Time to blog? I must be doing something wrong . . .

Well, maybe not quite. It's been a month between blogs and I am just squeezing this one in after a hastily scoffed down dinner of - no I can't possibly confess the shameful depths to which I have sunk in search of quick fix nutrition (if you can call what I have just eaten nutritious . . . )

Anyway, enough about my shocking culinary habits (I am usually a bit of a domestic goddess), it is ten to ten and I have just got in from evening work event #1 of three this week. Now I'm not looking from sympathy, far from it, I am in fact just making it quite clear that I don't fall into the "if you're a book publicist and you're not in a state of anxiety/stress from August to October then you're doing it wrong."

I can't remember who said that first (I believe it was a member of the twitteratti) and of course I paraphrase, but you get the gist. These are busy times. Exciting, but busy and we don't get a lot of time to stop and reflect. At least not until November. I will try to adopt a little and often approach to the ol' blog to keep it on its feet, but alas, I'm not too good at being brief. At least not anywhere outside Twitter, where I am forced to keep to 140 characters.

This weekend was the YLG (Youth Libraries Group) Conference at Warwick University. Basically, a load of fantastic library folk get together and talk about books, libraries, reading, all the important stuff and they invite a bunch of us publishers to join in the dialogue. It's brilliant for us as we get to meet the people who are taking our little treasures out into the world and putting them into the hands of readers and it's great for them because we bring along some of our lovely authors and illustrators to join in their discussions, which I know means a lot to them.

It was especially nice for us this year as the YLG are the people who bestow the Kate Greenaway medal upon their top illustrator for the year, and as I've probably mentioned once, twice or a gazillion times, this years recipient was Catherine Rayner. One of the highlights of the conference is the re-presentation of the medal, giving the wider YLG contingent a chance to hear from the winner, and a big dinner afterwards to celebrate. This meant that Catherine and I got to set on the 'top table' with some of the committee and some other special guests, which was rather nice. It was a bit like being at a wedding! I got to sit next to Wendy Cooling, who is a lovely and fascinating lady and has the breadth of knowledge of children's books which I aspire to posess one day.

We also had the opportunity to hang out with our fellow publicists which is always a great laugh, but that's about all I can say on that matter. What happens at YLG, stays at YLG.

Sadly, being the busy period that it is at the mo', there is no rest for the wicked and it was straight back to the office today. I got some good news about a venue for our Big Draw event, (More on that ASAP!) and then this evening it was off to Farringdon for Words and Pictures: What Use are Picture Books? at the Free Word Centre. The Free Word Centre is a fantastic new centre dedicated to the promotion of the written and spoken word and the protection of freedom of expression. This evening was my first visit, but hopefully we should see plenty more brilliant things come out of this unique space. Check out the website to find out more about it http://www.freewordonline.com They are running a programme of free events up until the 9th of October to celebrate the opening of the centre, so it is well worth a look. This evening's event was hosted by the lovely people at Booktrust and was a panel event featuring Children's Laureate Anthony Browne, along with the fantastic Emily Gravett and our very own Catherine Rayner. Holding court, expertly I must say, was children's book reviewer, Nicolette Jones. Nicolette asked the three illustrators all sorts of pertinent questions about their development as illustrators, what impact picture books had on them as children, and even offered up anecdotes featuring her own children. (Apparently when she suggested her daughter might not be the target audience for a picture book, the fifteen year old asked "Since when is anyone too old for a picture book?" "That's my girl!" conceded Nicolette.)

These really are exciting times for the picture book. There is a whole wealth of talent right across the industry at the moment, and Anthony Browne as Laureate, but foremost as one of our best illustrators, seems well placed to fly the picture book flag and be noticed. The Tigers will certainly be supporting him every step of the way!

It is now quarter to eleven, and all hopes of an early(ish) night seem dashed. Forgive me if I have rambled/been boring. I really am rather tired. Nighty, night!

The Picture Book Problem

I have my suspicions that no one is actually reading this, so it's probably time to be slightly controversial, just to test the water . . .

Our fine industry's attitude to picture books has really been grinding my gears of late.

This year's CILIP Kate Greenaway shortlist was a triumph of diversity and eclectics. I refuse to be written off as biased as I am talking about the shortlist, and not the winner (which was obviously brilliant!). The truth is the shortlist reflected every aspect of what is brilliant and creative and dynamic about illustrated books for children produced in the UK. I was particularly pleased to see The Savage and Varmints on the list, as it proved that the judges were acknowledging the importance of books with pictures for older readers. There is no doubt in my mind that you are NEVER too old to enjoy a picture book, and it was fantastic to see this recognised by this prestigious award.

What a shame it was then to see the award overshadowed to such a great extent. Prior to the announcement I was warned by the CKG PR team that it is always a struggle to secure anywhere near as much coverage for the Greenaway as for the Carnegie. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was wonderful to see Siobhan Dowd recognised posthumously for her wonderful book Bog Child and if I'm honest, I don't think even this achieved the coverage it deserved (publisher David Fickling's assertion that " . . . the name of the Carnegie winner should be on everybody's lips, on every front page . . . " was sadly not realised), but it was a real shame to find everywhere the awards were mentioned, the Greenaway winner was something of an after thought. An 'also presented at the same ceremony . . . ' much as the award for Best Make-up is flashed as a time filler on the Academy Award coverage. 

We were fortunate to have some fantastic support from the Scottish press, Catherine being an adopted Scot since taking up permanent residence in Edinburgh, but the coverage in the national press and even The Bookseller was woefully lacking. 

I suppose the problem is the turnover of young readers is much higher than in adults. That is to say, children's interests and reading levels develop at a phenomenal rate. A book which maybe 'suitable' for a five year-old will rapidly be outgrown and new five year-olds will arrive to discover the book afresh (not to mention the fact they will happily listen to the same book over and over). Within the adult readership people are likely to spend fifty years reading their way through the literary ether therefore, I suppose, it is necessary to have a larger number of titles for them to choose from. However, I think it is a big mistake to write kids off as less discerning, and to therefore give them fewer options. It is little wonder that so many parents/teachers have trouble encouraging readers when kids are often given an incredibly limited and uninspiring selection of books to choose from. It seems that publishers, booksellers and buyers are going for the 'easy sell'. My worry is that playing it safe is likely to produce a generation of 'safe' readers. We have a responsibility to readers of this age to stimulate them as much as possible, not to mention give them the opportunity and appropriate support to make their own choices about what they read, rather than spoon-feeding them from a nice, safe, baby-sized selection.

I was glad to see Klaus Flugge's letter to The Bookseller regarding Kate Skipper's limited selection in The Bookseller's picture book supplement, but it seemed to me a little misdirected. Although it is a crying shame that we struggle to sell hardback picture books to the general trade, what bothered me more was the obviousness of her choices. I have no doubt that Kate reached her position by demonstrating commercial nous and a passion for picture books, but I can't help but feel that any randomly selected non-children's specialist from one of the chain's stores could have told us that Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler's latest (two!) offerings will be among the biggest sellers of the season. I know it's wrong to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I was pleased to see two of our titles featured, but both books are the next instalments in already high performing series. It would have been far more enlightening and invigorating to have been given a sneak peak at some of the exciting new treats which I know we all have in store.

Also, even more worryingly, the supplement itself lost its stand alone status and got relegated to the centrefold of the magazine. Now I'm not actually going to blame The Bookseller for this. I am going to take a wild stab at it and guess that this was down to a lack of funds i.e. a drop in advertising. I had booked a half page advert but got bumped up to the full front cover of the supplement. Clearly publishers themselves are being reticent about investing in the promotion of picture books. This troubles me . . . 

Respect should be paid to Booktrust for the valiant efforts of The Big Picture campaign. Along with then Children's Laureate Michael Rosen, they launched an offensive to 'put picture books firmly in the public eye'. Unfortunately the public seems to have been keeping their eyes firmly shut, as the initial dream doesn't seem to have quite been realised. Thank god, then, for the fact that Anthony Browne has been installed as the new Children's Laureate. Anthony was heavily involved with 2008's Big Picture campaign, taking up the helm on the judging panel for the Best New Illustrators Award. I only hope Anthony takes up Michael's well-worn mantel and runs with it, as this campaign really hasn't hit its peak . . . yet. We're proud to be adding Little Tiger's name to the gaggle of children's publishers sponsoring the Children's Laureate post and I hope that through commitment and hard work, together we will all be able to solve the picture book problem. After all, today's picture book readers could be tomorrows Booker Prize winners . . . or reality TV stars. What's it gonna be?