The annual Children’s Book Fair in Bologna, is a little quieter than two years ago when I was last here. I remember lines of people queuing up to get in, the squash around the coffee stand, and the chatter of publishers filling up all the cafes and restaurants in the old quarter of this lovely Italian city. None of that is true this year.
Some publishers - such all of Penguin’s children’s imprints from America - are not sending editorial teams this year. They only have the marketing people here. But those publishers that I’ve met say that they have been busy selling international rights for their books “to the usual people”.
I find that publishers are saying that they are “fascinated” to learn about all things “digital”. That is a real turn-around from two year ago when they were faintly polite about some guys with a website (Storynory).
The coming London Book Fair has an particular emphasis on digital publishing, with talks and seminars. Amazon has led the way with Kindle - the tool for easy-on-the-eye digital books. They’ve also bought Audible, which is a sort of Amazon for downloadable audiobooks. AudibleKids sponsors Storynory, and publishers are interested in that link, because in hard times they might not be so keen to give away a free CD in the back of a picture book. It’s more attractive to sell some downloadable audio.
It doesn’t seem so long ago that publishers were a bit sniffy about the internet, and not too happy using email. They were like the people who worked for BBC TV and didn’t realise that the BBC’s internet site had a bigger audience. Newspapers went through the same process, at first despising online publishing, and then, as their paper sales plummeted, realising that both the audience and the advertisers were living in a different universe. Now the papers with a future are those that have invested in digital - and it’s The Telegraph that’s leading the way in the UK.
I believe that publishing and digital are finally coming together. I also believe that free is the way forward - and that advertisers will start to look at buying slots in digital books. But that will take a while yet, because it will horrify traditional publishers, and besides, they don’t yet have advertising departments. Talk about culture shock !


For a long time I’ve been looking for an illustrator to work with us on
For beautiful graphics, our first port of call is on the talents of 

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