Two publishing entities have been carved out of the Big Five publisher’s children’s publishing division: one group will focus on picture books, middle grade, and young adult; a “branded” publishing team will deal with preschool titles, beginning readers, chapter books, graphic novels, licensing and intellectual property, and middle-grade brands. The move reminds us of the key takeaway from a talk we heard from NPD BookScan’s Kristen McLean last year at BookExpo: the children’s market is seeing growth in brand licensing in kids’ books, and sales are reliably driven by what’s popular on streaming video.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
