German Association of Young Adult Book Publishers
About Us
Arbeitsgemeinschaft von Jugendbuchverlagen e.V. (avj) is the trade association for publishers of German-language children’s and young adult literature, as well as audiovisual media, calendars, BuchPlus products and much more for children and young people. It was founded in 1950 with 13 publishers and now has almost 100 publishers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The avj board consists of four members from the publishing industry, who are supported by an advisory board. The office in Haus des Buches in Frankfurt am Main is run by a general manager. Its activities centre on representing the interests of member publishers, creating opportunities to network, and promoting children’s and youth media and thus reading itself.
Publications
The avj publishes various recommendation lists and selection catalogues for children’s and young adult literature: The rights catalogue ‘New Children’s Books’ for foreign publishers presents the most important titles from avj member publishers and is an indispensable tool for licence sales. Additionally, the avj presents our member publishers‘ current titles, previews and job offers on the website „Kinder- und Jugendbuchverlage A-Z“.
Campaigns, activities 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. Every year, the avj organises the „Lese-Reise“ (Reading Journey) during which book shops throughout Germany can win a reading with children’s book authors which are facilitated by avj member publishers.
In addition to these, it organizes and holds further training seminars and conferences for multipliers, booksellers and publishing house employees.
In 2024, the avj, together with the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V. (German Publishers and Booksellers Association), organised the comprehensive study ‘How young people find and buy books today’. The main objective of the study was to understand how young people discover books, which selection criteria are relevant and how they buy books. In addition to recording key market figures, young readers aged 10 to 29 and parents aged 30 and over with children interested in books were interviewed. You can find the key results here.