Bath Spa launches world's first children's publishing MA

Bath Spa University has launched the world's first MA in children's publishing in response to the "significant growth" in international demand for UK-published books.

The course at Bath Spa has been developed to help meet rising demand from countries such as India and China, which drove a 34% increase in UK exports in 2016 to £116 million. Similarly, recent figures from the Publisher’s Association also highlighted the boom in the industry, with the revenue from the sale of UK children’s books increasing by 16% to £365 million in the past year.

Katharine Reeve, subject leader in publishing at Bath Spa University, said: "Books for children and young adults are high-growth areas of publishing in terms of innovation, revenues and employment, encouraged by bestselling authors such as JK Rowling and David Walliams, and illustrators like Quentin Blake and Lauren Child. We want to play our part in developing the creative publishers of the future.”

The course will cover key publishing knowledge and skills such as editing, marketing, rights and contracts, illustration, design and print production, business strategy and digital product development.

The course leader, Dr. Laura Little, holds a PhD in children’s picture book illustration and is the author of several international articles and book contributions on the subject.

Little said: “The new course will offer unique immersive learning across all areas of children’s publishing. With support from our expert tutors and specialist technical staff, students will be free to experiment and to create their own exciting projects, from pop-up books and digital story apps to reimagined fairytales from around the world and non-fiction illustrated books.”

More information is available on the course's website.