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?

What do you mean 'if'? Why do you think Harper Collins dropped their key earner?

As I said upthread a lot of classic/modern classics are currently available with absolutely beautiful covers so they are visually appealing.
That should hopefully help with sales if the buyer doesn't know much about books.

@GiantSuit - well I am not privy to their reasons amd am not aware of any statement having been made. Just giving my experience. Only on MN have no children ever read any DW books which is very strange bearing in mind how many of them were sold.

My youngest is not at all as avid a reader as my older kids. He basically only read diary of a wimpy kid, the treehouse series and other semi comic strip books. But he did read david walliams. I wasn't choosing his books, he was. ie he would read a book at school and we would get the rest of the series. I was just happy he was reading books with actual pages of text in. I (and his siblings) did/do try and expand his reading selection but he is resistant.

But I still don't see a gap.
Harper Collins is one of the biggest (possibly the biggest) publishers in the world so dropping one author who hasn't been that popular for a few years now isn't creating a gap.
The gap has already been filled with other authors and trends.

Tom Fletcher and Ben Miller write decent children’s fiction and would be classed as celebrity authors, but why do they have to be celebrities. There are numerous excellent children’s books authors, both living and dead, without needing to worry about them also being celebrities

They both loved Roald Dahl too (as did I) and he is not without his problems.

Dahl was a raging anti-Semite, but by god he could tell a good story. He was a wonderful and inventive writer. Gaiman is a sex abuser of vulnerable women and he also writes a great story. They are talented writers who happen to also be shitty people.

Walliams had no such redeeming talent. He wrote sentences that made my eyes hurt, they were that bloody awful. They were no better than the damned Beast Quest or Rainbow Fairy Magic crap churned out by the bucket load.

But it's a matter of public record, and was covered in detail in the media!

DS certainly read The Boy in the Dress and The Midnight Gang -- or, I read them to him when he was still young enough to be read to at night, but I thought they were both awful, so didn't read any further DWs to him.

A celebrity has a huge leg up on an unknown, so they are far more likely to be published.

They have an agent, which unknown authors can spend years trying to get. They have name recognition, so when it lands at a publisher, they are more likely to look it over. The marketing department has an easy job pushing an already well known name compared to drumming up interest in a new author.

A celebrity can also go on the One Show or other soft-ball type interviews to promote a book, which no new author can manage.

It's not that anyone needs celebrity authors, it's that an already-famous person who decides to write a book if far more likely to get it printed than someone else.

Curious. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx8dznljndyzo

I'd love to see someone like Katherine Rundell get more attention. There are some brilliant children's authors out there who deserve a bit more recognition

It's certainly curious that the story doesn't contextualise the closure of the DW-themed bit of the theme park with the fact that his publisher dropped him, and his books are no longer available.

Yeah but it's not children buying it. Initially it would be been bought by adults who thought Little Britain was amusing.

I don't know who will replace the gap left, but glad there is a gap.

Yes but children will see books available in bookshops and libraries and become familiar with favourite authors.
I don't think a celebrity name is needed to grab someone's attention.

What a weird post

I think in the case of Walliams it was. At least initially. But yeah I'm not suggesting another celebrity should come along and take his place. Real authors where that's their actual career are much more respected by me anyway.

I’m told that 2pm is when the judge will announce their decision about a certain children’s author who cannot be named but who might have been mentioned once or twice in this thread.

No, but no one's suggesting that. Merely that if someone who has already got some form of public profile and is in any way competent at producing regular books to a reliable formula, preferably in several series, it's a safer bet for their publisher, and easier to market, even if the books themselves are ghostwritten.

Like Richard Osman for adults. It's not that there's any particular lack of cosy crime novels these days, but when he came up with The Thursday Murder Club, it was a safer bet than any number of other perfectly competent cosy crime novels by people who didn't already have a considerable public profile on TV and via the podcasting world. And became, not surprisingly, a huge success, to the point where he's given up almost all TV and is focusing on writing.

@GiantSuit yes but this apparent "gap in the market" has already been replaced by other celebrity authors who have written children's books. There's loads available.
David Walliams books haven't been very popular for ages now. The gap was filled ages ago.

Never mind.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that.
The whole point of this thread is "who is going to replace David Walliams" as a popular children's writer.
My point is he's essentially already been replaced by other celebrity writers and with other genres of books that are currently hugely popular with children.
There's no need to replace him or fill an apparent "gap".
There is no gap.
Harper Collins and bookshops everywhere will manage perfectly fine without his books.

No one can deny his books were very successful. I find most children’s books a bit shite but my DS does love the DW books. He is 6 and now spends an hour a night reading to himself and imagining the story, getting in to it and can’t wait to finish the story. I bloody love that for him. Some massive book snobs on this thread. I find it really handy there are so many DW books as they are always popping up in charity shops ( probably more so now eek… ) so I can keep picking them up as DS finishes one. Would be great if there was a similar author with a similar vast collection of books that could be recommended.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books were written by Jeff Kinney who is an author and illustrator, not David Walliams or any other celebrity.

No one is suggesting that there will literally be empty shelves, or wailing children, but someone like @Crimblecrumble1990 is an example of what I mean by a gap in the market in that she’s looking for a similar author because her child likes the DW books, and there won’t be any new ones.