On Children Book Publishing
Children book publishing is one of the types of publishing that offers the most variety in terms of book design. It is definitely one of the most persistent kinds of publishing out there. Children book publishing has been around for a few hundred years and started with mostly collections of European folk tales such as those collected by the Grimm Brothers. Also quite interestingly, the nature of book publishing for children has kept pace with the changing norms and values in society.
It might surprise some people for instance, that the original version of Sleeping Beauty had no Prince Charming; disturbingly, the sleeping girl was instead raped by an old king with the ending of the story involving the king eating his own children. Little Red Riding Hood by Perrault is quite similar to the version we have today, except that the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood… and the story ends. Over the years, these macabre stories were sanitized for the norms of children book publishing. Many other published old tales meant for children did not survive the prudish standards of Victorian Era children book publishing.
While the Victorian era changed some of the old stories, it also ushered in the heyday of some of the more popular authors in children book publishing, among them Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Andersen, and Edith Nesbit among many others. This also ushered in a time for improved printing techniques that enabled books to come with colored illustrations. Though this was expensive, it signaled the heyday of a trend that made illustrations integral to many products of children book publishing.
Throughout the 20th century, children book publishing continued to evolve into many forms and become more and more diverse. Pop-up books and other special kinds of books that offered children some measure of interactivity became common. Poetry, such as that of Dr. Seuss and P. D. Eastman became more prominent than it once was and children book publishing prints started to have a bigger crossover appeal with adults. Computer technology has also changed the way book publishing works, not just by the methods of distribution, but also by how the books are actually made. Interestingly, many older works such as that of Charles Dickens or Daniel Defoe are now considered to be literature for children even if they were once made with adult audiences in mind. Also many, children publishing firms with limited resources to buy or commission manuscript often make their bread and butter by using stories that are already in the Public Domain and the focus is left to trying to present old stories in different ways. Children book publishing is a business worth millions of dollars and quite notably, the richest author in the world, JK Rowling, is an author of a series of books made for children. Many authors try to make forays into book publishing for children with varying degrees of success. The market is quite saturated with works by other authors, many of them firmly established in the public psyche. The industry has molded young minds and influenced the way we think.
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