Publisher keen to enrich children’s book market Tre Publishing House hopes to revive the local children’s book market as few authors are dedicated to books for children.    Few authors write books for children Nguyen Minh Nhut, editor-in-chief of Tre Publishing House said since few authors wrote books for children, many publishers preferred to issue foreign children's books. But in order to attract children and parents to an original title, the books must have interesting content, pretty design, be thin enough and not cost a lot. Nhut went on to say that many bookstores were reluctant to put children books on display because they took up more space and did not sell well. Author Le Van Nghia said, "The authors must understand children as well as having enough life experience to make a good book. That's why most authors for children are middle aged or older. Moreover, children’s books don’t deliver high profits like romance or other more commercial genres." In March, the Tre Publishing House started a project to encourage veteran authors write children’s books on specific themes. Previously, authors often completed a whole book on their own before sending the draft to publisher. In this project, the authors will register the themes and co-operate with the editors to create the books. Author Ngoc Nga said this was the first time she had seen such close co-operation with the editors and the process was also smoother. Several books have been published using the new model such as New Fairy Tales by Nguyen Huong or Playing with Yuyu by Kim Hang. The first books have been introduced at the Summer Book Party held on May 29 with other 800 titles, 80% of which were children’s books. The changes are hoped to improve literature for children in Vietnam while modernising the way local authors and publishers work together. tienphong