By Publishing Perspectives

In advance of the Children’s Publishing Goes Digital conference that will take place at the Frankfurt Book Fair, we sat down with the program chair Lorraine Shanley, principle and co-founder of Market Partners International, to ask three questions about the future of children’s publishing.

Is the children’s book market going to expand -– and how big will the market for digital products grow within the next 2 years?

After a slow start, children’s e-books and apps are now making up for lost time and are one of the big growth areas for publishers and developers. The iPad and Nook Color have spurred much of that growth.

What impact will digitization have on the rights and license business?

In the short term, it will complicate both rights and licensing, but once territories and rights relationships are established, it will be much easier to sell digital products into multiple countries — in myriad languages.

Parents are the traditional gate-keepers for children’s books –- is the internet a chance to reach the target group directly?

Not necessarily, as each country has laws regarding how a company may market directly to children, and in some countries like Korea there are laws governing the age at which a child may use a credit card.

See Lorraine Shanley at the Children’s Publishing Goes Digital conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 11, 2011, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm, Hall 4.2, Room Dimension.