Children's Publishing Market Forecast 2012

Now in its sixth edition, Children’s Publishing Market Forecast 2012 continues its tradition of providing an accurate and independent perspective on where the market for children’s books is headed as well as analysis of market opportunities and pitfalls. How are publishers battling challenges such as an overall decline in reading, returns of unsold stock from retailers, the intensifying battle for shelf space, and the perplexing question of e-books pertaining to the segment?

Armed with an archive of trade book data that goes back more than 30 years, Simba’s team of seasoned trade book analysts examines the market for children’s books segment by segment, from youngsters to tweens to teens. In addition, Children’s Publishing Market Forecast 2012 provides high-quality, unbiased market intelligence on the publishing houses, and the entire retail landscape, from independent bookstores to online outlets to big box stores.

Gain access to exclusive statistics and analysis such as:

• An in-depth look at bestselling children’s books drawn from the USA Today, Publishers Weekly and New York Times lists, with breakdowns of top-performing titles, authors, imprints and a comprehensive category ranking of which books are selling and which are not.
• Children’s e-book trend data culled from Simba’s Trade E-Book Publishing 2011
• Expanded analysis of the most vital facet of children’s publishing: series books.
• Results from Simba’s surveys of independent retailers across the country rating different books and genres; as well as info on buyer profiles and behaviors.
• Exclusive five-year category trends for 15 major juvenile categories.

Children’s Publishing Market Forecast 2012 includes detailed strategic and financial profiles of companies such as Candlewick Press, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Holtzbrinck, Houghton Mifflin, Penguin Group, Random House, Scholastic and Simon & Schuster.

This report is a critical tool in evaluating growth potential, understanding trends affecting the industry, sizing up the competition, reviewing potential partner or acquisition profiles, examining market share rankings of leading publishers, benchmarking performance, and planning short- and long-term growth strategies.

Children’s Publishing Market Forecast 2012 is essential for publishing executives, M&A advisors, market analysts, and industry consultants who need to understand the business strategies driving the children’s trade book publishing industry today.

Simba senior trade book analyst Michael Norris has been tapped by the New York Times, TIME and USA Today and other publications to discuss industry trends and bestseller data for the adult and children's publishing markets. Have this firsthand intelligence at your fingertips to understand buyer habits, the significance of series, and where the strengths and weaknesses lie for the top imprints in children’s and young adult publishing today.

Stamford, CT - October 13, 2011 - A recent report by media and publishing forecast firm Simba Information expects the growth of the multibillion-dollar children's and young adult publishing market in the U.S. will be stunted in 2012 as the industry adjusts to a smaller book retailing footprint.

"Since the last edition of this report we've seen a larger number of adults buying children's books as gifts and more categories of children's books represented on bestseller lists, which is good news," said Michael Norris, senior analyst of Simba Information's Trade Books Group, commenting on the report. "The bad news is this industry is heading into its first holiday shopping season in 40 years without Borders Group as a retail partner. At this time last year, Borders had over 670 locations and about three-quarters of those were superstores. The absence of so many places to discover and buy books is going to be felt for quite a while."

According to the report, children's electronic books are still but a fraction of the market-though publishers continue to experiment with the format on platforms such as the PC, the iPad, Barnes & Noble's Nook Color and Amazon's Kindle devices. A comparatively small handful of young adult titles such as Stephenie Meyers' Twilight saga and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series-which are often bought and read by adults-do very well as e-books. On a whole, the children's/YA market still depends on print books-and a complicated connection between the publisher and the increasingly hard-to-reach reader.

"Adults buy the vast majority of juvenile books and give them to their children as gifts," Norris said. "Where it gets tricky is a lot of kids, particularly as they become teenagers, are more likely to read if they can choose the books themselves. Since a lot of children only spend a few minutes a week, on average, reading for leisure, parents need to sell them on the activity of reading without choosing a book that their child won't like. Anyone can make a child read, but getting a child to value reading is what's crucial for the future of this industry."

The report, Children's Publishing Market Forecast 2012, shows an exclusive, multi-year category analysis of more than a dozen key segments of the industry, a detailed demographic overview of children's book buyers, estimates on the market size of the industry through 2012, and much more.