Q1：What novel picture book genres do you think are lacking in the market？
There seems to be no "lack," as the market worldwide covers a wide range of genres; I think the need for diversification lies elsewhere.
I want to use this question to invoke the sociological field: children's books, in all their complexity and engineering, are not accessible to everyone. I will develop my answer based on this paradigm.
On the one hand, a child's sensitive relationship with books and illustrations is built over time. It depends on how children are exposed to them as they grow up: Have they been read stories out loud, often, in all genres? Have we given them time to look at a single illustration? Have we given them books with rough, unexpected images—going against smooth imagery—to develop their aesthetic sensibilities? Picture books that transgress conventions to experience the pleasure of entering literature?
On the other hand, books cost money that many families cannot afford. The issue of accessibility is far more complex on a global scale: it is a question of commitment and resources within very different geopolitical contexts. The branches of the IBBY association, of which I am a member, regularly discuss this issue.
In France, the children's book market is sustained by the support of the state and institutions, whose political mission is to raise awareness among audiences that are sometimes distant from reading. I am talking here about the pivotal role of libraries, teachers, and animators who actively promote books for children, from the classics to the most avant-garde. So, the issue of training mediators is central to ensuring that the book market thrives in all its diversity.
To the question 'What is missing in terms of literary genres?', I would give a pragmatic answer: it all depends on what is going on at the moment, on political initiatives to promote books, on contemporary issues relating to children, and on personal affinities.
My answer may seem to lack a 'turnkey' approach, but on the contrary, I think it liberates us from the 'genre' question. Let's free the picture book from the boxes that might limit it and unleash its potential.
"The child and the artist live in the same country. It is a land without borders, a place of transformation and metamorphosis," writes Elzbieta. “Form and content exchange places. Everything interpenetrates and separates. Everything makes sense and deserves to be examined."
While the ways of telling stories in modern societies are becoming formatted and globalized, the picture book stands as a territory that resists, fills with wonders and - precisely - transgresses genre codes. Invested in a personal, sometimes intimate way by the artist, the album for children opens up possibilities, including in its materiality. To me, that's what the market will never be able to fill (fortunately)!
Q2：What do you think of the many YouTube bloggers who are using AI to create picture books? Do you think this kind of work is meaningful?
We are talking here about generative AI, which enables people who are not illustrators to produce more or less 'stable' sequential images to illustrate children's books. It is an epiphenomenon in France because digital books go through limited circuits and are unlikely to be sold in bookstores. At the very least, they can compete with mass-market licensed books, in which the illustrations often have a poor relationship with the text and do not consider the book's materiality.
As for the democratization of generative AI in art and literature, I do not see much meaning in this work. On a personal note, I was concerned about seeing a workshop in a library for altering children's drawings, offering to 'improve' them with AI filters - in other words, to homogenize them from a plastic point of view. This filter erased all traces of the learning process and artistic experimentation for a momentary dopamine boost. The result is a one-click, coldly harmonious 'finished product' that does not stimulate but, on the contrary, impoverishes creativity: there is not much to perfect, especially as you have not mastered the tools.
To what extent will AI-based filters shape - are they already shaping - our perception of the world and of 'beauty'? To get back to generative AI: What sense is there in art and literature if works are generated by statistical averages in the shape of aggregates of proposals in a matter of seconds?
To put a nuance on my comments on AI, I think it should remain a tool at the service of human beings in the creative field. Experienced artists can use AI, and rightly so, to speed up the creative process, and to facilitate specific experiments in image retouching, working with scale, motions and colour, and so on. I recently re-read Picture Books Makers, the beautiful book published by dPICTUS, in which illustrators talk about the process of creating their books - including the words of Jon Klassen, a jury member! The experiences described by the artists are exciting, with or without the help of digital tools. Above all, they are about trial and error.
I liked what Manuel Marsol wrote about Ahab y la Ballena Blanca:
"I like it when I see people running their hands over the pages of my book as if they expect to feel something coarse - like the feeling I had as a child when I held a fish in my hand."
In one sentence, he reveals three essential components of the album:
- the story and experience of the artist,
- the texture of the image and the sensations it awakens,
- and the book's materiality, which also appeals to children's sense of touch.
Twenty years ago, I played many video games and my avatar was called Susan Calvin, that's how AI has always fascinated me! However, from SF to real life, we need to take the time to think about the paths humanity wants to take.
Today, some jobs are in danger: digital artists and graphic designers are in direct competition with generative AI, and many ethical questions arise. In Europe, the AI Act has just passed. This treaty establishes a legal frame concerning the capture of works and respect for intellectual property. In addition, the use of AI in creative work will have to be mentioned. The treaty still needs to be in application (we are at the beginning of June 2024).
In a sense, illustrators of picture books are affected. A good number of them also make a living from their graphic skills and illustration commissions, which are beginning to be supplanted by generative AI in some structures (for instance, in the press). More than ever, we need to develop policies that support illustrators for children. Otherwise, the quality of picture books will be impoverished due to their precarity, with or without AI.
Q3：From a publishing house's perspective, how to strike a balance between an editor's personal preferences and winning works?
The question of balance arises for the entire book chain, from the artist, who chooses to dedicate his or her time to personal projects or commissions, to the bookseller, who defines his or her acquisitions policy. As I am not a publisher, I will draw on my experience as a bookseller and establish a parallel between these two professions.
The first consideration is political: 'Why do I want to develop my business/book? How do I situate myself in this in-between: mass production at lower cost—which can be simple at the risk of becoming poor—and production that pushes back the boundaries of innovation and requires greater investment—at the risk of narrowing the market? Other issues influence policy, such as personal values, the ecological dimension, sensitivity to certain subjects or audiences, and whether or not institutions support ambitious projects.
Let's talk about stock management in bookstores and the parallels we can draw with managing a publishing catalog. In its assortment, an independent bookshop has:
1) a percentage of books that will turn over quickly.
Books we sell several times a day, because they are easy to access, because they are new, because they are in tune with current events. In picture books, for example, they may be series of little heroes, or adaptations. Even at this level, the bookseller sets limits: the challenge is not to compete with the superstores on these products, because the independent bookstore is a finite physical space. You must learn to choose the titles that work, depending on the audience in your market area.
At the same time, publishers also have to position themselves in a book market and, to ensure profitability, choose whether or not to follow specific trends, taking into account the audiences they are targeting.
2) a percentage of books that will have an 'average' rotation, with lower but still consistent profitability.
These may be backlist books, regularly promoted and defended by booksellers. Books they consider to be 'classics' or must-haves in libraries. Many choices are made here that have a direct impact on the identity of the bookstore: which publishers do we want to promote, which artists do we want to support, and which gems should remain on the shelves? The market overproduces, in a world where time of reading and space on tables cannot yet stretch out. This is where quality must take priority over quantity.
Just like booksellers, publishers need to keep their back catalogues alive and well, by continuing to reprint them and communicating. This is a major stake, and we have to embrace this human and financial commitment: the publisher, just like the bookseller, has a political role to play in ensuring that a book lasts over time.
3) Finally, books with a low turnover. These ambitious books, sometimes going against the grain, with low distribution, may also be expensive.
These lower-selling books consume treasury and are risky, but they help polish the independent bookstore's image. Owning them is a sign of commitment. I am thinking, for example, of collections of artists' books, which have a manufacturing cost, or tactile albums for visually impaired and blind children, each volume of which can take three hours to assemble by hand. When I visit a bookstore, I am sensitive to the presence of this type of work.
When I look at a publisher's catalogue, I am also sensitive to the risks they take. Such publications are unlikely to be financially profitable, but they reveal the publisher's vision and diversify a market that gains nothing by becoming homogenous.
