One of my highlights las week was to hear Children’s Product Trends for 2013 by Dr. Mary Manz Simon. I took a few pages of sketch notes. You can see them here:
I was excited to see Warner Press‘ Fun Family Devotions highlighted as one of this year’s products.
Christian Elden has done a great job designing this and Wilson Williams Jr. did a fantastic job on illustrating the cover.
Here are some of the highlights from the seminar:
- VeggieTales is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
- Smart phones are continuing to affect children’s publishing as well as publishing in general
- Brick and mortar stores are still an important part of a shopper’s experience. Don’t assume everything is online!
- Picture books were pronounced dead two years ago. Now they’re back (yes, it’s a cycle)
- Books with pictures are receiving a resurgence.
- Graphic novels are becoming mainstream in Christian publishing
- Comic books for middle readers are also popular
- Middle grade, illustrated books are trending up because we live in a visually oriented world.
I am excited that visually oriented books are seen as a trend once again. Let’s face it, nobody wants to read block after block of text, especially a fourth grader that is connected to the Internet. We like to see some pictures.
On the whole, I feel excited about children’s publishing. It is a good time for author/illustrators. Let’s get those products out there so the kids have something they want to read!
