You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
The bestselling children's book in China this year is still Charlotte's Web as consumers continue to buy old favourites and the number of new titles is expected to fall.
Yang Lei, executive vice president of sales data service OpenBook, told the China Shanghai International Book Fair, said, although the children's book market was growing there was a predicted decrease in new titles, both imported and exported, this year. In 2018, 30,940 new publications were released in the country, compared to just 20,000 in the first three-quarters of 2019.
“This is partly due to the macro-economic situation,” he said. “There are shrinkings in investment”.
The country's bestsellers were headed up by Charlotte's Web by E B White (Shanghai Translation Publishing House) with Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram (Tomorrow Publishing House) also proving popular. From the top ten, only two were new titles, while series like Harry Potter were also continuing to sell
Lei told the audience most of the highest performers were at least three years old, saying: “The bestsellers are just handed down from generation after generation as people's love for them has never been changed.”
He said the UK still had the biggest share of the imported children's books market in China, with 27% of total sales compared to 24%.
The top categories are still picture books, English and popular science titles, Lei said, although there was a growing trend for books dealing with parenting and childhood emotions.
David Walliams did not make the bestseller list but Hazel Kenyon, director of book research for Nielsen, told the audience he was an “up and coming author”. “He's one to watch I think,” she said.