Toy Fair 2007: Traffic and Orders Up, Publisher Exhibitors Down

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on February 22, 2007 Sign up now!

by Karen Raugust, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 2/22/2007

Klutz cofounder John Cassidy
shows off his juggling skills.

There were close to 40 book publishers exhibiting at last week's Toy Fair 2007, a bit less than the 45 or so that has been typical of late. Notably, the number of trade publishers has been dwindling for the last few years, with Candlewick among the long-time exhibitors dropping out in 2007. While publishers contacted by PW declined to explain why they have stopped exhibiting, several said that, although they decided not to sell books on the show floor, they had the same number of executives and meetings at the Fair, as usual.

Toy Fair has always been weighted toward coloring, activity, workbook and book-plus publishers, but several trade houses continue to participate. Among those offering their spring titles—as well as the backlist bestsellers, classics, franchises and licensed titles that appeal to toy buyers—are Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin, HarperCollins, Harcourt, Holtzbrinck, and Accord Publishing/Andrews McMeel. "It's been good this year, both for contacts and business," said Jennie Lane, AM's sales director, gift/toy channel.

This was the first year that the main venue for the show was the Javits Center and not the Toy Center in New York's Flatiron District. Of the companies that traditionally have had showrooms, a few, such as Modern Publishing, remained in separate locations away from the Javits; some, such as Bendon and Publications International, maintained a showroom as well as a Javits booth this year; and others, such as Paradise Press, moved their Toy Fair presence solely to the Javits.

The change in venue seemed to have a positive impact, with the majority of publishers saying they wrote more orders in the first two days of the four-day fair than they did all of last year, that traffic was brisk and that they would return next year. (By the third afternoon, many attendees, anticipating the now-traditional Toy Fair winter storm, which hit on Day 4 this year, left early.)

Spidey visits the
Bendon booth at Toy Fair.

"It's been very busy here, more than we thought it would be," said Kerry Cunnion, Publications International's executive v-p, retail sales and marketing. "There are lots of walk-ins." The company, which holds 56 licenses, was highlighting its new Nickelodeon, Disney Princess and Disney Classics Story Reader limited-edition collector packs. All told, PI has sold 1.85 million Story Readers and nine million of the associated book titles.

"The quality and number of buyers has been great," said Ben Ferguson, president of Bendon, which drew attention for its Little Einsteins and new Amazing Spider-Man books, among other licensed lines. "For us, this is better [than the showroom]. We get much more exposure."

Longtime Javits exhibitors attributed the strong traffic, at least in part, to the fact that buyers attending the show this year were forced to spend significant time at Javits, something not all had done in the past with the two-location set-up. "It's been excellent," said Sharon Miles Winningham, v-p, books and education, at School Zone, which introduced its new Baby School Zone line to attendees. "They should have closed that Toy Building long ago."

One publisher that was less happy about Javits was Paradise Press. "We still prefer the showroom," admitted v-p Randy McDonald, although he reported good traffic and said the company would be back. He explained that Paradise turns over most mom-and-pop business—which represents a significant percentage of Toy Fair purchasing—to wholesalers. "Mostly what we see here are current customers," he added. "We're not set up for small quantities."

One house making its Toy Fair debut was Sleeping Bear Press, an imprint of Thomson Gale, which attracted interest for its Discover America State by State series. "I've seen major accounts, I've seen commissioned reps, and I've seen colleagues at other houses, so it's good for intelligence gathering," said David Swan, director of sales and marketing. "I've been pleasantly surprised at the number of orders and the number of catalogs being picked up."

Little Linguist exhibited for the first time,
with books to teach preschoolers and their parents
a second language.

Another newbie was Kane/Miller, which displayed its spring titles as well as its bestsellers Everyone Poops and The Gas We Pass. "Our big accounts and buyers have been asking us if they could set up appointments at Toy Fair, that's why we did it," reported Kane/Miller's W. Byron Parnell, who added, "I'm very impressed."

Frog Street Press, which started in the educational market, decided to try Toy Fair this year as it expands into the consumer market with its educational book-and-CD packages. "We're more or less introducing ourselves here and getting our feet wet in this arena," said co-founder Sharon Burnett. "But we have done some business, which is encouraging."

The youth electronics category far outshone the rest of the toy industry in 2006, with sales rising 22%, versus just .34% for the industry as a whole, according to NPD Group figures released during the show. Book publishers were among those focused on electronics at Toy Fair; Paradise, for example, showed its growing selection of electronic books.

Several exhibitors were highlighting book packages that included CDs or DVDs. Carson Dellosa was selling an eight-title My First Library line of mini-storybooks, each packaged with a CD, along with a nine-title Singalong Storytime book-plus-CD line. Silver Dolphin was touting a new book-and-CD lullaby format for its Amazing Baby brand, while Child's Play showed a new line of CD books comprising seven titles, including 10 Little Monkeys.

One area where CDs and/or DVDs were especially prevalent were in the educational and language-learning sectors. First-time exhibitor Little Linguist showed a range of books, each including lift-the-flaps and other interactive elements as well as a DVD or CD, intended to teach preschoolers and their parents a second language together. The first titles focus on Mandarin; Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Italian and Korean are to follow.

Slangman's World, another debut exhibitor specializing in language learning, highlighted its line of leveled readers with CDs. Level 1 starts out mostly in English, but by the end of Level 3, the second language—Spanish, Italian or Japanese—predominates. A TV show is in development.

Publishers' selections of Spanish-language and bilingual books, a trend noted in force for the first time at last year's Toy Fair, continued to expand this year. Learning Horizons added bilingual versions of nearly all of its Nickelodeon-licensed Dora the Explorer educational titles, while Kappa showed a full Spanish-language display for the first time, along with a full selection of licensed coloring and activity titles, including Shrek the Third.

Meanwhile, several toymakers introduced games, puzzles, and other toys tied to books. Sababa Toys launched new Wizardology and Pirateology games, based on the books published by Candlewick, building on the success of its previously released Dragonologyproducts. Corgi was touting its new toys based on The Golden Compass, the upcoming New Line/Scholastic Media film inspired by the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Among the other publishing properties and brands seen around the show were LeapFrog, Harry Potter, Horrible Histories, For Dummies, Eyewitness and The World of Eric Carle.

Sidelines specialists represented at Toy Fair included MerryMakers, which showed its spring array of plush toys including Pirates Don't Change Diapers, The Librarian from the Black Lagoon, Earl the Squirrel and Lissy's Friends. The last is the company's first Asian-American character and its first simultaneous launch with an associated book title.

Yottoy! was highlighting three plush toys tied to Mo Willems titles, including Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! "The giftable items seem to be doing well," said Shana Clarke, director of marketing at Yottoy!, which sells its products to a wide variety of higher-end retailers from gift to gourmet food stores. "I'm surprised how many non-toy stores are coming to us at this show."