
We had a call from Amanda Holden’s agent the other day. Apparently Amanda wants to write a children’s book and they were wondering what her next step should be. I pointed them in the direction of Puffin as they seemed the most obvious fit – plus, because I freelance there, I had all the necessary contacts at my fingertips.
It got me thinking, though. What has Amanda Holden got that most of my authors haven’t? And the answer is, of course, pulling power. Big name authors sell and children’s publishers are signing up all sorts of celebrities from President Obama to David Walliams.
This is all very well but the fact is retailers’ demand for frontlist bestsellers is impacting on the traditional midlist titles. And the midlist is important – particularly to new writers. Within the midlist you can have the books that aspired to be bestsellers but didn’t quite make it, established authors with a good track record but not a bestseller in sight, and new authors who haven’t yet quite ‘broken through’.
Agent Caroline Sheldon comments that where publishers used to say they were looking for ‘a girl series’ or for ‘funny, junior fiction’, now they simply want bestsellers. “It can be in any of these categories but they want to be bowled over by it,” she says.
Stephanie Thwaites, an agent at Curtis Brown, adds that while publishers are still buying, they are being very cautious. “Authors have to reinvent themselves to have much more high-concept ideas that are instantly appealing, or literary, with prize-winning potential.”
Ingrid Selberg, publishing director at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, says the changes are not necessarily to the benefit of the consumer. “It’s dismaying that quality books that would, in years past, have received support from retailers and the institutional market, and would have remained in print, are now not doing so. These books would have found a place in the market and been viewed as successful, but there are a lot less of them now and that has changed the nature of what we publish.”
However it’s not all bad news. The children’s book market isn’t in bad shape compared to some sectors of publishing, and backlist and midlist titles are still selling. It’s just that publishers have to work much harder to achieve those sales.
Gail Lynch, sales and marketing director at Frances Lincoln, cites Keren David’s ‘When I was Joe’ as an example. This was published by FL on its fledgling YA list and while the title has not been supported by the major chains, sales have still reached nearly 10,000 copies. Lynch attributes this to the unflagging efforts of the author, sales reps, indies and the number of regional book awards it has featured in.
From our point-of-view, at the Writers’ Advice Centre, we sometimes get frustrated at the focus on celebrity and big name authors. We see plenty of really bad books but we also see plenty of good fiction titles that are simply slipping through the publishing net. Which is why we are determined to move forward with the idea of launching our own mini-list in 2012.
(With thanks to the Bookseller 18/11/11)












