In the New Year of 2014 I decided to
predict the future of picture books in a blog. How right did I get it? What do you
think? Do you have your own predictions for children’s book publishing, in any genre? Let's hear them (I won't hold you to them)!
What
I said in 2014 - I foresee more picture books connected to online sites or Apps
providing extra material - not just e-book versions but all sorts of activities
and extra words. This will be done in clever new ways, involving swiping or
pointing a smart phone at some part of the book.
It seems to me that this prediction hasn’t
really come about in quite the way I thought it would. Interactivity, with books connected to apps, doesn’t seem
to have been a game-changer yet. Is it due to cost or too many other media choices or am I
out-of-touch and it actually IS a roaringly successful thing?
What
I said in 2014 - To compete in a digital age, books for adults are increasingly
packaged with beautiful binding and cover effects to make them desirable
objects. Perhaps the same will happen with children's books. We may see more
beautiful ‘must have’ editions of favourites.
Yes, I think this is true – Publishers have stepped up with classier-looking formats and finishes.
What
I said in 2014 - We are already seeing more and more books reprinted with added
physical extras –such as pressout card models, for example. Authors might like
to spend a little time thinking of their own list of suggested extra elements
and offer this creative thinking to publishers.
In actual fact paper costs seem to have precluded this by-and-large and led to in-house writing (ie: publishers deciding not to pay outside authors, thus saving money to afford formats).
What
I said in 2014 - I foresee publishers asking authors to make more and more
personal effort to publicise their own work. That means being active online.
It’s not easy, but we shouldn’t panic that we’re not on Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook and Pinterest. We should do what we’re comfortable with and have time
for. We should try to add some kind of value to the digital universe when we
can and not simply ‘sell, sell, sell’.
Yes, this seems ever truer, and the advice
still holds true, I think.
What
I said in 2014 - I foresee more classic successful picture books being taken
apart and reconstituted to create early learning ranges (eg: a counting book, a
colours book etc etc). This is happening a lot. Nothing wrong with that, but it
would be nice to see some more imaginative reconstituted material in 2014.
There are whole walls of this in
Waterstones now. I think it’s being overdone – Some quite ropy formats that,
frankly, have very little to do with the original work and begin to damage it.
What
I said in 2014. The future of self-published digital e-picture books is very
hard to predict. Amazon.com has been flooded with a tide of awful tat produced
in the Far East, so it’s hard for professional independents to get noticed or
make any money. Perhaps there will be a gamechanger – a big hit that gets
everybody thinking differently.
It didn’t get any easier, but a hit – Wonky
Donkey – came from Youtube, so there is one example of creating a hit using online techniques. Not through Amazon, though.
What I didn’t predict:
The rise of picture
book non-fiction....at last!
The
sheer number of celebrities who now want to get in on the act.
The idea that parents' might ask Alexa to read a bedtime story to their kids (WTF!).
The incredible difference that having a good agent made in my life.
The way that my children leaving home would
simultaneously bowl me over mentally but at the same time free me up to write, write, write.
The
fact that, aged (mumble mumble), I am
enjoying my writing more than ever.
Do you have any children’s book predictions
for the next few years - in any genre? We can look at them again in five years time!
Moira Butterfield has recently been writing
lots of highly-illustrated non-fiction for age 4+. Her book Welcome to Our World (Nosy Crow) was an
international bestseller in 2018. Her new book Home Sweet Home (Red Shed, Egmont) came out at the end of June
2019. In 2020/2021 she will have picture book non-fiction published by a number
of major publishers.
Moira Butterfield
Twitter @moiraworld
Instagram @moirabutterfieldauthor
3 comments:
Alexa can read stories?????????????????????????????????????????
Parents would actually ask this????????????????????????????????
Interesting comparisons, Moira. I'd especially agree with you on classic picture books being taken part and overdone. Sometimes a bit of the magic leaks away, no matter how well-loved was the original title. The children meet the add-on titles (and toys)before they become friends with the story itself.
Nick, I'm afraid that may be true. Hope your'e sitting comfortably as you hear this.
Think the only one of these that I predicted was the rise of beautiful books - I certainly think this has happened, and I'm delighted that it has.
As for what's next? Haven't a clue. Except perhaps to hope that celebrities will move on to something else, and leave children's books to children's writers???
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