Tag: Christian Bookstores

Categories
Publishing

2013 Children’s Product Trends

Cartoon of two men. One is disheveled and looks like a bum. The other says, “When your wife goes away on a business trip, you really let yourself go.”

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:

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/066b3038-3e58-45f6-b9af-dba60afce353/6a780d060b4a2a636d8992223f2521e2

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!

 

 

Categories
books

ICRS First Impressions

Before I begin, I must note that these are my personal opinions, not those of my employer.

The last two days have been a flurry of activity in preparing for the International Christian Retail Show. I haven’t been to one as an exhibitor for a while and I almost forgot the work and energy that goes into making something like this a reality.

One noticeable difference from ten years ago are the flood of flat-screen TV’s and monitors that are in each booth. Screens are so lightweight now, you can add them practically anywhere in a booth. Of course, that means a book trailer isn’t as impactful at one of these shows as they used to be. Now hundreds of TV screens will be competing for attention!

One thing I also almost forgot is the amount of work that goes into these shows. As an author, I’ve heard the many complaints about publishers not putting enough marketing effort into their books. But when you’re on the other end, you realize it takes an enormous amount of time and money to be at one of these shows.

This reminds me as an author to consider how much work an editor or marketer has to do to make any book get noticed. It takes creativity, elbow grease and a lot of vacuuming to even be noticed at a book expo. (The dust in a convention hall is incredible! There is also no heat or air-conditioning until the exhibits are fully installed. Eek!)

So if you get a chance, you may want to thank your publisher when they go to one of these expos. It may ease their sore muscles from toting those flat-screen TV’s, building and tearing down their area, and smiling for twelve-hours on end. Seriously, I never knew you could pull a muscle from smiling. It can be done!