Children's book sales, home and away

Now that the market decline stat is out of the way, onto the positives: internationally, six of the countries covered by BookScan grew their children's sales in 2017, with only the UK, Spain and South Africa showing falls. Among the top 10 global bestselling titles (across editions and translations), five were children's or crossover books: Bad Dad by David Walliams, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli, The Getaway by Jeff Kinney, The World's Worst Children 2 by David Walliams, and Guinness World Records 2018. If we look at total author sales, the leading name in six countries was a children's author - Geronimo Stilton in Italy and Spain, Andy Griffiths in Australia, David Walliams in Ireland and New Zealand, and Julia Donaldson in the UK - and in the remaining three, a children's author was second.