ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of perceptions of picture-book publishing and discusses the first celebrated picture books at the turn of the 20th century in Australia, which began the Children’s Book of the Year Award and the current success of the genre in Australian book sales. The chapter also focuses on the early editors from the US and UK who founded a distinction between educational reading for children and reading for entertainment and how this distinction has shaped the way in which publishers and editors approach picture-book publishing today. In doing so, the introduction presents the premise of the research and the research questions:
What proportion of the Australian children’s picture-book market is digital?
In the last decade, what digital developments have there been in Australian children’s picture-book publishing?
How often do children engage with texts via digital devices?
Where do children access digital texts?
Why has/hasn’t the Australian children’s picture-book publishing sector embraced digital publishing?
