VIPs Forum: BookTok, graphic novels, and book bans

31.05.23

From left to right: Kirli Saunders, Tania Blanchard, Emily McGuire, Petronella McGovern, David Gressot, Will Kostakis, Serena Geddes, Tristan Bancks and Lucy Hayward

Each year the Australia Council for the Arts hosts the Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) Program, whereby international publishers, agents and scouts are invited to Sydney to meet with Australian publishers and agents. The Program is designed to strengthen relationships between publishers and agents in Australia and abroad, to share insights into global publishing trends, to expand opportunities for Australian authors overseas, and to promote the sale of rights in international markets.

This year was the first time the event was held since 2019 due to pandemic travel restrictions, and the ASA was thrilled to be invited to attend a day of panel sessions with our author invitees: Tristan Bancks, Tania Blanchard, Serena Geddes, Will Kostakis, Emily Maguire, Petronella McGovern, and Kirli Saunders.

The panel discussions offered fascinating insights into global publishing trends - featuring publishers and agents from Germany, Italy, Taiwan, France, and the US and UK - such as the rise in YA and graphic novels, the impact of BookTok, and the growth in audiobooks.

• YA is a stable category, and has continued to broaden to include older readers
• Global trends in picture books include work which deals with relevant topics such as mental and emotional health, gender identity, or our engagement with the natural world, without being too overt
• While sales increased in various countries throughout the pandemic, they were mostly directed towards backlist titles. Breaking through with frontlist titles and debut authors is becoming increasingly difficult
• Audiobooks are increasing in popularity but do not seem to be eating into print sales

BookTok has provided publishers with the opportunity to conduct market research because they have access to direct consumer feedback via immediate reader reactions on the platform. Some publishers have worked with authors with large followings to market test cover designs, and others have monitored conversations about books on TikTok to help them create compelling marketing copy and keywords such as ‘romantasy’.

However, while TikTok has driven strong backlist sales, particularly for fantasy and contemporary YA, it can be difficult to promote frontlist titles by authors who do not already have a strong TikTok presence. What is also clear is that, like with other social media platforms, trends on BookTok can be unstable - publishers are not always able to predict (or direct) where the hype will lead next.

It was noted at the Forum that the growing interest in the graphic novel category, particularly for younger readers, could be attributed to the legitimisation of genre books more generally. There has been some work done on convincing readers (and buyers) that graphic novels are another medium for telling a story, and no more or less legitimate than other types of books.

Middle grade graphic novels were highlighted as an emerging market due to a broader acceptance of black and white or one colour illustrations, as well as ‘silent’ or wordless graphic novels. Additionally, publishers shared they were on the lookout for overseas graphic novels they could sell in their markets, due to lower translation costs.

Book bans have been a hot-button topic in the United States, but less so in other markets. While US publishers said it was too early to see the impact from book bans, it is clear that long-running backlist sales are likely to be affected because they are made up primarily of library and educational sales. Nevertheless, the publisher response was to double down on their publishing program, asserting that bans would have no effect on their publishing decisions.

Our warm thanks to the authors who joined us for the day and to the Australia Council for the Arts for their generous invitation to the Forum, in particular to Wenona Byrne and Karen Le Roy for hosting us and making us feel so welcome.