Things change. This is as true with books as it is in anything else. Today I was reading a Fifth Reader from 1884. To say that it indicates that educational standards have changed is an understatement. Some of the works in that book would challenge college freshmen.

How can we keep up with the changes?

I’m a big fan of libraries, having grown up in a household that loved, but could not afford, books. Often libraries will have newly published books–and they are waiting for us to check them out. Sometimes libraries even have a “Have You Seen These” for new books, so you don’t have to ask what’s new.

Publisher’s Weekly has Children’s Bookshelf, which is free, and details what different publishers are publishing. (They keep archives, so you can go read the spring in the fall and vice versa.)

Publishers Lunch is a free newsletter from Publishers Marketplace.

I signed up as an author. It takes up to 3 weeks for subscriptions to start, so don’t be surprised if it takes a while.

Going to either of the websites, however, is enough to start gathering information about the state of the profession immediately. Plus Publisher’s Lunch has links to outside news sources on topics of interest.

Becoming a member of Publishers Marketplace is NOT free. Depending on how far into your career you are, this may or may not be a worthwhile investment.