‘Darling, never judge a book by its cover!’

Posted on April 16, 2008 in Uncategorized

Members of the SYP battled an arctic gale on their way to March’s Speaker Meeting on Children’s Publishing at Foyles. Our miserable spirits were defrosted by chocolate and red wine followed by a riveting and entertaining talk from Marks and Hurst.

Sean Moss, who had organised the talk, offered a compelling introduction to the pair: Kelly Hurst is currently Editorial Director at Random House Children’s Books. Graham Marks has spent his whole career working in Children’s Publishing and now writes young adult novels alongside being Children’s Editor for Publishing News.

Kelly Hurst began the discussion by commenting on the increasing challenges that publishers and booksellers of children’s books are facing: “The average selling price is dropping by five pence a year and with that pushing a title is becoming a more expensive process. Visibility and promotions in bookshops are a costly process.” Kelly added that the most successful authors are the ones who work hard to promote themselves to their readers. Authors such as Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Wilson have become celebrities by utilising their websites and establishing a brand for themselves. Another cost-saving way to publicise a title is by encouraging the author to get involved with school events as Darren Shan and Robert Muchamore have. It is clear that despite Random House’s growing inclination towards the celebrity autobiography it is children’s books that are Kelly’s main passion: “Celebrity books, such as Katie Price’s autobiography and the upcoming offerings from Geri Halliwell and David Walliams sell exceptionally well in the supermarkets. Book-lovers can be sniffy about Katie,” laughed Kelly, “but they do make money and allow Random House to bid for the books that Random House loves.” One of the biggest worries for Children’s Publishers is complaints from parents about books they deem inappropriate for their kids: “This seems to happen especially with Jacqueline’s books which deal with sensitive, adult issues and yet always seem to fall into the hands of children that are too young,” Kelly mused.

Graham Marks started by saying that the five words that chill him are “Celebrity author’s debut children’s novel.” Indeed, publishing children’s books from celebrity authors can be problematic. One only has to point at Fergie’s Budgie the Little Helicopter books (which turned out to be a ‘borrowed’ idea) to find a brilliant example of how publishers can be tripped up by celebs. Although celebrities can bring in excellent revenue for publishers, they can also drain resources for everyone else on the list because of their demands for huge advances. Graham also emphasised: “If you want a children’s book to have staying power you should never include up-to-date trendy ‘stuff’ as it will become a piece of history. Oh yes, kids can be fickle!” A cover can be an anti-sales aid if it gets in the wrong hands, because children DO judge a book by its cover and they will be picky about what they want to read. Graham stressed: “You cannot get a boy to read a book with a pink cover because the response you will get will be ‘I’m not reading that, it’s pink – Duh!’. You must use your common sense.”

Graham and Kelly opened up the conversation to the audience with what Graham described as “the whale that resurfaces every five or six years” – that is the introduction of age ranging children’s books. Kelly pointed out that supermarkets advocate the introduction of age range labels because it is hard to match the child to the book. This is especially hard if the book straddles the tricky 9-13 age range. Graham disputed this idea and argued that “Tescos don’t care! They’re product shifters, not booksellers.” Kelly agreed with Graham’s point of view and stated, “It might work with clothes but you can’t be overly prescriptive with books. There is nothing worse.” Kelly nevertheless felt that age ranging would protect authors like Jacqueline Wilson: “One can never second guess complaints. Vicky Angel and Tracy Beaker contain sensitive issues and sometimes swear words that have led to wild accusations of these books allowing children to grow up too fast.” It might just be that age ranging books might prevent this upset. A member of the audience asked how a publisher might go about age ranging the Harry Potter series where readers have grown up with the characters. This question prompted weary, baffled looking faces from our experts who suggested perhaps age-ranging per book. This was followed by more confusion when the adult Potter editions were remembered. Perhaps this just goes to show that one really cannot be prescriptive with age ranging. On that note the talk finished and people trundled out into the elements, to the pub, wondering if they were actually of the wrong age to be Harry Potter lovers…