Association of Youth Book Publishers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (avj)

About us

The avj is the professional association of publishers of German-language children’s and young adult literature and also audiovisual media, calendars, »book plus« products and much more besides for children and young people. It was founded in 1950 with a membership of 13 and today numbers just under 100 publishing companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The avj board of directors comprises four honorary members from the publishing industry, who are supported by an advisory board. The association’s office in the Haus des Buches building in Frankfurt am Main is run by a full-time managing director.

The prime focus of avj activities is on representing the interests of and fostering networking between its member publishing houses as well as promoting media for children and young people and thus promoting reading.

Publications

The avj publishes various recommendation lists and catalogs containing selections of children’s and young adult literature: The customer magazine Bücherbox names over 200 of the most important new publications in the picture, children’s, young adult, non-fiction and audio book categories. The magazine is a valuable aid to orientation amid the annual jungle of new releases and comes out once a year, in October.

The book rights’ catalog New Children’s Books for international publishing houses presents the most important rights’ titles of the avj member publishers and is an indispensable tool for the sale of book rights. You can find the digital catalogue here.

Campaigns, Promotions and Events

The avj sponsors reading promotion projects and champions a wide variety of initiatives connected with children’s and young adult literature. It engages in current debate and provides support for image campaigns. To improve the image of various genres, the avj co-developed the picture book, audio book and non-fiction flyers.

In addition to these, it organizes and holds further training seminars and conferences for multipliers, booksellers and publishing house employees.

In 2007, the avj collaborated with the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V. (The German Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association) on the baseline survey Kinder- und Jugendbücher. Marktpotenzial, Käuferstrukturen und Präferenzen unterschiedlicher Lebenswelten (Children’s and young adult books, market potential, buyer structures and preferences in different life-worlds). This survey is repeated every three years. The latest, 2013, edition can be ordered at www.libreka.de.