Out of this expansion has come a second boom period of the 1980s, producing an
annual output of over 5,000 new titles, wider public consumption, and business
consolidation. In order to increase their market share of the industry as quickly as
possible, corporations have acquired additional juvenile imprints and brought them
together under joint management. Today Penguin and William Morrow both own six
imprints, managed by four and six editors respectively, Simon & Schuster follows with
five, while Harcourt and Putnam each has four. Though smaller in number, the
remaining children’s book publishers are now vastly bigger in terms of both book
production and staff. In just seventy-five years, the lone self-sufficient children’s book
editor had matured into a broad-based manager with the title of publisher or editorial
director, supported by separate departments of production, marketing, and sales. One
of the first companies to set up a specialised sales force for its juvenile books was
Random House, in 1983, and others such as Bantam Doubleday Dell have followed suit
more recently.
Not surprisingly, American juvenile publishing has become more international in
flavour as a result of these expansionary times. At least three major British companies
have established branches in the USA, bringing their own books with them, in order to
participate in the market directly. At the same time, half a dozen or so of the country’s
most prominent publishers—HarperCollins, Viking Penguin, Bantam Doubleday Dell,
Grolier—are now owned by British, German and French global corporations. Although
the number of books acquired from other countries has not increased noticeably, the
interest in so-called multicultural books, with which children from newly arriving ethnic
groups can identify, has risen sharply. Some are now projecting that 30 per cent of
preschool-age children will be non-English speaking by the year 2000, and a new
market is developing rapidly for books that will meet their needs. Instead of buying books
from foreign publishers for the purpose, however, American editors are trying to produce
them domestically, creating more opportunities for foreign-born writers and illustrators
now living in the United States.
In response to the growing prestige of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which
celebrated its thirtieth birthday in 1993, more American editors have come to attend it
regularly. Primarily offering an opportunity to join international co-productions of
picture books, however, it has not proved to be a major sales outlet. Companies, in any
case, have tended to view exports as a marginal extra since, so far at least, they
represent a small percentage of the domestic market. Still, subsidiary rights directors
now go to the Fair also and are putting more time and thought into selling the foreign
rights to their books to other countries. Furthermore, as American colour printing has
improved and become more affordable, picture books produced in the USA are attracting
more international interest.
Another current trend is the continued spread of juvenile publishing throughout the
country, perhaps in reaction to the corporate consolidation taking place in New York
City. A 1993 listing of major companies for a national writer’s organisation included
eighty imprints based in twenty different cities, ranging from Portland, Oregon, in the
north-west to Gretna, Louisiana, in the south. The number of small presses with
children’s lines is on the rise too, successfully publishing to narrow ‘niches’ with regional
titles about local history, customs, and environment or with books that focus on specific
476 CHILDREN’S BOOK PUBLISHING IN THE USA