British University launches world’s first course in Children’s Publishing

A British University has launched the world’s first Master’s degree in Children’s Publishing in response to significant growth in international demand for UK-published books.

The course at Bath Spa University has been developed to help meet rising demand from countries such as India and China, which drove a 34 per cent increase in UK exports in 2016 to £116 million (source: Financial Times). Figures released by The Publisher’s Association in April also highlighted the boom in the industry, with the revenue from the sale of UK children’s books increasing by 16 per cent to £365 million in the past year.

Katharine Reeve, Subject Leader in Publishing at Bath Spa University, commented: “Books for children and young adults are high-growth areas of publishing in terms of innovation, revenues and employment, encouraged by bestselling authors such as JK Rowling and David Walliams, and illustrators like Quentin Blake and Lauren Child. We want to play our part in developing the creative publishers of the future.”

The course will cover key publishing knowledge and skills such as editing, marketing, rights and contracts, illustration, design and print production, business strategy and digital product development.

The course Leader, Dr. Laura Little, holds a PhD in children’s picture book illustration and is the author of several international articles and book contributions on the subject.

Dr. Little said: “The new course will offer unique immersive learning across all areas of children’s publishing. With support from our expert tutors and specialist technical staff, students will be free to experiment and to create their own exciting projects, from pop-up books and digital story apps to reimagined fairytales from around the world and non-fiction illustrated books.”

Bath Spa University has a specialism in children’s and young adult’s publishing and writing.  The University offers more strands within creative writing than any other course in the UK, and hosts the UK’s first creative and digital studio-based BA Publishing course.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the new MA Children’s Publishing course in September 2018 should click here.