Robyn Sheahan-Bright

So Tomorrow: Current Trends in Publishing for Young People

Dr Robyn Sheahan-Bright

justified text writing and publishing consultancy services

(rsheahan@tpg.com.au)

Abstract: Innovative creators and publishers set trends, rather than following them, but studying trends can offer insights into publishing context. This coverage of global trends is founded on three convictions, that: publishing sits within the entertainment industry; is a balance between commerce and culture; and is cyclical. Concentration of ownership effects the content, format and style of publishing by enforcing key goals and strategies. Future trends will reflect global media influence on publishing, just as creative originality will continue to do so.

Key words: global, children’s, publishing, trends, licensing.

Introduction

“Can a small group of well-organised and charismatic Innovators really change the world?” (Scott Westerfeld, So Yesterday, Camberwell: Penguin, 2004).

Creators and publishers like to set trends, not follow them, but studying trends can give insight into the context in which books are published. Who can imagine now a world without Harry Potter; or one so mercurial that before you recognize a trend is ‘so today’ it’s become ‘so yesterday’? Or one in which the internet isn’t a potential challenge to any reader’s attention for printed books – Second Life, iPods, podcasting, SMS, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter sound like a group of loveable family pets, but are actually technological distractions drawing kids away from, but often turning them on to reading and writing. Whatever the trends are, what any creator dreams of is a work which will be appreciated not only today, but also tomorrow. This coverage is founded on three convictions: that publishing sits within the entertainment industry; is a balance between commerce and culture; and that it’s cyclical.

Global Entertainment Goals

The global entertainment industry is characterized by conglomerisation of ownership of huge media companies with many broadcasting and publishing interests[1]. This effects the marketing and content of publishing properties in driving and enforcing similar goals:

a) Vertical Integration, where a company owns various parts of the supply chain creating ‘synergies’ and Horizontal Integration, where a particular product is sold into a range of different markets.

b) Minimising Risk or Eliminating Competition is practiced by networks like Nickelodeon and online providers like Youtube.

c) Market Penetration is evinced by Disney with its ‘family’ entertainment’.

d) Maximising Property Usage via licensing. These goals are complicated now though, because technology has morphed into many new forms fracturing a highly volatile, unpredictable global market characterised by disaggregation, audience fragmentation and unbundling of content. Users prefer to purchase micro products[2] and increasingly turn to multi-channel delivery, so publishers need to target this selective customer via on-demand advertising, and copyright will be of increasing interest.

Global Strategies

These goals are reflected in four strategies:

1. Cross-Merchandising and Licensing generates film or TV tie-ins or computer games often bundled together. The “five most important segments of the merchandise licensing industry [are] character/ entertainment, corporate trademark/brand, fashion, sports and art licensing” (Gockel, 2000), the first being the most prominent and lucrative.

Those who believe that publishing is a dying business, losing in the war against interactive media, would have been surprised by the show of strength the industry displayed at Licensing International. By capitalizing on the latest trends, publishing continues to be a force to be reckoned with and the future looks strong (Molaro, 2007).

Books are repackaged in novelty formats such as board books, pop-ups, spinoffs[3], broken-up versions of classics, andas dolls, toys, and homeware[4]. Many out-of-print works have been revived and new ones launched with licensing in mind[5]. Movies and TV also spawn books such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hilary Duff’s Lizzie McGuire[6], or Miley Cyrus’s Hannah Montana series – a multi-million dollar film, book, merchandising, music industry with Disney. Proprietary Deals exclusively license special editions or bundled versions of books, to companies such as K-Mart. Creative or subsidiary rights are exploited by Value-added Incentives such as Food tie-ins (now less popular in view of the obesity in children debate)[7] and proprietary book tie-ins[8].

2. Branding via logos (eg Nike) has assumed primacy, and although publishers’ logos don’t generally sell well, book series logos do[9], many quality books are also published in series[10] and authors such as Andy Griffiths also become brands.

3. Niche Marketing sells books via book clubs (Scholastic in schools and Doubleday in the trade) and direct advertising. Some publishers such as Dorling Kindersley and Wilkins Farrago focus on one niche[11] and some answer niche demands by creating specialist imprints for graphic novels or Indigenous lists. There will be more future specialization. Niche marketing has seen even supermarkets fracture into types; for toys, baby gear, or books. Non-Traditional Sales Outlets such as book supermarkets Borders have grown, but face competition from virtual supermercados such as Amazon.com, and from interest-oriented outlets.

4. Creating ‘Hot Properties’ or Bestsellers includes marketing gimmicks[12], some carefully targeted[13], celebrating anniversaries of popular books (eg The Cat in the Hat) with new editions, publishing celebrities such as Madonna whose five books have sold more than a million copies since The English Roses (2003) appeared in 37 languages in 110 countries[14]; and by producing highly original novelty books[15].

Trends in Content

Fantasy and its sub-genres have grown. JK Rowling’s unprecedented crossover success as the first billionaire author has been seen to have had some positive effects[16] including: legitimising recreational reading, encouraging boys to read, the re-packaging of fantasy titles by authors such as Diana Wynne Jones, and new publications by authors such as Garth Nix, Juliet Marrillier or Kate Constable[17]. Vampires and Paranormal fantasy is a sub-genre phenomenon with the Twilight series making Stephenie Meyer the biggest selling author of 2009, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon License of the Year in June 2010 (LIMA)[18]. Fantasy sub-genres also include Future or Dystopian worlds (in Margo Lanagan’s Black Juice (2005) and M.T. Anderson’s Feed (2004)), and Alternative History (in Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan (2009) and M.T. Anderson’s The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (2008). Young Adult fiction has changed since sales began to level out after the 1990s realistic fiction boom. Publishers responded to the YA death threat in three ways: “the series, the changing meaning of YA, and the exceptional book”(Aronson, 1998: 340).Crossoversby authors such as Markus Zusak, Sonya Hartnett, Mark Haddon and John Boyne appeal to both teenagers and adults[19]. Popular YA sub-genres include revisionist historical fiction by writers such as Jackie French, David Metzenthen and Anita Heiss; commercial fiction including pink books like Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries, chick lit epitomised by Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary (1996), Alison Rushbyand Rebecca Sparrow,crime fiction by J.C. Burke and Gabrielle Lord, adventure/thrillers such as Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series, marketable young writers[20]; verse novels[21]; and subversive fractured fairy tales by Jon Scieszka, David Wiesner and Gavin Bishop.

Topical publishing either exploits long term repeated, predictable topics such as Christmas or Ramadan or short term, opportunistic topics such as the Olympics. Current issues include: terrorism and war (in Morris Gleitzman’s Once and Then (2009) or Sid Jacobsen’s The 9/11 Report a Graphic Novel (2006)); refugees (in Robert Ingpen’s Ziba Came on a Boat (2007) and John Marsden and Matt Ottley’s Home and Away (2008)); environmentalism; health issues have driven a US Peter Rabbit Naturally Better campaign with healthy food choices from Peter Rabbit Organics[22]; globalism’s influence on fashion appears in Westerfeld (2004) and others; politics (‘Obamarabilia’ has developed with books and merchandise[23]); contemporary fads[24]; books about celebrities[25]; books challenging gender stereotypes; or addressing cultural diversity.

Trends in Narrative Format

More attention is paid to design to appeal to a visually literate generation, packaging of children’s books is less sedate and mass market techniques such as foil cover lettering are used. Magazine style formats conveying information in bites with stories and visuals juxtaposed, was evinced in the original non-fiction pioneered by Dorling Kindersley[26]but non-fiction is being challenged by online information, making its future increasingly tenuous[27]. Non-traditional arrangement of elements in design; experimental typography and hand lettering; and visual texts are common. Comics use a graphic vocabulary of speech balloons, think bubbles, captions, and sound effects and there are several types: superheroes, humour, crime, aliens, horror/supernatural, romance, fantasy, action/adventure, or contemporary issues. Many are spinoffs from, or generate television or films; there are 3 D comics, and picture books incorporate comic strip formats too[28]. Graphic novels are sophisticated one volume comic stories, now being studied in schools and read widely, which include original tales, new versions of classics (eg The Little Prince), or modern texts (eg Twilight),and non-fiction[29]. Original graphic novels were evinced by Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series of 75 comics from 1989-1996 (DC Comics)[30]. The Watchmen series by Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins in a limited edition 12 book comic series (DC Comics, 1986 and 1987) became a novel and film franchise which critiqued the superhero concept in a darker way, typical of this genre. Many publishers now have graphic novel imprints (eg Scholastic US’s Graphix, Roaring Brook Press’s First Second, Indi-comics publisher NBM’s Paperpcutz)[31], are distributed by specialist outlets[32] and promoted by some bookshops. The 2007 Michael L. Printz Award went to American BornChinese by Gene Luen Yang, and there are many original texts[33] some marketed to adults[34]. Anime and Manga are widely popular in Japan[35] and hugely influential on western culture[36], but Kelts’ Japanamerica (2006) suggests that western appropriation and commercial conservatism threatens to stifle Anime’s creativity.

Retro Publishing of nostalgic looking books[37]has links to gift market trends – cocooning, collecting and cross-merchandising (Woudstra, 1996), spearheaded by aging baby boomers. Cocooning consumers retreat to and purchase things to enhance the home. Collecting and “much of our current love of fantasy is determined by nostalgia… a society craving for either transformation or escape – or both. Harry Potter was ideal… it’s an escape to the literary past” (Macleod, 2003). Retro publishing is also created by artists such as Shaun Tan or Lane Smith paying homage to historical design. Finally, retro publishing stems from marketing departments, keen to repackage classics, as gift books incorporating paper engineering, holograms, mobiles or dolls houses, re-packaged as board books[38], or miniature boxed sets of picture books in a supermarket saturated with product.

Trends in Narrative Style

Readers familiar with filmic narratives demand texts in which narrative conventions are overturned, structures are less fixed, often including a mixture of past, present and future tense using flashbacks and conflicting narratives. Diaries or first person accounts by writers such as Joanne Horniman and Martine Murray recreate the actuality of experience, and unreliable narrators such as Justine Larbelestier’s Liar (2009) show how fallible the personal perspective can be. Dual and multiple narrative voices contribute to a more complex reading of action and intention eg David Metzenthen’s Boys of Blood and Bone (2003). Some authors such as Earls and Sparrow (2007), and Bancks and Deckert (2009) have collaborated in writing alternate chapters. Simultaneous action, a norm in television plotting, has become common, and shifts in narrative person occur from first to third and even second eg Ian Bone’s Song of the Innocent Bystander (2002) provocatively assumes a reader used to dealing with anomalies.

New Technology

The exponential adoption of new technology and social media has changed publishing, book production, and design and illustration, which are often done on screen. Artists speak of this as liberating and of the need to “break the paper habit and let digital be digital” (Gralley, 2006). Electronic book content is sold in three main formats: “Ebook retail and library supply, digital aggregators: supplying libraries, and licensing book content” (Weiss, 2007). It’s predicted that e-book revenue will rise in 2010 (Epps and McQuivey, 2009). Ebooks are read on computers, ebook readers[39], and also phones which may be the future ebook readers since kids are adept at media multi-tasking[40]. The Audiobook market is healthy, Print-on-Demand (POD) is more viable, as are Online libraries and Ebookstores. Authors are connecting with their readers via eMarketing on MySpace, twitter, downloads to mobiles, web chats, blog reviews, and Book Trailers posted on Youtube. Children are adopting avatars on second life or virtual world websites such as Club Penguin[41], and are not only writing, but acting, in imagined stories online.

Future Tense

Most children are digital natives, and even for their parents, the iPod moment seems to have arrived. We’ll see more adaption, and publishers will need to be flexible in order to survive. Trends will include non-traditional sales; online delivery of twitterature via multi-function devices; emarketing; niche publishing; visual texts such as Manga; environmental issues; and more ‘big’ books which dare to be different in format, style, and theme. Original creators begin trends, affirming a penchant for saying things in a unique voice. Trends do matter, though, for if creators are out of touch with changes in the market and technology, they might find themselves being ‘so yesterday’ that it really hurts their prospects. However, just as readers universally applaud Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963), Armin Greder’s The Island (2007) will be an equally enduring measure of what the picture book can be. Future trends will reflect global media influence on publishing, but so will creative originality, as it always has. When something sets trends, people remember it. It is ‘so tomorrow’ – forever.

Bibliography

ARONSON, Marc(1998), “When Coming of Age meets the Age That’s Coming, Part 2: from YA Death Threat To New Teen Boom”, in Voya, vol. 21, nº 5, pp. 34-342.

EPPS, Sarah Rotman and James MCQUIVEY (2009), “Ten predictions for the E-Reader/E-Book Market in 2010”, in Paid.content.org, December 1 [http://paidcontent.org/article/419-ten-predictions-for-the-e-book-market-in-2010/] Consultation: June 2010.

GOCKEL, Sabina (2000), [Diploma Thesis Abstract], Asian Partners Licensing [http://www.asian-licensing.com/ALP%20Web/Intro%20to%20Licensi`ng/types.htm] Consultation: June 2010.

GRALLEY, Jean (2006a), “Digital Picture Books: Breaking the Paper Habit”, in CBC Magazine: Perspectives, June [http://www.cbcbooks.org/cbcmagazine/perspectives/200709.html] Consultation: June 2010.

KELTS, Roland (2006), Japanamerica, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

MACLEOD, Mark (2003), [Paper] Somerset Librarians Conference 2003 [http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/conflib/2003%20Papers/MMac.pdf] Consultation: June 2010.

MOLARO, Regina (2007), “Booking on It” Publishing Deals Continue to Reflect Trends”, [http://www.licensemag.com/licensemag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=442266] Consultation: June 2010.

WEISS, Elizabeth (2007), “Publishing: The Story of the Future Seminar” [http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/__ data/assets/pdf_file/0012/20307/elizabeth_weiss_transcript.pdf] Consultation: June 2010.

WOUDSTRA, Wendy J (1996), “Trends in the Gift Market”, in PublishingCentral.com [http://www.publishingcentral.com/articles/20030516-4-fd5a.html?si=1] Consultation: June 2010.