“Children’s books make money: a good amount of money,” stated Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner. “And the expectation on the part of publishers is that they won’t make that much money on the digital format. That’s a big stepping on the brakes for a lot of publishers.”

Over at the Good E Reader blog, Mercy Pilkington gives us a great overview of the panel discussion that opened the London Book Fair, stating that it “seemed to raise more questions than it answered.” The biggest hurdle? The cost, as in the price tag that comes along with the team of designers and programmers (and lets not forget the author, the creator of the actual content) needed to make an interactive book app.

Also of concern, and something I feel should be in the forefront of every children writer’s vision when utilizing new technologies, is how to keep the app from becoming a “robot nanny of science fiction stories.”

Still, the panel’s message to publishers was clear: “embrace digital or be left behind…”