From 2021, the first position in the proportion of the children's book market will be replaced by popular science encyclopedia. Recently, children's pediatric encyclopedia books have become even more popular, not only ranking C in the live broadcast room, but also showing many explosive models, and there are also new trends worthy of attention in content. But at the same time, some industry pain points have begun to surface, causing concern in the industry.
Pay attention to scene-based story-based caricature
Careful readers will find that children's general reading books present new expressions, and new books that focus on scenes, stories and comics have begun to increase, as Han Qingning, an independent children's book publisher, said, children's general education abandoned the previous simple encyclopedic knowledge introduction and began to build story scenes, although more difficult to do, but the presentation method will be more interesting.
Han Qingning's team successfully operated the original popular science children's book "Left Hand Antarctica, Right Hand Arctic (Nature)", which was granted overseas copyright as soon as it was published. This is an encyclopedia about Antarctica and the Arctic, and in terms of design, it uses a left-right comparison, and the contrast itself is a very good scientific research method. Han Qingning said: "In terms of knowledge development, we try to use some story-based scenes, for example, this book has a theme to introduce ice in Antarctica, we revised four drafts, and finally designed a polar carnival activity, penguin pair skating, killer whale figure skating, seal slide, etc., and the page suddenly became lively." "At the same time, the knowledge about ice sheets, ice shelves, icebergs, etc. as background knowledge is not delayed at all. Han Qingning introduced that the book increases the level of page knowledge and pays attention to the rhythm of the whole book, "Popular science picture books are a very restrained art, the page arrangement of each page, the turning of the entire book are as much as possible to make a sense of rhythm, so as to attract young readers to read and read again." ”
It is worth noting that the trend of popular comics for children is also becoming more and more common. According to the latest data from Beijing, comics, picture books or knowledge books in the form of comics are almost dominant, and in April this year, 4 of the top 10 children's book sales belong to this type of reading, such as "Children, You Have to Learn to Protect Yourself (All 9 Volumes)" and "Miwu Science Comics - Wonderful Vientiane (4) - Uninhabited Island with Changing Weather", etc., have become children's favorites.
In the face of the gratifying situation, Han Qingning seems quite calm, she believes that although in recent years, because of the vigorous development of original in China, there have been many high-quality popular science original books on the market, but on the whole, there is still a certain gap with European and American popular science originals in knowledge telling and painting aesthetics.
Popular science reading products are upgraded and re-interacted
Children's pediatrics has the most natural connection with technology, so when micro-video, AR augmented reality technology, two-dimensional code technology and new media collide with children's popularization, the product upgrade of original children's popularization has become inevitable.
The "Academician Unlocks Chinese Technology" series, which is familiar to young readers, has been released more than 2023,1 copies since its launch in January 20, with a circulation code of up to 1000 million. The book selects the latest achievements of Chinese science and technology, such as how the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge can thread needles under the sea, why online shopping can get home so quickly, etc., these fresh knowledge on the one hand solves many problems encountered by readers in daily life, on the other hand, people can't help but feel proud and proud of the rapid scientific and technological level of the great motherland. In particular, many of the wonderful content in the book are presented in the form of short videos. Zheng Lixin, director of the Children's Center of the China Youth General Society, told reporters that the classic popular science knowledge in the book has become a vivid narration in a short video, which not only means that popular science knowledge has moved from a single book to a diversified social media, but also indicates that if popular science books want to constantly break the circle, they must not only ensure quality, embrace fun and story, but also need to dance with the times and take a new road of innovation according to the situation.
Children's popular "Sky Building Dreams" is also a popular book, which will be reprinted half a month after it is listed. It is worth mentioning that the book specially designed the paper model of the Tiangong space station, as long as the QR code on the back cover of the book is scanned, a three-dimensional "Tiangong space station" can be made according to the cutting, folding, splicing and other prompt videos. The reporter noticed that books like this that focus on interaction and children's hands-on ability have become the mainstream of popular science books.
The emergence of new media has made the appearance of children's popularization rich and diverse, and books customized for new media have also emerged. Lin Yun, president of China Peace Publishing House, said that when customizing the first book of the "My First Enlightenment Book" series, "My First Physics Enlightenment Book", after two iterations of "Cool Mechanical Book" and "My Curious Physics Book", a new media product combining the form of "big open book + hardcover binding" and "basic + upgrade" content was finally created. After that, "My First Biological Enlightenment Book" and "My First Chemical Enlightenment Book" continued to appear. As of the end of April 2023, the total series has 4 copies, with a total sales of about 7 million copies. Binghe, the author of the series, told reporters that the series will reach 500 volumes, and he said that the mothers' careful study of books in order to help their children read was unexpected.
Short video e-commerce is a double-edged sword
Different from the long-term dominance of old brands of children's popular books in the past, in recent years, some new books that have just been released have begun to rank among the best-selling lists, and the rise of short video e-commerce has undoubtedly made children's popular books the biggest winner. "Compared with other children's books that prefer reading, this type of book is easier to find selling points, hit parents' pain points, make them feel useful for children's growth and learning, and stand out in just a few seconds of video or live broadcast." Wang Jingdong, director of the popular science publishing center of Children's Fun Publishing Co., Ltd., revealed the secret.
On May 5 this year, Children's Fun Publishing Co., Ltd.'s "History of Human Civilization for Children (All 19 Volumes)" was launched in the Oriental Selection Live Broadcast Room, Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui used the chat mode to present the core content of the history of human civilization created by Dr. Wu Jun for children for four years. "This method is different from the live broadcast format of hard publicity and sales in the past, and through knowledge sharing, this kind of 'soft marketing' can enhance consumer acceptance." Wang Jingdong introduced that the set of books, priced at 12 yuan, sold more than 4,188 copies that day.
Coincidentally, since 2023, the publishing house has launched "Challenging the Soma Cube", and the Douyin platform has brought live streaming of this set of books to as many as 50 talents, and more than 1,10000 sets have been sold in total. "This set of books was first printed in 8,<> sets, and so far it has been continuously reprinted, and it has been reprinted <> times so far." Wang Jingdong said.
In the face of children's general development in the short video e-commerce channel, industry insiders also pointed out that the discount of children's books in the short video e-commerce channel has been as low as 3.3%, and there is a thin profit for publishing houses and authors, in their eyes, short video e-commerce is like a "double-edged sword". In Han Qingning's view, on the one hand, it allows some popular science books to be seen; On the other hand, it makes "channel is king" more obvious, many big V themselves are not engaged in the field of books, the vision of book selection is limited, usually what the channel pushes and sells, which squeezes the marketing space of other good books. "The current children's book ecology is not very friendly to popular science originals or all original children's books, and the compression of profit margins is bound to lead to compression in product research and development, especially in terms of drawing quality." Han Qingning said.
To this end, Han Qingning suggested that in the future, I hope that more scientific researchers and high-quality illustrators will join the field of pediatric popularization, and the three parties of text authors, drawing authors and publishers need to communicate more, expand their horizons, and cross the sea with eight immortals. In this way, more and better children's general original works can be created. Wang Jingdong believes that it is necessary to optimize the structure of topic selection and improve product quality through refined operation. (Beijing Daily reporter Lu Yanxia)