The received wisdom about children's books is being challenged. Their hallmark was once a long life in the slow lane. Not so anymore. Children's books are now up front big sellers and the barriers to their success are tumbling down. The children's market in the U.K. currently boasts eight authors selling at adult levels. From the home market there's J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson and Terry Pratchett while the U.S. imports Meg Cabot, Lemony Snicket and the recent high flier Christopher Paolini are up there too.
But it's not all good news. The big books can threaten to de-stabalize the midlist, fiction for the 6—9s is in the doldrums and the picture book market is no longer the source of worldwide co-editions that once kept the market alive.
Random House Children's Books has had an exceptional share of this year's successes. Publisher Philippa Dickinson summed it up succinctly: "It's been a brilliant year. With 23% growth, we exceeded all expectations and targets in 2003." High points include Doubleday's 15 million world-wide (excluding U.S.) sales figure for Jacqueline Wilson. "She is unstoppable," Dickinson said. "We're projecting 20 million sales for her by the end of 2004."
Dickinson is proud, too, of RHCB's nurturing of Jonathan Stroud, whose TheAmulet of Samarkand was a big autumn success and of picking up first-time author Christopher Paolini, whose Eragon immediately achieved substantial sales figures as well as extensive media coverage. "We had to seize the moment with Eragon. I'm delighted that our great big company could move so fast."
She believes that the market for big, fat fantasy fiction is insatiable. "I think it'll go on for a long time. We'd all forgotten how exciting that kind of fiction could be. It's where heroes can be heroes and you can escape to another world. It's a wonderful antidote to the grimness of the real world."
Within RHCB, the David Fickling imprint also had notable successes. Lyra's Oxford, Pullman's pocket-sized companion to His Dark Materials, was an entirely predictable success, but Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, published simultaneously on the Jonathan Cape adult list and as a David Fickling children's book, was a less obvious high flier. Haddon scooped adult and children's book prize alike, including the Guardian Children's Book Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
Haddon is the best example of the new "crossover fiction" that is now the most sought-over territory, but that comes at a price. "Young fiction, 7—9s, is not thriving," noted Dickinson. "Retailers are not focusing on it and there is little review coverage." Picture books, too, she said, are troublesome. "It's very hard to get a new author/ illustrator going." Dickinson finds it hard to get retail support at home for picture books, while the co-edition market has also become soft. "But I'm completely convinced the wheel will turn and picture books will come back," she said.
Kate Wilson, publisher of Macmillan Children's Books, also believes that picture books are overlooked by retailers and reviewers—wrongly, in her view. "It's a slow genesis and so never subject to the same publicity, but picture books are at the core of our list." she said. "The good ones stand head and shoulders above the rest and it would be dangerous to overlook them. We've increased our output and have more co-edition customers ready to buy than we have titles to sell." Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler's successes, especially with The Gruffalo, lead Macmillan's picture books, but newer illustrators, such as Piers Harper with Snowy Bear, are also making a big impression.
Wilson is worried that the hype around fiction is distorting the market, believing that there are too many auctions which take up too much time. "We owe it to our authors and illustrators to spend more on books we are publishing rather than on those we are not." Not that Macmillan doesn't go for the big books but, as Wilson said, "I'm interested in making a profit. It's not worth going for bestseller listing if you've overpaid." Where Macmillan has struck gold is with Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries. "We love it, can't get enough of it."
As Wilson put it. " 'Chick lit' moves easily between the adult and children's market and between the U.S. and U.K., which makes it good to publish. There's an awful lot of it, but it's still growing." Macmillan is publishing its own "homegrown" So Super Starry by Rose Wilkins later this year, which it has already sold to Dial.
Dickinson and Wilson have been building their lists for some time. Sally Gritten is only just over a year into her post as publisher at HarperCollins Children's Books. "We've had terrific growth 2003—2004, and we're looking to expand the size of the pie and our share of it," she said. But, like Wilson, she's wary of big auctions despite the good media profile they give. "We're trying to separate hype from book. If you don't like it, don't buy it." she said. "Victoria Barnsley, our CEO, backs us absolutely. She says, 'be brave.' "
Big books Gritten has bought for the U.K. and U.S. include Katherine Langrish's Troll Fell. "She is one of the major new talents and we'll give her the treatment," Gritten said. HarperCollins has also had success publishing Garth Nix in the U.K., moving him into a slightly younger market with the Keys to the Kingdom series. Despite a strong backlist in fantasy, including Diana Wynne Jones, with a forthcoming Chrestomanci title in 2005, Gritten isn't sold only on fantasy. She knows that these titles work "not because they are fantasy but because they are good books."
HarperCollins Children's Books is strong in the difficult YA market, according to Gritten. "We believe in it completely," she said. HC has just bought the mass market paperback rights to Louise Rennison's next two Georgia Nicolson titles and, working with Piccadilly and Scholastic, Rennison's other publishers, is looking to build her further.
Gritten has cut the HarperCollins picture book list, and said that retailers "are struggling to find a way to sell picture books. The big ones are still big, so we're having success with Nick Butterworth, whose career we are developing, but unless a picture book is 'special' in some way, we just can't make it work. Gorgeous is not enough any more."
Despite the excitement around children's books and the high sales of a few, Gritten said, "It's not an easy market—but then it never has been. Critical at the moment is the balance between retailers' commitment and the need for publishers to spend to get front of store. It's a clear-cut route—you have to pay to get front of store. There's no point in wringing hands over it. It's how retail works."
Ingrid Selberg, who has just completed her first year at Simon & Schuster, agreed: "Frankly, if you're not prepared to throw money at buying the space, you might as well forget it. We take that into account when with every title we buy." Not that this has daunted Selberg. "We're building a literary fiction list for 8—12s with some debut authors," she said. S&S feels especially buoyant about fiction, having had a major success with the three Spiderwick titles. "We've sold more pro-rata than any of the other S&S territories, and they are backlisting and building well." Spiderwick feeds into the fantasy and collectible market, and S&S is also publishing "chick lit," for which Selberg reckons there is an almost insatiable demand—especially in the US.
Picking the right picture book is much harder. "It's a difficult market, but if you've got something good, it works." Selberg is planning only a small and very well-considered number of titles. "If you focus carefully and factor in the co-edition market, you can make a title work," she said.
At Puffin, children's books managing director Francesca Dow is celebrating Penguin Children's Books 12% growth in 2003 over 2002. "We are delighted with the success of the list last year," said Dow. "And also that we are in second place behind Bloomsbury in market share."
One of Puffin's biggest successes has been Eoin Colfer, whose three-book Artemis Fowl series has sold more than half a million copies. Colfer is eighth on the top 20 children's bestseller list, with sales that were boosted by his inclusion on the BBC's Big Read list. Puffin has a string of Colfer titles coming in 2004, from a £1 World Book Day title to The Artemis Fowl Files, a gift book for Christmas. "When you have as author as successful as Colfer, you want to keep them right in the public eye," said Dow.
For all age groups, Dow is very aware of the need for maintaining this kind of high profile. "We've got much better at placing books in the market. The package is increasingly important. We have to make the books look enticing to the booksellers." She cites the success of the Katharine Holabird/Helen Craig Angelina Ballerina titles as an obvious example. "Angelina Ballerina has completely taken off, with Angelina Ballerina's Invitation to the Ballet selling more than 120,000 in hardback in the Christmas market." But Dow knows "picture books have to be very strong to survive. When you get it absolutely right, you score. Harry and the Dinosaurs by Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds has done that for us."
Other high-profile titles for Puffin were the two Madonna titles (with The English Roses selling 190,000 copies) and Zizou Corder's Lionboy, which had a high media profile and a positive response from the booksellers. "The signs are looking very good for the paperback of Lionboy, and the forthcoming film will take it even further," Dow said.
It's the 9—12 market for Colfer and Lionboy that Dow intends to grow in. "Retailers tell us that there's a big gap in the 6—9 market and that we need a rival to Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry series," said Dow. "But it's hard to succeed in this age group, though we've done very, very well with Linda Chapman's My Secret Unicorn series."
First in terms of market share, Bloomsbury had a year that included the publication of Harry Potter and theOrder of the Phoenix; winning the Carnegie Medal with Sharon Creech's Ruby Holler; and the release of the film of Louis Sachar's Holes. Sarah Odedina relishes all of these—and many other successes. One of these is Celia Rees, whose Pirates was published simultaneously by Bloomsbury in the U.K., U.S. and Germany. "Launching our own author on our own list in three territories was a great moment," said Odedina "The U.S. list now offers us the opportunity to look after our authors in the best possible way."
Fiction is still strong for Bloomsbury and the house sees building up its authors as a major priority. "In fiction we've had to remain as selective as ever," said Odedina. "We're building on our strengths with authors such as Herbie Brennan, who is bringing out a sequel to Herbie Wars, and Mary Hoffman. We've got high hopes for all kinds of fiction—fantasy, historical fiction, realism—but we must be very thoughtful and make sure that we only publish the best of each."
In picture books, the three markets help, too. Odedina explained, "The bottom has fallen out of the U.K. hardback picture book market, though the paperbacks are holding up. It's a price point issue. You can get two for one and then they are 'consumerables' [i.e, bargains], which people prefer." But Bloomsbury hit the gift book market with Jeanette Winterson and Jane Ray's The King of Capri, resulting in strong sales in a wider market.
For Odedina the watchword is quality. "U.K. booksellers have an expectation of the quality of Bloomsbury books. They expect the books to be well done, which gets us into the shops. As long as we fulfill or add to expectations. we have a very good platform to build on."
