that.”
Early this year, Werck launched Clavis Joy, a product line that specializes in plush/toys for ages up to seven years old, with a Taiwanese partner/developer. He also collaborated with PIE International on Guido Van Genechten’s Little Mouse series and created merchandise that suits the taste of the Japanese market. Werck said, “We need to explore new ways of doing business since the markets and consumers are changing so rapidly. And we need to react fast to emerging opportunities, or it will be too late.”
There have been ups and downs, but business in China remains good for U.K.-based MMS Publishing, an agency that represents more than 20 publishers on sales of rights and physical books. “China is still our biggest market,” said international sales director Andrew Macmillan. “Some publishers will import selected books from us and see if the titles would work before placing bigger volumes. They certainly need to stock up for distribution because their customers, used to online purchases and rapid order fulfillments, simply would not wait for two months for the shipment to arrive from the U.K.”
STEM titles continue to be in high demand, said MMS managing director Tricia Macmillan, citing North Parade Publishing’s Engage & Explore board book series as one of her big titles in China. “Since we offer books from a diverse range of publishers, our Chinese clients will find something that works for them and their target audience.” This year, MMS exhibited under the Publishers Without Borders pavilion, which gave Macmillan the opportunity to interact with other indie publishers from various parts of the world. “We are banding together based on our shared goal to promote publishing. It is about socializing, sharing, and helping each other, and this pavilion is a great concept to achieve that,” she said.
For Natalia Andreeva, founder and CEO of Shadow Play (or ShaPlaBoo as it is known in the U.S.), it was positive comments from fellow publishers that led her to exhibit at CCBF for the very first time. “China is a totally new market for me and my six-year-old company,” said Andreeva, whose U.S. office is in Wyoming. “We only have 15 titles—all about shadow play—on classics such as Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, A Tale for Halloween, and The Nutcracker for ages two to 10, that are available in different formats including gift sets.” Intricate laser die-cutting technique is applied to every page and the unique process used in creating the books has been patented. “This is an interesting fair and I get to meet many people from Asia I didn’t see at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair,” Andreeva added.
Representing operations from both sides of the Atlantic at CCBF was the mission for Rebecca Lake, senior manager for rights and exports of Union Square/Boxer Books. “It is great to be back again after my last visit in 2019 and reconnecting with clients,” said Lake, adding that there is less demand for series and more acceptance of stand-alone titles among Chinese publishers. She promoted several new titles for rights sales, including Maryrose Wood’s chapter book Bad Badger and David DeGrand’s graphic novel on social/emotional learning, I Am Not Okay. “Visitors to my booth were drawn to picture books such as Gideon Sterer’s The Wishing Well and James O’Brien’s Big Book of Feelings,” said Lake, who works mostly through agents. “But I just need to be here to see for myself what is going on in this market—what has changed and what works now—and make new contacts.”
China represents new opportunities for U.K.-based Ransom Publishing. “We are a 30-year-old company and this is our first book event in China,” said managing director Jenny Ertle, whose team had just one rights deal with a Chinese publisher, which was inked five years ago. “I find that Chinese publishers and distributors are really interested in my type of books, which are on English-language teaching and school programs. They want children to read in a natural way and so our phonics-based Ransom Reading Series and Barbara Catchpole’s PIG readers gets a lot of attention.” Unlike in the U.K, where Ertle and her team sell to schools or at trade shows, China has a huge home-schooling market. “Parents are very involved in their children’s education over here and that’s great news for us,” Ertle said.
Offering a different kind of book—with 3D effects and lenticular glow, for instance—is what U.K.-based Red Bird Publishing does best. Its Eye-Popping 3D and Glow-in-the-Dark series were very popular with visitors. “This is our first time in China even though we have been going to the Bologna Fair for 27 years,” said publisher Martin Rhodes-Schofield, who is using his past knowledge as a printer to apply various printing techniques to his book; his team also developed titles for major publishers such as Scholastic. On the first day of CCBF, Rhodes-Schofield inked a deal for 10,000 copies with a Chinese publisher. “Exhibiting at CCBF is about seeing this huge market for myself. It is very much an exercise in testing the water. So you can say that I’m pleasantly surprised by the deal and the interest shown in our titles.”
Back for her second CCBF, foreign rights director Aygul Yangalina of Moscow-based Samokat Publishing House had little time to walk around the fair and check out other exhibitors. “We have sold around 25 titles to Chinese publishers in recent years, mostly because we have an amazing agent in Genya Agency,” said Yangalina, who was a portfolio reviewer at one of the Illustrators Survival Corner sessions and had about seven fixed appointments per day. Recent titles sold to China include the five-title Zoo Therapy series (on emotions and characters), Look, Baikal (about the famous lake), and Moscow to Vladivostok (on the Trans-Siberian railway). “I see lots of opportunities in selling rights as well as picking up interesting titles for translation,” said Yangalina, who has bought the rights to The Nine Sons of the Dragon from Beijing Everafter Culture for translation into Russian.
The Chinese market is less easy and the publishers choosier, said publisher Florent Grandin of Père Fouettard Editions, who sold Laurent Cardon’s five-volume Birds of All Feathers series to CITIC Press earlier this year. “But being choosy means that the demand for quality has increased, and that is great for the Chinese book market. For me, this market is still good and there is space for my titles.” At this CCBF, Grandin was busy promoting The Taste Of... series by Louna Demir. “We have 120 titles in our catalog and more than 20 were already sold to China, which means that we still have a lot more to offer and not just to Chinese publishers,” said Grandin, who was thrilled to meet publishers from the Asia Pacific region at the fair.
The international market for rights sales at Nosy Crow is “pretty good,” said senior rights manager Lena Petzke. “We have six people in the department now and we have diversified by selling to more countries than before, such as to Japan and Latin America,” Petzke said. “In China, we are sitting down for longer meetings, which is great for relationship building. On the other hand, the heavy discounting practice is really making life difficult for us and our Chinese partners.”
The China market has been more challenging since 2020, said Catherine Stokes, U.K. and export sales and marketing director at Nosy Crow. That said, Stokes and her team had major deals for board book such as their Bizzy Bear and Pip and Posy series. “Now we are dealing with piracy issues as cheaper editions are emerging to capitalize on these series’ popularity,” said Stokes, adding that picture books and early fiction are trending this year, which pushed up the sales of series such as Shifty McGifty, Princess Minna, and Dungeon Runners. “Chinese publishers are also looking for added values and so all our board books and paperback picture books come with audio—and this is very much in line with what we see back home.” Its Cambridge University Press titles continue to garner attention with new series Teeny Tiny Science and Think Big! doing very well in China.
Another first-time CCBF exhibitor is Milan-based La Coccinella. “We met many new publishers here and we shall see what happens next,” said international rights manager Simona Abriani, who was busy showcasing Gabriela Dima’s new title The Light in the Dark Blue Night to prospective clients. Over the years, La Coccinella has collaborated with Lelequ, a nonfiction imprint of Ronshin Group, especially on The Books with the Holes series, which has sold millions of copies in China. “We started with the original big format and now we are introducing smaller versions in various pack sets. And looking at the live-streaming e-commerce that is going on at this fair, it’s easy for us to see that things are done differently here,” said Asia representative Mark Howgrave-Graham.
