A $250,000 Picture Book!

        I found the deals on Publishers’ Marketplace very interesting! It was cool to see some authors I recognize and seeing their new books, it felt like I was looking into someplace I wasn’t allowed. It was really fascinating seeing all the attachments that came with book deals, how much they sold for, if it was a multiple book deal, and what category it was placed in. After browsing for a while, just reading all of the different deals, I decided to narrow down my search a little bit. I went and looked at the children’s picture books. I was really interested in how these types of books would make deals and especially how much they sell for, especially since they are so short and thin. What I found was that most of the children’s picture books had deals from the “nice”, “really nice” and “good” ranges, but not many going above that.

I couldn’t find many “significant” or “major” deals, most likely because those are reserved for longer books, that take more time to write. Still, I am really surprised by how much these books sell for. A "good" deal could be up to 250,000 dollars all for books that aren’t longer than 30 pages and are mostly drawings. Thinking about it though, it does make sense that these types of books are in high demand. Schools, libraries, and parents all buy these books to help their kids learn. And for the most part, these books are significantly cheaper than chapter books, so people are more likely to buy more of them, along with that they don’t take up as much space. Picture books are in high demand, so the fact that they can sell for up to 250,000 dollars is impressive but does make sense.

            Another thing I recognized was that for a lot of the deals, especially the ones that were either “very nice” or “good” deals, there was a stipulation that the author would have to write another one after the first was published.

This does go back to what I was saying before, even though picture books are in high demand, there is a lot of competition and publishers may not want to spend 250,000 dollars on a single book and are more willing to pay for more books. Strangely enough though in the deal for Monica Arnaldo’s Are You a Cheeseburger? The deal was made pre-emptively, so the first book may not even be written yet, let alone the second one. It was interesting to look into the publishing world and see what was popular and what was paid more for. Especially in children’s literature where the books are not as complex, it was interesting to see what publishers looked for in a book deal for a children’s book as opposed to a fiction book for young adults or adults.