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Alison Weiss is an editor at Sky Pony Press. She was previously at Egmont for 6 and half years.

Missing the Middle Grade Mark: Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Your character is too young or to too old.
• Your voice isn't authentic. 
• Your dialogue doesn't sound natural or natural to your characters. 
• Your vocabulary is too sophisticated. 
• You're putting characters in situations that don't make sense.
• You're writing what you think is a middle grade experience, not what's actually a middle grade experience. 
• Your book lacks conflict.
• Your making choices that will date your book.
• Your book is too long.
• You don't know the market.
• Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
• You aren't asking your questions when you have the chance.

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The room filling up to hear Emma Dryden (right) talk with Rana DiOrio (center) and Alison Weiss (left)

Legendary editor Emma Dryden is the founder of drydenbks, a premier children’s editorial and publishing consultancy firm. Calling herself a "big advocate of exploring your publishing options," she introduces Rana DiOrio, the publisher of Little Pickle Press and Alison Weiss, an editor at Sky Pony Press.

Some highlights of the session

On success,

Alison cites a fascinating perception difference: If a book is expected to sell 100,000 copies but only sells 20,000 copies, versus a book that's expected to sell 10,000 copies and sells 20,000. Both books sold the same number of copies, but the perception of success is completely different.

Emma asks Alison and Rana what arguments they'd use to convince an author whose work might be being considered by both their small press and a major house.

For Alison, the benefits of a smaller house include:

• The degree of accessibility. Being able to reach and talk to almost anyone at the small press, versus how at big houses you often don't even know who's touching your book.

• She cautions how at a big house, if you're very very lucky, your book is chosen as the big book they're going to feature and push. But, sometimes (most of the time) your book won't be chosen. A book can sort of get lost... At a smaller house, it's a lot easier to stand out and shine.

• Smaller presses have "a lot more room for experimentation."


For Rana, the argument for Little Pickle starts with:

• "Together, the author and Little Pickle become parents of your child, your work. It's that important. The success of your book is so important to us." She describes it as "intimate."

• Rana cites the process being much more collaborative than at a major house. For example, picture book authors get to weigh in on who the illustrator is, and get input on the art direction. "It's an amazing process and you're being a participant."

• "We work much more quickly." A picture book can happen in a year. (Versus three years at a big press.)

• Opportunity to serve a social mission - not just Little Pickle's, but yours. (They have a lot of cross-marketing relationships.)

• Flexibility in business models, where contracted relationships can look more like joint ventures. She sites one of her authors whose deal was no advance and 30% of revenue, versus a traditional publishing deal of an advance with a royalty rate of between 5-7%.


Additionally, both Alison and Rana describe the acquisitions process at their small presses. They discuss marketing, trade shows, publicity and marketing, their business models (advances, royalties, profit sharing versus revenue sharing) and so much more.

The last ten minutes of the session Emma opens the floor to questions from the attendees (some of whom didn't get a chair and are sitting on the floor and standing against the back wall!)

Visit their websites at these links to find out more about Little Pickle Press and Sky Pony Press.

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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. 

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#LA15SCBWI Editors' Panel underway

From Right to Left:

Moderator Wendy Loggia, executive editor at Delacorte Press/Random House Children's Books (primarily MG and YA)

Jordan Brown, executive editor with Walden Pond Press and Balzer + Bray at HarperCollins Children's Books

Allyn Johnston, vice president and publisher of Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

Rotem Moscovich, senior editor at Disney-Hyperion

Sara Sargent, executive editor at HarperCollins Children's Books

Julie Strauss-Gabel, vice president and publisher of Dutton Children's Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers

Alison Weiss, editor at Sky Pony Press

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A few weeks ago, Alison Weiss of Egmont USA wrote with an idea.  Why not conduct a live chat with readers?  Why not, indeed, find a time when both Kristina McBride (The Tension of Opposites) and I could sit down for an hour for a moderated conversation conducted within the Cover It Live forum?

The question was asked.  An idea was born.  An evening was chosen.

Please join Kristina, Alison, and me for a conversation about what happens when you choose to build a story within the frame of a kidnapping.  Did real-world headlines precipitate the story?  Are we obliged, as storytellers, to work the sensationalistic angles?  How much room can we make for language and heart and hope in a story that has such darkness at its start?

I'm really looking forward to the conversation, and I am very hopeful that you will find the time to join us.  The facts and link below:

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I left the house at 5 AM yesterday, and walked, in the breaking dark, toward the train. The carnival lights from the Devon Horse Show grounds were shining just for me.

I arrived early to the Javits Center and took a walk first within the silence, then among the onslaught of crowds. Soon I was at the Egmont USA booth, interviewing the wonderful Rob Guzman, part of the Egmont USA marketing team. (Later in the day I had the privilege of interviewing Egmont USA's Alison Weiss.)

In impromptu fashion (under Rob's raised eyebrow) I began signing books right there at the Egmont booth, flashing my spanking-new bookmarks whenever I could.  It wasn't long before I was in the presence of Florinda, a beautiful book blogger and a member of the Armchair BEA team. We had a conversation, Florinda and I, and, thanks to Elizabeth Law, our dialogue was captured for all of time on film.  Check the Armchair BEA blog later today to see what Florinda and I had to say.

Elizabeth Law of Egmont USA was my guide throughout the morning; in the rush of my signing, Florinda of The 3Rs took our photograph. Soon, were we joined by some beautiful people—librarians, teachers, readers, parents, and blogger friends. There I am with Kathy of BermudaOnion (I finally met her and she's as lovely as I knew she would be) and

6 Comments on A photo (and link-rich) tour of my morning at the BEA, last added: 5/28/2011

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I made my way up from a client meeting on Wall Street to Park Avenue yesterday, where the always-wonderful Egmont USA troupe welcomed me in, bling and all.  You throw your arms around these people when you see them.  You talk travels, sun, book jackets, dreams, classes taught and classes taken, Mickey Mouse, impersonations, architecture, radical movie flops, the delicate matter of the comma.  You go home feeling warmed, alive, like books still matter, after all.  That's Lawsy and me, in the final picture, aligning our bedazzling silver trim.

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