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Reka Simonsen, executive editor
at Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ENCHANTED AIR by Margarita Engle - This book shows how Engle became a writer and how she reconciled both sides of her cultural background to feel whole. "The writing is just gorgeous. It's moving. It makes me feel something. But it's very accessible and it's honest." Rena found Margarita in the slush pile years ago, and loved seeing how her writing developed.
THE WICKED AND THE JUST by J.A. Coats
"The best historical fiction feels relevant now." I think Jillian is really one of the best. She tells from both sides a story about colonialism and indigenous culture, and blends light and dark. The lightness in the book gives a way out of the darkness and she creates strong, well-drawn characters who are believable and understandable, even if you don't always like them. "Her writing just blows me away. She's another one of those people who's so smart you almost can't have a conversation with her without feeling a little overwhelmed."
GLASS SLIPPER GOLD SANDAL by Paul Fleischmann and Julie Paschkis
This has two things I love in one book: It's a multicultural approach to something familiar, and takes an incredible job with a story everyone knows, but also personalizes it for each culture. It shows readers there is more than one side of each story, and more than one way to tell a story. You can look at the world in many different ways. It also created amazing illustration opportunities.
Sara Sargent, executive editor at HarperCollins Children's Books
Sara chose three books to highlight.
CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge - a mashup of Beauty and the Beast with classical mythology. The world is complex and Sara and Rosamund had different ideas about resolving these things. "Where we ended up was such the perfect marriage of my editorial guidance ... and staying true to what she really wanted to do with the book."
She felt like it added something new to the canon of Beauty & the Beast retellings.
THE MUSEUM OF HEARTBREAK by Meg Leder
"There are a lot of reasons people become YA editors... I really love romance." This book made Sara feel understood like no other book had. That's a key reason people read YA. "There was something about this book that I absolutely couldn't pass up."
LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE by Gina Ciocca
She had to pass on the book. She was a new editor in her first job, and she couldn't get the rest of the team behind it. Two years later, she was at a new job and asked the agent, John Cusack, to send the manuscript again. They loved it, and the book became a huge lead title on the Simon Pulse list. (The process was agony for the author.)
"If you touch us in some way or inspire us, we don't forget about it, and we are the most die-hard champions of the things you write."
Jean Feiwel is a senior vice president and publisher at Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, where her eponymous imprint has published wonderful books such as Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles Series.
She also oversees Squarefish, Swoon Reads, and Henry Holt. (Macmillan has nine imprints in all, including one called Imprint—ha!)
Her career in publishing is incredibly distinguished: at Scholastic she invented the Baby-Sitter's Club series, and published Goosebumps, Animorphs, Harry Potter and other blockbuster series.
And it's not just novels; the picture book On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman was the first title she published at her imprint, and more than 3.5 million copies are in print.
She was one of five editors featured on a panel about publishing and its future.
At Macmillan, the company compiled imprints that had all been independent. "The decision was made to create what I call the Star Wars Alliance," Jean said. This unified their sales and marketing and retained the individuality of the imprints. As a result, their net business has grown 70 percent.
The growth of the industry has changed things, she said. After Harry Potter, it wasn't enough to have a bestselling book. You had to have a phenomenally bestselling book.
"If your bar is that high, you can miss a lot of things happening under that bar," she said. At Macmillan, they're supposed to grow by a certain percentage overall, and they're supposed to make great books.
"Slow and steady wins the race. It's pressure, but it's not the kind of pressure that's a carrot on a stick getting higher and further away."
Jean described different kinds of excitement. One is when you place a big bet on something—as she did with Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles. It's the No. 1 bestselling series on the NYT list this week.
There are other kinds of risks—like a book called MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH. "It's whizzing along nicely."
She loves being able to build things from the ground up. Risk-taking and developing new ideas is the hallmark of what Macmillan loves to do, she said.
She urged writers to do what they do best, and do it well. Stick to it and believe in it. It's not about trying to write to a trend.
Starting a crowdsourced imprint, Swoon Books, let her see a broader variety of manuscripts than agents were sending (they were too swamped for a slush pile). Seeing a range of submissions and mining self-published work is interesting and useful for publishers.
MacKids: the homepage of Macmillan Children's Publishing
Feiwel and Friends website
Feiwel and Friends on Facebook
Follow Feiwel and Friends on Twitter
Jon Anderson, President and Publisher of the S&S Children's Division, has been at his job for seven years, but in the book business since high school—as a B Dalton bookseller!
At Simon & Schuster Jon presides over the nine different children's imprints, which publish for toddlers to teens: There is Little Simon, which is predominantly preschool/boardbooks, all the way up to Simon Pulse, which is the S&S teen imprint.
Jon says S&S has five publishers who oversee the nine children's imprints. Each imprint reflects the tastes of their individual editorial directors. The nine editorial directors also share a sales force and two marketing teams. The editorial directors are nine, living/normal human beings, not to be confused with any other famous group of nine, they are absolutely not Tolkienian ring-wraiths—could a person as delightful as someone like
Justin Chanda ever be allied with something as evil as Mordor? I don't think so.
 |
| Justin Chanda works for Jon, this is how he greets Jon at the office every day. |
Lin asks about the health of the market:
Jon says his adult colleagues are very jealous of the never-ending revenue stream that is a children's book publisher's backlist.
Lin asks for Jon's interpretation of the S&S mission statement and it is:
Do good books.
"We always look for quality first. We have a huge commitment to cover diversity with our books, cover all age ranges with our books."
All of the presidents/publishers on the panel ask for authors and illustrators to have realistic expectations in all areas of publishing: advance amounts, marketing, potential sales...
Jon mentions a surprise success story, a book that everyone on the publishing team loved, but was bought for not too much money (a realistic amount) as it was considered a bit of a niche book that would only reach a certain sales level. But
that book—look at all the awards it's got on its cover(!)—has gone on to sell over 200,000 copies.
How do you break in and/or succeed in a children's book career? Jon says attending events like this can help, not only because there are opportunities to learn about the craft and the competition, but to be in proximity to the industry professionals and gatekeepers. And at events like this, you are much more likely to meet those people in person in organic ways (unlike the less organic way of accosting an editor in a bathroom at a tradeshow like BEA).
Maybe, if there is time for Q&A, Jon will finally clear up the age-old riddle: Is this a picture of Simon? OR SCHUSTER?
What Hooks Jordan and Sara?
Jordan Brown is an executive editor with the imprints Walden Pond Press and Balzer + Bray at HarperCollins Children’s Books
Highlights from Jordan:He asks himself, "What kind of books do kids need?" and "What kinds of things are desperately important to kids growing up today?"
Jordan is looking for books that "expand a kid's capacity for empathy." Characters who aren't all white, cis-gendered, characters who are different from readers.
Questions to ask ourselves as writers: "What does our character lack? What's their wound?"
He advises that "plot is intrinsically tied to character."
And he's looking for a narrator telling him a story, "a story that needs to get out."
Jordan also explains how the decision process works for him, and much more...
Sara Sargent is an executive editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she acquires picture book, middle grade, and young adult fiction.
Highlights from Sara:Sara edits books for the same reason she reads them: "escapism"
She's excited about re-imagined fairy tales, is really into fantasy and likes stories that are
romantic
fantastical, and
transportive.
She's looking, for even on the first page, a "feeling of being well taken care of." That the author has a mastery of language. An atmosphere that immediately envelopes her in the world.
Sara also speaks of the challenge of not editing something into the familiar, allowing projects to keep the unique thing about them that captured her in the first place.
 |
| Alison Weiss of Sky Pony Press |
Alison Weiss is an editor at Sky Pony Press (and was for six-and-a-half years before that was an editor at Egmont). She focuses on chapter books through YA. Her authors include Jessica Verday, the bestselling author of
Of Monsters and Madness; Agatha Award winner Penny Warner; YALSA-award-winner Sarah Cross; Micol Ostow, and many more wonderful authors.
A fun fact about Alison: She comes from Sleepy Hollow (for real!).
Voice is essential to projects she takes on, but it's easier to sell a book if it has a killer plot.
What would be your dream submission?She's looking for books that change her perspective on the world. It can be big or it can be small and subtle. This is the kind of book that has a long-lasting impact of readers.
What she admires: The best writing is effortless. It looks like it's so simple, and you can't see all of the hard work that's behind it all. She wants to be sucked into a world and feel lost in it.
What tips the balance on submissions: Editors get a lot of submissions. When she sees a problem and knows how she would fix it, that's more likely to be a project she'll take to acquisitions. If she loves it and sees problems that baffle her, it's less likely to go through.
The relationship between writers and editors is vital, and writers shouldn't fear talking to their editor to work through manuscript challenges.
The book she wishes she'd published:Ruta Sepetys's
Out of the Easy.
Follow her on twitter at
@alioop7.
 |
| <3 rotemmers="" td=""> |
Rotem is a senior editor at Disney Hyperion and the bee's knees.
Her answer to the question, what makes a compelling book is: "Emotional connection, whether picture book or novel. And how is this book different? A new voice, or point of view? Does it impress me?
Dream project? Rotem says: Really want to find a middle grade novel that makes you cry... and is happy, like
Anne of Green Gables. For picture books it has to be AWESOME.
Wendy asks if there was a book that hooked you from the beginning and went on to do well in the market/critically?
Hook's Revenge by Heidi Schulz is the book that comes to mind first for Rotem, and she's happy to announce the sequel will be out in September.
What's the difference to you in a project where you acquire it, but it needs a lot of work, vs. a project you don't accept?
"It's having the vision of how to help the author make a book sing. The book has to go to the right editor and the right house, it's an alchemy."
A book you wish you could have worked on? Rotem says,
Dory Fantasmagory, it's hilarious.
Alessandra Balzer is Vice-President, co-publisher of Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books. She edits everything from picture books to novels for teens.
 |
| Alessandra Balzer |
Allyn Johnston is Vice-President and Publisher of Beach Lane Books, a San Diego-Based imprint of Simon & Schuster. She publishes books "for all ages and across all genres" with a "primary focus on lyrical, emotionally engaging, highly visual picture books for young children."
 |
| Allyn Johnston |
The theme of the panel is for each editor to share their three must-sees and their three really-don't-want-to-see elements of a manuscript. Here are highlights of Alessandra and Allyn's comments:
Alessandra shares "I'm a sucker for voice." She needs to see voice, it conveys age, point of view, gender… it all comes through voice, and she must see that.
Allyn Johnson shares that she's looking for the unexpected. "If it has the ability to give me goosebumps" that's a really good thing. She also says that she's not a fan of long cover letters (she'd rather be surprised by the manuscript,)
As far as the
what not to dos,
Alessandra cautions that the effort to not be boring can backfire if you overload the start of your manuscript with so much action and sex and drama that it's overwhelming… "introduce us to your characters."
And Allyn says, "Don't be weird." Don't submit your manuscript inside a plastic toy fish - which she s now holding up to prove that actually happened to her! [translation: your manuscript shouldn't need the gimmick to grab their attention.]
There's so much information and insights being shared!
Two last points, one for each:
Allyn Johnston - she asks herself of a picture book manuscript: Is it irresistible to read aloud? It must be, for her to acquire it.
Alessandra Balzer - in talking about having a hook, says, "what hook really means is the ability for the book to stand out." There's so much out there, what's going to make someone say,
oh, you have to read this book - and that's yours?
Wendy Loggia is executive editor at Delacorte Press/Random House Children's Books.
The theme for this panel is: 3 + 3: Three things your book should include and three things to avoid.
The importance of voice is top on the list for all of the editors on the panel.
For Wendy, when looking back on particular books she's worked on, a one or two sentence description might not sound all that exciting, but it's the voice of the book that draws in the reader and makes it interesting.
What should writers avoid?
Wendy shares a simple tip: make sure you have page numbers on your manuscript. If you'd like her preference, put page numbers in the bottom, right corner.
Avoid telling an editor that your kids or grandkids love your manuscript. They hear this often.
"It's wonderful when I'm partnering with someone who has a clear imagining of how they want their book to look and feel."
 |
| Mary Lee Donovan |
Mary Lee Donovan is editorial director at Candlewick Press, where she's worked for 23 wonderful years, following a 7-year stint at Houghton Mifflin as well as time as a bookseller at The Children's Bookshop when she was getting her MA in Children's Literature from Simmons College in Boston.
 |
| Julie Strauss-Gabel |
Her titles include the Newbery Award-winning GOOD MASTERS, SWEET LADIES by Laura Amy Schlitz, Megan McDonald's Judy Moody and Stink series, and the Caldecott honor book JOURNEY by Aaron Becker. They publish everything from picture books up, and have a relationship with Walker Books in the UK.
Julie Strauss-Gabel is the vice president and publisher of Dutton Children's Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group. She publishes about 9 or 10 middle grade and young adult titles each year. She just acquired her fourth memoir and is looking for those, as well. Before coming to Dutton in 2002, she worked at Hyperon Books for Children and Clarion Books. Her authors include Ally Condie, Adam Gitdwitz, John Green, Stephanie Perkins, Lauren Myracle, John Grisham, Andrew Smith, and more.
The topic of the editors' panel was titled "3+3: Three Things Your Book Should Include and Three Things to Avoid." Lin Oliver moderated, and questions in bold are hers.
What's on good thing to see in a manuscript?
Mary Lee Donovan: "I remember hearing voice. What do they mean by that? Voice is something you bring to your manuscript automatically. You want to make sure you are writing as you. Don't try to imitate, or echo another writer or style. If you are writing authentically, you are writing in your voice."
When you get something fresh or exciting, it's like meeting a new person who enchants or astonishes you, she said.
She recommends writers take their time when it comes to deciding which editors to send a book to. The Internet has a lot of information on editors and their lists that are very useful.
Julie Strauss-Gabel: "Voice is the No. 1 thing I have written down. That you have heard that across the whole table is an extraordinarily significant piece of information. I'm also very attentive to fit, for my imprint and for myself as an editor. I can look at a manuscript and very quickly know if it's good and if it's a good fit for me."
She is looking for something that she can fall in love with and champion for many, many years. She recommends writers read editors' lists, not looking at just the surface things. It's important to remember that you can't please all the people all the time, which is why you shouldn't write to a general audience.
What grieves you when a manuscript comes in?Julie Strauss-Gabel: "If I don't get engaged, if I don't see the voice, if it's very pedestrian, I'm out."
Mary Lee Donovan: "Don't impart wisdom."
 |
Rubin talking to a packed ballroom with his fellow members of the panel
(all of whom, he joked, have rejected his submissions). |
Rubin Pfeffer is an industry veteran. Among other things, he's been president and publisher at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, a senior VP and chief creative officer of Pearson, and publisher of children's books at Simon & Schuster. And he even worked as an art director, discovering talent like David Diaz.
These days, he's a partner at East West Literary Agency, where he not only represents some of the industry's brightest lights--Susan Cooper, Marian Dane Bauer, David Diaz, and the Watson clan--but also is on the forefront of emerging technologies in storytelling.
The best part of it, he says, "... is building a greenhouse around their ideas and hopes and seeing those ideas to fruition."
He shared a ton of insights with us. A few excerpts:
Observations on significant changes in the industry: He started his career at Grosset & Dunlap and was designing Hardy Boys covers. When he walked in their offices yesterday, he was amazed by the diversity and energy of the titles. There is also more commercial publishing in the industry.
Two years ago, digital publishing was groundbreaking and people were still saying how they wanted to cuddle up with real books. But now, it's generally acknowledged that digital publishing is part of the future.
On the importance of acquisitions committees and discoverability of our books:"There is this notion about acquisitions groups and meetings, it's like the death knell to all would-be writers who want to be published. But it's important.... because it is not just publishing a book that an editor is a champion of. It's publishing a book that a number of people are championing in some very important fields. Is it something that can be marked effectively in all the new ways you can market? Because we are publishing fewer titles, we have to publish those fewer titles better."
There are new responsibilities that are associated with writers and illustrators, to make yourself discoverable by somebody who will be interested in it.
We'll start to see more "vertical groups on the interest," Rubin says. For example, second grade teachers, or preschool teachers. We need to reach out to them.
Do authors/illustrators need publishers anymore? "It's an important question. Just because there are examples of successful self-publishing endeavors, for every successful example, there are countless others that didn't work."
The editor, publisher, marketers--these people are the village that gets behind books.
"The bigger question: What is a publisher? They used to be the big six and the other six after that. There are new kinds of publishers coming out. Some of them are rising quickly."
Panel: Debra Dorfman, Beverly Horowitz, Jennifer Hunt, Allyn Johnston, and Julie Strauss-Gabel
Allyn Johnston: Beach Lane Books Imprint at Simon and Schuster. Publish 18 to 20 books per year. Mainly picture books.
Julie Strauss-Gabel: Dutton has gone through a change, becoming a small boutique publishing middle grade and young adult fiction. Dutton is imprint of Dial Books for Young Readers.
Jennifer Hunt: Vice President of Acquisition and Development and Editor-at-Large for Dial Books for Young Readers.
Beverly Horowitz: VP Publisher Delacorte, focus on middle grade and young adult.
Debra Dorfman: Editor at Scholastic. Her focus is on middle grade and chapter book series.
Question: Any particular genres that are endangered or growth spurting?Beverly Horowitz: Believes with the demise of Borders and the many shifts in the publishing community, we have to have new thinking. She doesn't believe genres are going to die. Believes there is an opportunity. The independents who have survived have stronger potential. We shouldn't be afraid of the ebook. We are all more nimble than ever. As complicated and things are, things are more bullish than not, especially in the kid's market.
Debra Dorfman: Believes we're going to be seeing more books sold in non-traditional book stores. Many big box stores are now expanding their book areas.
Julie Strauss-Gabel: If you look at the success stories, in the children's market, we still have schools and libraries and there is no one way to publish a book to success. There's more than one journey.
Jennifer Hunt: Something that makes her hopeful is that kids are always in the forefront of innovation.
What kinds of skills do creators books need to have to help market a book or for a book to find its path?Debra Dorfman: Important to put yourself out there. Work with your publisher and arrange school visits. To have a website. Helping to create your own buzz.
Julie Strauss-Gabel: Social media, or in person, only works when it's genuine. Do what is natural to you. People can tell when you're being genuine.
Jennifer Hunt: While there's an upside to social media, she's also seen it create a lot of anxiety in authors.
Tell us about one of your favorite upcoming books for your list:
Debra Dorfman: A series called GHOST BUDDY by Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler
Berverly Horowitz: ALL THE EARTH THROWN TO THE SKY by Joe Lansdale
Jennifer Hunt: COUNTING BY SEVENS by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Julie Strauss-Gabel: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green and THE DISENCHANTMENTS by Nina Lacour
TEN LITTLE CATERPILLARS by BILL MARTIN JR. and STARS by Mary Lyn Ray
Before Nick joined Scholastic in April, he worked at Random House for five and a half years. He grew up reading comic books, and today, is a middle grade and YA guy who tends to do “guy” books because he’s a guy editor.
His mission at Scholastic is to do MG novels and graphic novels (but also some YA).
Plot or voice? He describes himself as more of a plot guy than a voice guy, but you want both.
"If I’m sitting on 10 submissions, the one I want to read next tends to be the one with the hook," he said. "I don’t think that a great plot is enough if the writing isn’t there. I’m not going to champion publishing a book that’s a great idea that doesn’t fulfill that idea. When I do get to that quiet, voice driven book, sometimes that will really speak to me and it doesn’t matter that it isn’t a high concept plot."
It's easier to envision going in and championing that really cool plot—that high concept idea with the rest of the acquisition team, he said.
What book makes him drool? One book he wishes he'd been involved with: The Hunger Games. And even though he works at Scholastic, he has to wait with the rest of us poor fools to find out what happens to Katniss (and Peeta and Gale). He also loves John Green and Scott Westerfeld.
Nick is specifically looking for "guy high concept."
"If you can show off the bat that you have an original idea, I'm going to be excited to put your submission at the top of the stack," he said.
What should you avoid doing in a submission? He loves to get a sense of the author--the relationship is such a big part of the job. On the flip side, if something has been blindly sent out and isn't the sort of thing he's doing--say picture books--in that case, he's not inclined to pass it along to a colleague. It's a taboo to make more work for other people. Sometimes people contact him via Facebook, which he finds "kind of awkward." But he responds to it.
If someone read an interview with him on a blog, for example, and is sending him something he is looking for, that's OK.
Not everyone is going to be able to convey their high concept in one sentence (Nick says he has a team of colleagues to rely on, which helps). With something like
The Book Thief (a high-concept book narrated by Death), it comes down to writing the inventive query letter.
Editors Panel: "Success Stories: Four Editors Distill the Secrets of a Successful Book:
Focus on: ARI LEWIN, Senior Editor of Disney/Hyperion
Ari Lewin discussed the popular and award-winning stand alone fantasy series, "THE HEIR CHRONICLES" by author Cinda Williams Chima. The first book was a contemporary fantasy set in real world Ohio called THE WARRIOR HEIR. Ari discussed how the book did not have a huge marketing campaign - there was no big book tour. It was "just your basic big publishing house campaign" in which they gave out bookmarks and galleys at various conferences and bookstores.
But she said the book began winning many awards, such as the Kirkus BBYA in 2008 and the Voyas Perfect Teens 2007 list and positive reviews. Unlike other fantasy novels, Cinda's series were a collection of stand alone novels. The second book was not a sequel but a stand alone book featuring a different character. She called it a "companion piece."
Ari stressed that a series of stand alone books often have an advantage over actual series because new readers are more willing to read the latest book because there's no pressure to have read the previous books. In addition, awards committees are reluctant sometimes to give awards to books that readers need to have read the previous books in order to understand and enjoy the latest one.
Air said Cinda's real world fantasy setting was real and familiar to kids - it featured "a familiar world of a teenager with a huge secret" and that made it accessible to kids who normally did not read fantasy.
She also showed some sketches of the original cover of the first book versus the final version, and explained how the original cover was a sketch and looked too "manga" and did not fit the tone of the book (it skewed too young). She said book covers are very important when it comes to books succeeding and finding an audience.
BUT ultimately, Ari concluded that "at the end of the day, I know how hard Cinda has worked to perfect her craft and promote her work. The biggest secret to a book's success sometimes is that the book is good and the book is worthy."
Posted by Paula Yoo
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ENCHANTED AIR by Margarita Engle - This book shows how Engle became a writer and how she reconciled both sides of her cultural background to feel whole. "The writing is just gorgeous. It's moving. It makes me feel something. But it's very accessible and it's honest." Rena found Margarita in the slush pile years ago, and loved seeing how her writing developed.
GLASS SLIPPER GOLD SANDAL by Paul Fleischmann and Julie Paschkis
THE MUSEUM OF HEARTBREAK by Meg Leder
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4082597367384086450-4
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What exactly is a 'high concept'? No one has sufficiently clarified that for me. Is there a succinct definition beyond the idea that a high concept is something you can express in a single sentence??
Thanks.