Members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators considered trends in children’s and young adult publishing on November 20, during a webinar led by author and editorial consultant Deborah Halverson. A former Harcourt Children’s Books editor who founded the advice site DearEditor.com and contributes market research to SCBWI’s annual Essential Guide to Publishing for Children, Halverson delivers “State of the Children’s Book Market” addresses, which are free to full members of the association.
SCBWI executive director Sarah Baker welcomed attendees. “It’s so important for children’s book creators to stay educated about all of the elements that affect us as professionals,” she said. “We used to offer this session once a year, but we realized how appreciated it is as an SCBWI member benefit, so we asked Deborah to do this two times a year.”
Halverson, who studied trade news and interviewed editors and agents for her presentation, advised SCBWI’s authors to develop “unusual or interesting takes on common, universal themes.” A few of her examples included Andrea Zuill’s Bob the Vampire Snail, for its playful take on identity; Jessica Lawson and illustrator Sarah Gonzales’s nonfiction Ablaze: The Story of America’s First Female Smokejumper, for its unexpected and timely content; and Donna Barba Higuera and illustrator Juliana Perdomo’s first in a series, The Unlikely Aventuras of Ramón and El Cucuy, for its “sly humor, light spookiness, and lots of heart.”
All of those books put a surprising twist on familiar characters—a snail, a firefighter, a folktale monster. “So many of us are in this for discovery, a new voice, an ending that feels inevitable because the story builds to it,” Halverson said. “Isn’t that the feeling we’re all chasing when we read something?” She recommended that authors “do what you can to make the familiar fresh.”
‘Craft First,’ Then Hit Submit
Before exploring categories from picture books to new adult, Halverson acknowledged statistics that show mixed sales results for children’s and YA in 2025. “I do miss the days when I could come in here and say that children’s books are the shiny spot in the industry, and YA is kicking butt,” she said. “That’s just not our moment, but I see a lot of resilience in that data.”
As signs of growth and potential, she cited Penguin Random House and HarperCollins expanding their supply chain hubs, combined with findings from Attest’s annual Media Consumption Survey that 60% of U.S. respondents would like to read more books, evidence of “a grassroots momentum for getting off screens, with people citing on-screen fatigue” and young people wanting to break their social media habits.
Halverson also noted the efforts of anti-censorship organizations—PEN America, PRH’s Intellectual Freedom Task Force, Authors Against Book Bans, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and others—to defend the right to read, and to write, about people and topics deemed controversial. Prospective authors want to know whether acquisitions editors might be leery of manuscripts “by or featuring marginalized people or cultures,” Halverson said. “One agent put it to me this way: queer projects are her passion, and she has her antenna out for any hint of marginalization. That’s not to say there’s no backtracking or double thinking projects, but I’m told that children’s editors want to keep the forward momentum in representation going.”
Going category by category, Halverson introduced successful titles. In picture books, inventive work includes Darci Pattison’s NOT Extinct: The Przewalski’s Horse Returns from Extinct in the Wild and Karina Iceberg and illustrator Steph Littlebird’s Indigenous story, Free to Fly. In chapter books, Halverson suggested Shifa Saltagi Safadi and illustrator Aaliya Jaleel’s Amina Banana series, about a Syrian girl who moves to Indiana. Middle grade picks were Penelope Spector’s Computers: How Digital Hardware Works, part of First Second’s Science Comics series, and two dystopian thrillers—Jennifer L. Holm’s Outside and R.M. Romero’s The Tear Collector. “Children saving people from a dystopian world is truly of the moment right now, even as it’s an evergreen, empowering message,” Halverson said.
In YA, Halverson put up a slide picturing 10 hit titles, from Lynn Painter’s Fake Skating to Chloe Gong’s Coldwire. “If you’re worried about whether there’s a place for your YA project in this market, look at these 10 books,” she told listeners. “There’s a three-point-of-view book, sequels, standalones—such a range of opportunity for the stories we want to tell.” She pointed to the new imprints Scarlett Press and Berkley XO as signs of an unflagging romantasy boom in crossover and new adult.
That doesn’t quite mean that anything goes. “One editor asked me to say to you, ‘Don’t rush to submit your books,’ ” Halverson said. “Keep working on your craft; keep reading other books and thinking about why those books might be coming to market. The greatest hook isn’t going to get you far without the craft to execute it well. Every time I talk about the hook, remember: craft first.”
She suggested authors try their hand at pitchfests such as DVpit (now on Bluesky), and she said would-be authors shouldn’t take it personally when agents request heavy revision. “All of the agents I talked with said they’re taking time to develop books before submission, so that’s not unusual,” she said. “They’re trying to maximize that submission to an editor and give them your best work.”
At the end of the livestream, Baker rejoined the webinar to ask Halverson questions from the audience, ending with a classic dilemma for those who vow to finish their work before New Year’s Eve. “Is it better to submit a query before the end of the year, or at the beginning of the new year?” asked Baker.
Halverson responded with advice that will hit differently depending on one’s identity as an author, agent, or editor. “I can tell you agents use this as a great time to catch up on their submissions,” she said. “If you’re submitting directly to a publisher, I might wait a little bit, but then you’re in the rush of New Year’s resolutions. Ultimately the overarching answer is if it’s ready, submit it.”
