What's Hot & What's Not

This was the topic of my keynote speech presented at the SCBWI Hawaii conference. (How fast can one person say YES! when they asked me to speak?????) My sincere thanks to all my Special Sponsors of Information - i.e. people who gave up large hunks of time to help me get an overall view of the publishing industry here and in the USA. They are:

Australia:
Agnes Neuihuizen, Youth Literature Officer
Judy Thistleton-Martin, CBC
Christine Oughtred, CBC
Bronwyn Bennett, ex - CBC President

USA:
Curtis Brown USA - agent Elizabeth Harding
Barry Goldblatt - USA agent
Wendy Lamb, publisher, Random House USA
Brenda Bowen, publisher, Simon and Schuster

I culled over 60 pages of notes into one hour of speaking and thought you might like to get the main points for free. (Although I bet you would have preferred to hear it in Hawaii!) Here goes...

Picture Books: They say this market is tight in the USA, but economies of scale sure do help and American publishers are still publishing huge numbers compared to Australia. Lots of new writers break in this way. Rhyme is acceptable now, but only if it is extremely good. A strong sense of humour is always a winner. In Australia, it is practically impossible to get a PB accepted if you are a first time author. In both countries, picture books are opening up to older readers - such as Gary Crew's haunting 'First Light'. Illustrations are in more varied styles now, funkier, bright colours, lots of humour too. Collage is big, as is chalk pastels.

Readers: Great opportunities for both writers and illustrators to publish here. Educational publishers are always putting out new reader series and are always looking for new talent.

Chapter Books: It used to be an area dominated by Educational publishers but now Trade publishing has made this is growing field. They sell to schools as well as bookshops. In the USA Candlewick and Harcourt have started imprints and Dutton and Dial have strong lists. Hot topics include mysteries, adventure, humour and wacky plots.

Middle Grade Fiction: For ages 8-12, most publishers are crying out for this. Sport stories are big, along with mystery, fantasy and adventure. Light, funny, wry but not slapstick is good. Growing up and exploring relationships with friends and family are also areas which are selling.

Teenage Fiction: In Australia there is a gap in the 11-14 year old age group. In both Australia and the USA, the 'very heavy' topics - drugs, death divorce are taking a back seat. Hot books are still adventure, school stories, relationships, science fiction, fantasy as well as books based on family topics and multicultural themes.

Young Adult: This is an expanding area due to publishers getting better at targeting YA audiences. Books are hard hitting, tough, often dealing with sexual relationships and some violence is acceptable as long as it is integral to the plot. Science fiction and fantasy are also popular.

Non-fiction: Biographies are coming in - presidents, sports stars, women of influence. Books are being written in a far more upbeat style, no longer straight journalism. There is an emphasis on stories, kids read non-fiction for fun, not as research for school projects. Also, more are aimed at younger readers (3-8) for school libraries. Gross stuff (e.g. 'Sick As...' medical facts) are a real hit. Folk tales are over saturated in the USA marketplace. Illustrations are really changing the look of non-fiction, books are being presented in magazine style layout with cartoons and speech bubbles. Informal feedback from schools says that they sometimes find this 'too busy.'

Multimedia: One of the most exciting developments in books, multimedia will not go away - but (industry people say) it will also not supplant books - yet. E-books are not just about taking huge slabs of print and publishing them electronically. Picture books can be created where you can move characters around, hear them speak, change the scenery. Chapter books can be written with hyper links all the way through. Shorts (mini films 1-3 minutes in length) are already being shown on the internet, so new avenues of script writing are opening up. And the opportunities for animation and creating cartoons are exploding. This period of time is like the printing press coming to the world a couple of hundred years ago. Things are changing - fast!

So what's the next hot trend? Who can tell. And, like all of us, publishers and editors just guess - and hope. Here are their exact words.

Cecilia Yung (Penguin Putnam)
'I'm looking for artists who paint for pleasure.'

Dianah Stevenson (Clarion)
'What I am looking for is inside the head of an author. I don't know what is there, but when I see the manuscript I'll know.'

Andrea Schneeman. (North South Books)
'I'm looking for artists with their own 'signature style.' Someone whose style is identifiable across a room without even seeing the artists' name. People can walk into a book store and say : 'That looks like the new Eric Carle book over there...''

Wendy Lamb (Random House)
'...I'm always looking for a book which has something honest and fresh to say.'

Phoebe Yeh (HarperCollins)
'I'm looking for original writing.... Authors have to be thinking as they write "In my heart I am a writer, and in my heart this is what I care about.'


So, do your homework, know what the markets are in picture books or YA or non-fiction. Keep up to date in your craft, read other writers, challenge yourself to master new techniques. But eventually it all comes down to what you really, passionately care about. What's hot? It doesn't matter. If you write with skill and courage and passion then your book will be the one kids love reading - and you're the one who is going to be hot!



Jen McVeity is the author of 23 books and the former Australian head of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. The SCBWI is the largest writing organisation in the world with over 20,000 members in 17 countries. In 2004, Jen was elected Board Chair of the international SCBWI. 
SCBWI:  www.scbwi.org
Jen McVeity: www.jenmcveity.com