Publishing in a recession

Children's book publishers, just like the rest of us, are suffering through economic hard times. Does this mean the number of children's books available to schools and libraries will be dropping? It's hard to tell but Harold Underdown, creator of the Purple Crayon website, gives us a lot of important information in his latest entry on working through a recession. Throughout 2008 publishing for children seemed less affected by hard times than general publishing was, but 2009 presents a bleaker picture. Underdown looks back at history to compare what is happening now to what happened during the 1930s and the 1970s. Conditions are different, of course, because the market for children's books in those days was much more dependent on school and library sales. Many of today's children's books are aimed at parents and children, especially the fiction titles. Nonfiction titles sell better in the institutional market, so as schools and libraries lose funding, publishers will be affected too. This is an important article for librarians whether in school or public libraries. We depend on publishers to supply the resources we give to children. For all our sakes let's hope the recession doesn't last much longer.