These are grim times for children’s authors. Prior to the release of my new children’s picture book, “Sad Sam, Glad Sam”, I tried to enlist the services of an agency that specializes in booking television and radio interviews for authors. When I told the agency representative that I was a children’s book author, she politely turned me down stating, “We really don’t have much luck booking interviews for children’s authors.” She said the book’s message about the important role parents play in teaching children how to cope with the disappointments and frustrations of daily life wasn’t dark enough to garner interest from radio or television producers. She added, jokingly, “If you said it was a book that teaches parents how to keep children from growing up to be serial killers, you might get some attention.”

Say what you will about the cynical nature of the agency representative’s comments, my experiences as a publisher validates the fact that the public’s almost insatiable appetite for the profane, lewd and salacious (Paris Hilton and the late Anna Nicole Smith owe their celebrity status to this cultural phenomenon) makes promoting children’s books in the mass media extremely difficult.

Moreover, at a time when reading is loosing ground to more popular forms of entertainment in American homes, children’s authors find themselves struggling to survive in a shrinking book market.

An article posted in the July issue of the Southern Review of Books, available online at www.anvilpub.net/southern_review_of_books.htm, states R.R. Bowker’s 2006 statistics on U.S. book publishers (compiled from its Books in Print database) showed a 10% decline in juvenile titles. This was the second year the number of juvenile books in print declined—representing a 30% total decrease in output.

For authors, such a sharp decline means increased competition for publishers (mostly the large publishing firms); for the publishers, it means fewer book projects with bigger marketing budgets (in the aforementioned Southern Review of Books article, Michael Norris, a senior analyst of Book Publishing Report, was quoted as saying, ”Children’s publishers understand that not every book will turn into a “Harry Potter” series and there are only so many books a young reader will find in the course of a year.” Norris said he expects publishers to be more proactive in marketing children’s books which will limit the number of authors they support); finally, for consumers it means fewer book choices and, most probably, less diversity in content; a result which will no doubt be of great concern to African-Americans and other minority groups.

One of the few bright spots in the children’s book genre comes from the ranks of self-published authors and small, independent publishers. By publishing the works of new and emerging authors mainstream publishers often overlook, these dedicated “boat rockers” help to keep artistic freedom alive and work to ensure the American literary landscape remains vibrant and relevant.

While some authors and publishers might be tempted to wave a white flag and flee the children’s book market, given its continuing rocky forecast, I think most will dig deeper trenches and battle on. As an independent publisher, author and unapologetic “boat rocker”, I choose to battle on.
 

 

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