Who is going to replace David Walliams if anyone? Is this good news for children's literature and new authors?

[mids2019]

I may be wrong but I have a sneaky feeling books by David Walliams may not be as popular as they were once were for various reasons.

If Walliams books are quietly dropped from stores do you think publishing companies will look for a new Walliams or will there be more diverse literature than Roahl Dahl knock offs?

Did your children know that David Baddiel is a "celeb" though?
Or did they choose the book because they liked the title/cover/plot synopsis?

Is he simply the new Enid Blyton in terms of book quality?
There will always be celeb authors
there will always be 'easy to read / not intellectual' books for kids
there will of course always be lots of other authors...

No, just that a large number of books appearing under a familiar brand have gone.

Based on the two DW books I read to DS when he was younger, DW makes Enid Blyton look like Dostoyevsky in comparison.

I found his books deeply unsettling and very badly written too! Hopefully this will be the end of them. So many brilliant books for kids out there.

I am not sure they have though.
Well known popular authors are still available and regularly in print.
Enid Blyton for example. You can't get a more "familiar brand" than the Famous Five and there is literally a new spin off series being published right now.

Not sure why we need books written by so called celebrities. Aren't there loads of amazing writers on offer?

But we’re talking about David Walliams. Whose publishers have confirmed they will no longer publish new work by him and are dropping his back catalogue entirely. So his multi-million-selling books will no longer be available, hence a gap in the market.

But there won't be a gap.
There's a million other books and authors out there.

No, they saw them at the school library, borrowed them and really enjoyed them.

It was when they were older and we were talking about celebrity authors, they said he was the best. Walliams was given short shrift and Sandi Toksvig was also dismissed.

That kind of my point that publishers don't need celebrity names on their books to make them appealing to children.
They are just books from a child's point of view.

Go to any second hand book sale or charity shop, his books are there by the dozen. I think that says a lot!

Sad that so many decent children's authors are out of print now.

But yes, opening the door for other writers to get a look in is great news for sure.

I think you're misunderstanding the term 'gap in the market'. If Doc Martens suddenly stopped being manufactured, it's not that there wouldn't be many other options for people to buy in terms of boots, but there would be a specific gap in the market in terms of that specific brand no longer being available. No one's suggesting people will stop buying children's books because DW's aren't available.

I refuse to buy or read any books written by a 'celebrity ' .
I think there are enough talented writers who would jump at the chance of a publishing deal, and a celebrity author doesn't have to be more than mediocre to get a deal. It's grossly unfair.

I think I am misunderstanding.
What is the "gap" that people are talking about then?

It's less his celebrity, than a visible brand with a lot of books under the same name, though, and a lot of money spent on advertising, and paying for bookshop windows etc. Easy for a grandparent, say, buying a book for a child, to say 'Oh, X liked the DW book we got her last time, and there's a new one. We'll get her that one.' It's a steer to anyone walking into a bookshop.

His books were marketed so well that parents who don't read and would never go near an Enid Blyton/ classic/ literary award winning book would buy them. They liked little Britain, not necessarily reading

Publishers can still do that though and they do.

Just hat DW's books are no longer available to purchase! The child who just automatically went onto the next DW book, or the adult who saw them as a familiar brand the child they were buying for liked, now have to look somewhere else, in the same way as I would be looking elsewhere for a UK-made tough, air-soled laced boot if DMs suddenly became unavailable.

Do what?

Really?
From my experience of doing some book sales at my daughter's primary school it was more the "middle class" (ie likely to be more into reading) parents that bought them.

Pay for huge promotion, book shop window displays, author signing events etc.

Children aren't the market for celeb books, adults are.

If your buying for your nephew or granddaughter or you neighbours' children and you aren't a bibliophile, a well known name on a promising display is an easy choice.

I am going to brave the MN wrath and say that my eldest DD (now 21) used to love David Walliams books - especially Gangster Granny and Mr Stink. However she also loved the Secret Seven.

Younger DD didn't- she was a Mallory Towers Girl!!

As to the suggestion that they were bought by non-reading parents I am an avid reader thank you very much and really don't understand all this moral handwringing. Eldest DD wasn't an enthusiastic reader so any time she picked up a book we were happy.

Neither of them ever got into Harry Potter (even though I read them as an adult!).

Different strokes as they say. If anything untoward is revealed about Mr Walliams I dare say his books will be tainted but in all honesty that seems to be par for the course these days. They both loved Roald Dahl too (as did I) and he is not without his problems.

Yes, obviously. But not for DW any more.

In fact, his sheet bankability as a longtime bestseller makes it all the more striking that Harper Collins dropped him so totally, back catalogue as well as not publishing new titles by him.

Usually, contractually, the rights would revert to DW himself, so he should in theory be able to take his entire back catalogue to another publisher. Or, I suppose, to set up alone and self-publish.