La letteratura per l’infanzia in Italia è ancora la Cenerentola del mercato letterario? Analisi dei dati dei rapporti Liberweb
Is Children’s Literature in Italy still the “Cinderella” of the literary market? An analysis of Liberweb’s reports

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses the publishing trends of children’s literature in Italy on the basis of theannual reports issued by LiBeRWEB. The analysis, which focuses on the book publishing market,starts by introducing the main Italian publishing houses, in whose hands the publication of children’sbooks is concentrated. The paper will also talk about independent micropublishing by introducingthe most active publishing houses, which are specialised in specific areas, such as gender studies.The publishing market will be progressively investigated by analysing several data, which suggestthat literature for children and young adults is the driving segment of the Italian book publishingmarket. Indeed, despite the economic crisis, this is the only segment that has had positive results inthe last years. In particular, the data examine several elements, which will allow us to understand sucha phenomenon. If in the last years the so-called “high literature” has lost many percentage points (-7.6%in 2009), the “Cinderella of literature” has, instead, obtained positive results (+4%), maintainingconstant production levels. Despite the use of percentages, the analysis takes into consideration otherelements, like the quality of works, whose criteria are difficult to establish. The data show a positivechange: if up to 2006 the number of novels of mediocre quality was high, probably do to a consumertrend of the market, from 2007 onwards, the situation progressively improves. Finally, the articlebriefly discusses the data of the digital market by analysing the role of audiobooks and e-books in theItalian market of children’s literature.

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