China has always been a fertile ground for original children's literature, and now more than 500 publishing houses in China are competing to publish children's books. In fact, the past decade is also the "golden decade" of children's book development, and the scale of the domestic children's book market has been showing a growing trend. In recent years, audiobooks, artificial intelligence, Internet +, big data, and even the "double reduction" policy that has just been implemented have brought new opportunities for children's content, especially children's book publishing.
On the morning of September 19, the 2021 BIBF World Children's Book Forum was held in Beijing. The theme of this year's forum is "Structural Adjustment and Publishing Innovation of Children's Book Market", focusing on topics such as "Changes in China's Children's Book Market", "Non-fiction Children's Book Publishing", and "Characteristics of the International Non-Fiction Children's Book Market".
Liang Jianrui, deputy general manager of Zhongtu Company, mentioned in his opening speech that in the first half of 2021, the proportion of the children's book market in the national book retail market reached 27.73%. Among them, the performance of children's science popularization is outstanding, an increase of 11.8% year-on-year. At the same time, children's literature has always been the largest section of the children's market, but in the past five years, it has shown a downward trend, and the data in the first half of 2021 shows that it has dropped by 3.62% year-on-year.
Liang Jianrui said: "Unlike other book markets, the changes in the children's book market are closely related to national policies and educational environment. For the children's book publishing industry, the recent 'double reduction' policy introduced by the state has liberated children from off-campus training and online games, and has more time for extracurricular reading, which has also brought more opportunities for the publishing and reading industry. Many people in the industry speculate that various Chinese English readings and literacy enlightenment books in the 3-6-year-old stage may become the focus of many parents. At present, many education and training institutions have begun to explore the fields of quality education, reading education, picture book libraries and other fields, and 'children's reading' has become a hot topic. ”
At the forum, Li Xueqian, chairman of the Children's Reading Promotion Alliance of the Publishers Association of China, Jiang Yanping, director and president of Beijing Open Volume Information Technology Co., Ltd., Li Huaiyuan, associate professor of Beijing Institute of Education and special teacher of Language, Bai Bing, editor-in-chief of Relay Publishing House, Bai Bing, editor-in-chief and editor-in-chief of Relay Publishing House, Yu Xiaojie, deputy general manager of Chemical Industry Publishing House, and Sun Henan, chief content officer of Oxford University Press China Branch, spoke successively. The structural adjustment of the children's book market under the double reduction policy and the corresponding countermeasures of the publishing industry were shared.
In a keynote speech entitled "Changes and Future Trends in the Retail Market for Children's Books", Jiang Yanping mentioned that in the past 20 years, the proportion of children's science encyclopedias and children's picture books has expanded significantly, and the sales of these two types of books are concentrated in online channels. On the one hand, because the decision-making power of book purchase is transferred from children to parents, in the past, children chose to buy in physical stores, and now parents buy books that are more conducive to learning; on the other hand, sales channels have evolved from a single physical store to a combination of physical stores and self-operated e-commerce, platform e-commerce, community e-commerce and short video e-commerce, of which short video e-commerce children's code ocean is much higher than other e-commerce. And live streaming is the most likely to trigger the impulse consumption of children's picture books and popular science.
At the same time, the market scale has reversed the quality of children's science popularization and picture book books. More non-professional children's clubs and publishing companies are entering the market, bringing more ideas.
Bai Bing, editor-in-chief of Jieli Publishing House, delivered a keynote speech entitled "The Concept and Innovation of Children's Book Theme Publishing". Bai Bing believes that the theme publication of children's books should cooperate with the important work of the party and the state, with the purpose of cultivating people with virtue, according to the needs of the party and the state and society, to pass on national culture, to pass on the wisdom of human existence, to cultivate socialist newcomers with socialist core values, and to cultivate people, noble people, and good people who are useful to the country, society, and mankind, and who have contributed to capital letters.
He pointed out that the theme publishing of children's books is not only a current work, but also a long-term cause, and it is necessary to do a good job in strategic layout. At the same time, children's book theme publishing requires the editorial team to consciously realize the theme publishing awareness, and also needs to cultivate passionate, professional and cultivated editing talents who are passionate about children's book theme publishing.
At present, children's book theme publishing needs to solve the problem of innovation. Not only in the theme and content to innovate, to meet the rigid reading needs of readers. It is even more necessary to make good use of new media and multimedia, do a good job in marketing work, and expand the cultural influence and social influence of children's book theme publishing.