Where many attended in person, we as students, woke up early, got our tea and coffee and settled into our desks, couches, and beds to attend The Bookseller‘s Children’s Conference 2022. As a Bisexual, disabled reader and student, it is always empowering to see publishing taking a step to discuss diverse voices—and this conference was abound with sessions discussing the need and importance of BIPOC, Queer, and intersectional voices in publishing.
Starting off strong, the conference opened up with an engaging conversation with Aimée Felone, Managing Director of Knights Of (KO). Discussing her own experience in publishing as well as her journey with Knights Of, Felone discussed how KO and herself strive to bring diverse voices into the commercial market, while working to dispel the idea that diverse books are only for diverse readers, and how the work that KO focuses on is never centered on trauma and how they will continue to celebrate diverse stories filled with joy and happiness for their characters. To end the discussion, Felone emphasized the need for more support of independent publishers that aimed to do similar work of lifting up underrepresented voices and stories, highlighting how a lot had been done, but there was still more work to do in order to bring representation to all children.
Another topic that was discussed in depth during the conference was the influence of the LGBTQ+ Graphic novel series, Heartstopper by author Alice Oseman, even taking the space of its own keynote, “Keynote: Children’s Market Overview 2022: TikTok, Heartstopper, and the Mental Health Revolution”. This keynote was important because it discussed the market overview for the year. It was also a highlight on how an LGBTQ+ book, Heartstopper, was taking the market by storm and only growing in sales and in influence. Discussed multiple times throughout the entire conference, Heartstopper helped prove, as well as spark the conversation around, how including and celebrating underrepresented voices in publishing can help improve the market while giving readers the stories they identify with.
The conference ended with a bang, concluding discussions with a nuanced conversation with author Adam Silvera and Caroline Carpenter surrounding the upcoming release of The First to Die at the End, the awaited prequel of his bestseller, They Both Die at the End. Where the majority of the keynote discussed the market change due to the rise of BookTok (the book community on TikTok), and how Silvera’s novel, They Both Die at the End had its own small renaissance due to readers sharing their love for the story through the app, Silvera also discussed the intersectionalities that he lives with and how those identities took life in his own art. Combining conversations that had been previously discussed, the keynote aimed at showing the connectivity between social media and diverse voices.
Ultimately, The Bookseller‘s Children’s Conference 2022 sparked the start of important discussions around representation and how it could and will impact the publishing industry. While highlighting work that has been done in recent years, speakers, authors, and publishers alike illuminated the move to celebrating more diverse stories to speak to readers of marginalised backgrounds so that Children’s publishing could give representation and joy to all children.
MSc Publishing – Industry Accredited Postgraduate Degree 