Tough world, tiny market for NZ books

The New Zealand book market is small but fiercely competitive.

It is so small that most books will have a print run of only about 3000, earning around $5000 for their authors and making it impossible for most to make a living from writing.

Of the 114 entries in the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults this year, 31 were in the non-fiction category, 40 in the picture book section, 28 in junior fiction and 15 in the young adult category.


Judge Lorraine Orman, a former school librarian and herself a children's author, could think of only four children's authors able make a living from their craft: Ken Catran, David Hill, Tessa Duder and Pamela Allen - all well-established, extremely prolific, award-winning authors.

Worse, Orman points to a Guardian newspaper article which said the British children's market grew by about 10,000 new titles each year.

"Not only does that make you realise how small our market is, but our books are competing against that 10,000.

"So in making our books successful, we rely very heavily on intermediaries, such as schools and libraries."

Whitcoulls book promotions manager Dorothy Vinicombe said it was really only the children's choice winner that became a big seller.

Last year's winner, Why Do Dogs Sniff Bottoms? by Dawn McMillan & Bert Signal, is still on Whitcoulls' top 10 list. This year Oh Hogwash, Sweet Pea! by Ngareta Gabel, Ali Teo and Astrid Jensen won.