42-43 LSB 2020 Publishing_muk.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 06/07/2020 12:07 Page 43
FOCUS ON… PUBLISHING
Lockdown positives “A real positive to come from this period of lockdown is how it’s galvanised our entire digital offering,” says Redan’s Julie. “We have implemented an online shop and rolled out a new subscription programme, grown our contact database tenfold through hosting more online competitions on our website, launched our online newsletter, created and made available a vast array of free downloadable content and have greatly increased our social media engagement.” Macmillan’s Stephanie says that the company has watched everyone take to social media during this time. “We have supported families, teachers and librarians to read and perform stories to their audiences online,” she says. “Early on, the creators of The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, created new images for relating to this time of the coronavirus, and these were joyfully received by families and then called for by NHS Trusts - so we made these into downloadable posters for everyone to use. “Working in collaboration with Julia Donaldson, we launched a weekly online broadcast on The Gruffalo Facebook with a new story performed each week. Above: Redan has started to see a There have been over 1.32 million views so far. And we were over the moon when Michelle lift across all of its titles to where it Obama read The Gruffalo as one of her favourite stories during lockdown.” was pre-lockdown. Usborne Publishing’s Christian adds: “Seeing which books have worked best under these conditions has sparked interesting conversations and has made us reflect on the kind of publishing and promotion we might consider for the future.”
recent sales and is starting to see a lift across all of Christian Herisson, UK commercial and sales its titles to where they were pre-lockdown. director at Usborne Publishing, says: “We have Redan also hasn’t stopped looking for new continued to receive decisions for That’s not my… properties, as Julie explains: “We have recently apparel for collections launching this autumn, and signed Gigantosaurus and are trialling Oddbods in SS21 in the retail market. both our Fun To Learn Friends and Fun To Learn “I think it will take some time for the retail Favourites titles.” environment to get anywhere near to where it was Redan will also be launching pre-lockdown. Physical Inset: Andersen Press launched its first merchandising range Fun to Learn Bing on July 15. bookstores/toy stores have based on Not Now, Bernard in June with TruffleShuffle. Stephanie Barton, publisher procedures in place to brands at Macmillan Books, minimise the risk for their says there will be a challenge staff and customers, and around discoverability this hopefully this will increase autumn in an overcrowded consumers’ confidence to market, while the company shop as before. Online has will be looking at how to best been the winner during build smaller brands. lockdown, so the task for She says there was certainly a physical retail is to pull boost for different areas of the back those sales lost. As book market during lockdown: warehouses are not “We saw new focus and uplift operating at full capacity for activity, sticker and yet, supply chain issues colouring books across all our still need to be major brands from The Gruffalo overcome.” to The Moomins and our novelty books for younger Julie Jones, md of Redan Publishing, tells LSB that children remained popular.” The Snail and the Whale due to reductions in supply at retail, the company and Dear Zoo have also continued to notch up sales. adjusted the frequency of three of its magazine In terms of conversations going forward, titles – although these will be reinstated as things Stephanie concludes by saying this: “How can we start to pick up. After what she describes as an best listen and respond to what children and “extremely volatile” period with sales being hard to families need; that is our top focus and underpins predict from one day to the next (due to the our approach to creating new content and sporadic nature of people’s shopping habits during acquiring brands and licences.” lockdown, Julie says Redan is pleased with its most LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2020
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