The Digital Revolution in Children's Publishing
By Karen Springen in Publishers Weekly
Jul 19, 2010

In March, Anna Quindlen wrote in Newsweek, "Well, what is a book, really? Is it its body, or its soul?" Publishers of all stripes are struggling with that definition, including children's publishers. Picture books have used artwork as a core part of their storytelling as long as the art form as existed, yet they have always evolved, too. "The printed book hasn't stayed static—look how popular graphic novels are with kids," says Eliza Dresang, the Beverly Cleary professor for children and youth services at the University of Washington and author of Radical Change: Books for Youth in a Digital Age. "Things aren't the same, and they never will be."

Although children's book publishers are pretty confident in the long-term survival of printed books for children—"Children are still going to have a bookshelf," says Susan Katz, president and publisher of HarperCollins Children's Books—they are far from ignoring the elephant in the room. Katz admits: "They'll have shelves with many other things, too."

On those shelves no doubt will be plenty of electronic gadgetry, and children's publishers are working to determine what defines a book, which devices to embrace, how to handle digital rights (and who has them), and how they can make money with e-products.

Certain trends are already emerging, chief among them being interactivity. "We're entering into a new interactive art form," says Rick Richter, formerly the president of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and now a digital media consultant. Freed from rules about page count and paper weight, digital creators enjoy great flexibility. In the process, they can appeal to nonbookworms, such as computer and game geeks. "If anything, it will lead a lot of kids to books," says Richter. He's not alone in this belief. "Early reports indicate that this content is not replacing traditional books. It's replacing games," says Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children. "Parents would rather see their kids engaged in book content than in game content."

And after all, personal computers were just starting to catch on three decades ago, so what happens in the next 30 years is a roll of the dice. Yet publishers say it's invigorating. "About the digital revolution in the children's space I feel a bit like Paul on the road to Damascus: knocked abruptly from my mule, I rise a sudden, passionate, all-consumed E-postle!" says Chip Gibson, president and publisher of Random House Children's Books.


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