Deborah Halverson: Children's Publishing Market Report Highlights

Author Deborah Halverson, a former editor at Harcourt Children's Books, shared a market report to kick off the afternoon sessions today.

She shared that audiobooks and children/sYA books are two of the bright spots in publishing. There was 3% gain in children's nonfiction in 2018. 73% of children's/YA book sales last year were backlist driven with about 50% of those being picture books.

Some areas of concern in publishing are: paper shortages that publishers face with more paper created being used for packaging; tariffs on goods from China go into effect on September 1 (most picture books printed there); and Baker & Taylor closed its retail wholesale business.

To prepare her update and her breakout session on Sunday (where more in-depth info will be shared), she consulted editors, other publishing professionals and agents. They all continue to want to see books showing all kinds of representation of children (abilities, gender identities, races, sexuality). Slowly more books are reaching the market, but more are needed. She shared information about a variety of genres and age groups that are pertinent to authors and illustrators of books for children and teens.

For more information about Deborah, follow her on Twitter or visit her website.

Deborah Halverson's Breakout on Subplot and Subtext

Deborah Halverson

Deborah Halverson is the award-winning author of Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies and Writing New Adult Fiction, the teen novels Big Mouth and Honk If You Hate Me, the picture book Letters to Santa, and three books in the Remix series for struggling readers. Formerly an editor at Harcourt Children’s Books, Deborah is now a freelancer specializing in young adult/middle grade fiction, new adult fiction, and picture books. She is also the founder of the popular writers’ advice site DearEditor.com. www.DeborahHalverson.com.

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Deborah calls it "Power writing," when we boost our main storyline with subplot and subtext.

Some definitions:

subplot: minor storylines that compliment the main plot, adding depth and texture to the overall story

subtext: sometimes you want to say the opposite of what you mean

Deborah walks us through some problems that subplot and subtext can fix.

If you're hearing feedback like:

Your Plot is predictable:

Design the main plotline to require someone or something from the subplot to achieve final resolution.

Readers aren't connecting with your Characters:

Reveal fears, dreams, themes through subtext.

Info-Delivery issues:

Write character interaction scenes that crackle with subtext to distract readers from info-delivery about how the world looks and works, and about the plot events and character backstories.

I'll share one more,

A Lull in Storytelling:

You can escalate a subplot when the main plot needs a bit of a breather.

There's lots more problem solving, and examples shared, including Mercy on These Teenage Chimps by Gary Soto, A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

It's a breakout session that is packed with attendees, and packed with great information!

Deborah Halverson: Up-to-the-Minute Market Report

Deborah Halverson is the award-winning author of Writing New Adult Fiction and Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies as well as teen novels Big Mouth and Honk if You Hate Me, the picture book Letters to Santa, and three books in the Remix series for struggling readers. Formerly an editor at Harcourt Children's Books and now a freelancer specializing in Young Adult/Middle Grade fiction.

Children's book revenues have stayed relatively the same from last year to this year. YA has declined slightly. Nonfiction sales rose greatly. Note: Adult coloring books were included in that category. Board books, paper backs, picture books all saw a rise in sales. E-books stayed steady but print books were on the rise. People are consumers of both print and digital. Audio books have livened and revenues increased, and more titles were produced.

The number of indie bookstores increased by 60 new stores last year.

Opportunities in this market place:

If you are a member of SCBWI you have access to the THE BOOK. It has up-to-date information on publishers and submissions.

The picture book performance is vigorous, so there is healthy acquisition but high competition. Creativity is being rewarded in the market place.

The opportunity with chapter books lies with getting in with a publisher to write a chapter book series. This is a challenging area.

Graphic novels within middle grade is an area that's getting a lot of attention right now. It's been rising steadily.

Middle grade fiction is a great place to be. Editors are asking agents for it. Broad opportunities here.

There's a lot of YA out there right now. It's very saturated, especially in contemporary realism.

Consistent feeling that children's publishing is a good place.

Deborah Halverson: Up-To-The-Minute Market Report

Author Deborah Halverson creates and updates the SCBWI Market Report (available as a member benefit within "The Book: Essential Guide To Publishing For Children" at scbwi.org, under 'resource library.')

Taking us inside our publishing world numbers, Deborah offers a "behind the scenes look," telling us about new submission opportunities, the influence of media tie-ins (John Green's "The Fault In Our Stars" was the top-selling e-book last year), how readers have settled into a mindset of multiple formats, and what editors are interested in seeing more of.

Deborah's keynote is packed – packed! – with information. Some highlights by age-category:

Picture Books
Diversity is important, but still need strength of story and craft as well.

Chapter Books
Editors are interested in highly illustrated upper chapter books/lower middle grade.

Middle Grade
Lots of interest in Middle Grade fiction. "Everything goes in middle grade."

Young Adult
Editors are wanting books that "push beyond a black and white view of the world."

Woven through with quotes from her interviews with editors and agents, we're getting an incredible snapshot of our industry. Two more tidbits:

There's a "sense of dynamism" re: Indie Bookstores

one editor was looking for middle grade that has "a literary soul with commercial legs."

Deborah Halverson's Market Report

Deborah Halverson

Editor and Author Deborah Halverson - who writes both fiction and craft books about writing, is SCBWI's market reporter. As Lin Oliver says in her introduction to this keynote, this promises to be:

"The most practical and useful session you will attend in the next twelve months"

In every attendee's folder, there's a copy of the "2014 SCBWI Market Survey: Publishers of Books for Young Readers"

(The Market Survey is also available for SCBWI members at the scbwi.org website.)

Deborah created this "market snapshot" based on interviews with 17 industry insiders - agents, editors, sales managers and independent market experts.

She starts by explaining to us where the market is today (now we all know that if you take out the "Hunger Games bump," the market has been pretty consistent since 2012.)

Deborah is highlighting the new opportunities for attendees (new publishing houses and imprints) and the submission changes.

Then she shares what the experts are telling her is going on, for picture books, chapter books, nonfiction, middle grade and young adult fiction.

She goes into the impact of the Common Core curriculum, the penetration of ebooks and digital by category, and reports on how the submissions editors are seeing sync with what they want.

A few highlights:

There's an upswing in picture book sales and market demand - Young picture books.

Re: diversity in picture books, editors prefer projects that aren't heavy handed. Books that include cultural elements that aren't about the diversity.

Editors and Agents tell her that they eagerly seek middle grade concepts.

One area of cautious interest is realistic contemporary YA… the challenge is "finding stories about normal kids in normal school environments that stand out from other stories about normal kids in normal school environments."


With all this scoop about trends, Deborah cautions us to not write for the trend!

And the final take-away:

One editor told her "I'm not looking to reject. I'm looking to find."

Deborah Halverson: The Pre-#LA14SCBWI Interview by Lee Wind

The first SCBWI Team Blog pre-conference interview is in!

Editor, Author of picture books, novels and the craft books "Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies" and the July 2014 release "Writing New Adult Fiction," Deborah will be on faculty doing quite a bit of cool stuff at the upcoming 2014 SCBWI Summer Conference, including a keynote, breakout session and Monday intensive!

Deborah and I spoke about whether "New Adult" is really just YA with more sex, how to craft a youthful narrative voice, what's behind the "Market Report" that Deborah puts together for conference attendees, and the often untapped power of setting.

Click here to read the post - it was a great discussion!


If you want to see Deborah and learn from her in person, you'll have to join us at the 2014 SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles, August 1-4. Click here for more information and to register.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Deborah Halverson's Keynote: Market Report: An Up-To-The-Minute State of the Industry

Deborah Halverson on the conference big screen!

One of the benefits of membership in SCBWI -- and attending the SCBWI Summer Conference -- is access to essential industry information.

Deborah Halverson edited books for Harcourt Children's Books for ten years before she wrote the award-winning Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies and her own teen novels (Honk If You Hate Me and Big Mouth and upcoming picture books as well.)  A freelance editor and the founder of the writer's advice website deareditor.com, (did we mention she's the mother of triplets?), Deborah compiled and edited the 2013 Summer SCBWI Market Survey Publishers Of Books For Young Readers.

The 2013 Summer SCBWI Market Survey Publishers of Books For Young Readers includes many new imprints!

We start with a double introduction, first by Lin Oliver, then by Laurie Halse Anderson - which was both funny and an acknowledgement that while it's great to know what's going on in the market, maybe as individual illustrators and writers we should aim for the newest trend to be

"writing the book in your heart."

Deborah shares a snapshot of what's going on in our industry right now (from her research and interviews with industry insiders):

Longer picture book sales are up, MG sales are up, she covers stand-alone novels versus trilogies, the in-house development of projects, and how being previously self-published is not seen as the handicap it once was... there were so many details and facts about what agents and editors are looking for, what's selling, and even the "mood" behind the scenes of children's book publishing.

It's a fascinating, unique and remarkably valuable talk to better understand the business side of our industry and where our work might fit.  She's helping us do our homework, and do it well.

Knowing the market is critical, yet as Deborah reminds us,

"You can't write for the trends.  As long as it's strong and fresh, agents are open to it."

The Market Survey is in everyone's conference packet, and is available to SCBWI members at scbwi.org

Deborah Halverson-How to Talk Like a Teen When You’re So Not One: Dialogue in YA/MG

Deborah Halverson was an editor for Harcourt Children's Books before becoming the award-winning author of Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies, two teen novels, a forthcoming picture book, and three books in an upcoming series.

Her breakout session focused on writing dialogue for teen and middle grade fiction. Deborah gave some great tips, including five techniques that help an author to sound like a teen, even though they are so not one.

Here are two of the techniques she touched on:

1. Blurt- Talk first, think second
2. Exaggerate

Deborah explained that dialogue must be able to entertain, comfort, and sound authentic. It’s more than having your characters gab. It plays three roles:

* Reveals things about characters and plot

* Pushes the plot forward

* Convincing like a real person

Deborah said there should be two understandings about dialogue:  

* Strong dialogue is realistic, but not real. Real speech is boring, with babbling and run on sentences.

She showed an example of real dialogue, and then stripped out the rambling bits to show how it should appear. Streamline it. 

* Strong dialogue is inseparable from the narrative that surrounds it. Dialogue makes readers feel closer to the character--especially with young adults. 

Deborah's breakout was really great because she gave us techniques to walk away with that we can apply in our own writing. 

Deborah Halverson Keynote: An Up To The Minute Survey Of Market Needs and Trends

Deborah - on the big screen!

Deborah Halverson is the source of one of the most valuable gems in the conference packets, "The 2012 SCBWI Market Survey: Publishers of Books for Young Readers."

She's giving us the behind-the-scenes info on the 16 page report, with the goal to enlighten us on what's going on behind the numbers - which might help us decide which projects to work on, and who to submit them to.

Some headlines...

Picture Books - the market is improving.

There's a trend of shorter, character-driven stories.

Middle Grade seems to be doing stronger than YA.

There's paranormal and dystopian fatigue.

She's sharing about ebooks, answers the question: are editors looking to acquire self-published works?, shares how most editors are acquiring from agent-submitted works, and how most agents are finding their clients through referrals and conferences.

It's honest, upbeat, and valuable, and now everyone is going to study and bookmark and dog-ear their copy of the "2012 SCBWI Market Survey."

Thanks, Deborah!