It was a lively gathering at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in NYC on January 13th, as professionals from the children’s book industry gathered for the Launch Kids conference as a part of Digital Book World. Early on in the program, Nielsen Book’s Jonathan Nowell and Jo Henry presented data stating that the main means of discovery for parents buying books for kids ages 7-12 comes directly from the child. While it was just one of many stats presented in a data-packed morning, it proved to be a common theme throughout the conference. If kids themselves are driving sales, how should publishers be reinventing themselves to reach their target audience?
Indeed, it seems like kids are being put at the forefront when it comes to all aspects of book business. On the retail side, Tara Catogge of ReaderLink highlighted the third and fourth rows of a typical retail book display, calling it the “buggy level,” an area where children in strollers had access to grabbing books off the shelves. This idea was also echoed throughout the day with other ideas that put children in positions of choice: Deborah Forte highlighted a mobile Scholastic Book Fair app that let children scan books for their wish lists; Marjan Ghara presented her startup BiblioNasium, which acts as an online social recommendation site for kids a la Goodreads; and Dominique Raccah talked about the increasing success of Sourcebooks’ Put Me In the Story that creates a narrative around the reader itself.
When it comes to marketing, being able to communicate directly with kids was also a focus. Rebecca Levey of KidzVuz talked about her Youtube-like platform, the only COPPA-compliant video website available for kids where books are the most popular category on the site, making peer-to-peer book recommendations possible over the web. Author Sarah Mlynowski presented the various social media platforms she uses to communicate with her middle grade and YA audiences, demonstrating how hashtags and giveaways can spark viral interest. Random House’s Anna Jarzab and Wattpad’s Ashleigh Gardner also echoed the importance of personalized voices for every social media platform where a company has a presence, stressing the fact that young users should be made to feel special.
A particularly interesting idea that was raised by E-Line Media’s Alan Gershenfeld during the gaming and education panel was the impact of “services vs. products,” or rather that more creative, optimized worlds tend to be more impactful than one-off products. An example given in that panel was expansive, multiplayer games like World of Warcraft over a contained game, but the idea translated beyond just the gaming. Made in Me’s Eric Huang, Abrams’ Veronica Wasserman, Running Press’s Margaret Milnes, and Licensing Street’s JJ Ahearn all stressed the importance of licensing being strategically integrated at every stage of a book’s publishing process, creating a layered experience based on the original property instead of simply spinning off any character into other products. Jess Brallier went so far as to say that the actual product may not be as important as the platform itself, talking about how having a built-in audience of 5+ million, as Poptropica has, will promise success for any solid property.
Of course reaching kids directly is still fraught with gatekeepers and legal issues, but it was clear from the day’s events that these challenges are only offering opportunities for creativity in new services and platforms. Whether a new company or an established publisher starting a new partnership or venture, new points of entry into children’s publishing continue to reveal themselves. While perhaps ebook and app sales are not increasing as it had in years past, there is certainly much potential for new players and platforms to cause disruption. As HarperCollins’ Susan Katz mused at the end of the conference, regarding the speed at which the digital space is changing, “Technology change of today is the slowest it will ever be for the rest of your life.”
All of the slides from presentations at Launch Kids can be viewed on the Publishers Launch site here.
