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The team here at Adventures in YA Publishing is excited to announce a new monthly column! Starting next month, we'll be highlighting an author and publisher in our Who's Making Waves in Publishing highlight. But we'll do this in a personal and in-depth way by hosting an interview or dialogue between one of the publisher's authors and their editor.
The interview will focus both on the editing process and the publisher's vision for their books. Our aim is to give writers insight into what happens in publishing from the inside.
So be sure to check back at the end of every month to see what exciting new ventures are happening within publishing!
-- posted by Susan Sipal, @HP4Writers
Even though she didn’t know it, Jen Ryan has been editing since she was a young girl. Much to the chagrin of her teachers, she’d often point out errors in her textbooks. Combining that sharp eye for detail with her love of books and the skills she learned through her formal education, Jen took it to the next level. She has established herself as an exacting editor, with a growing reputation for excellence.
Jen teaches English composition and writing at her local college. She also owns and runs her own editing company, in addition to being one of two partners in Ellysian Press.
Jen lives in the high desert of Southern Nevada with her husband, three children and assorted animals. She loves transforming fruit and vegetables into healthy (and sometimes decadent) jams, jellies and preserves. Her pumpkin butter is to die for.
You can find her editing website here:
http://imaginethatediting.com/.
The Ellysian Press website is:
http://www.ellysianpress.com/.
You can also follow Jen on social media:
Jen on FacebookJen on Twitter
1. How did you decide to become an editor?
I have always been an avid reader, and would naturally edit as I read (even text books in high school, my teachers hated it when I pointed out errors). So, when a friend, an author and fellow instructor at the college I teach at, asked me to Beta-Read for her, I accepted. She came back to me after and said something along the lines of "Jen, that's not Beta-Reading, that's editing." I laughed and told her I couldn't do the job half-way, it just wasn't in me. I then edited her next novel, and the next, and pretty soon decided to start editing for others. As time went on, I learned even more and eventually decided to open my own free-lance editing company. Now I also am partner in Ellysian Press (Maer, my author friend, just happens to be my brilliant partner), and I get to edit for some amazing, talented authors. I love every minute of it!
2. What are some of your favorite YA/children’s books?
While at EP we don't publish children's books, we do publish YA. As for personal taste, however, I read everything, and love many children's and middle grade books/series. My favorite is the Harry Potter series. I promise that's not just an easy out, it truly is my favorite book series (maybe in any age group).
3. What is more important: character, plot, or world?
This is a really tough question, a good one, but a tough one. I imagine every person who answers it has a different response, and I think that is the point. This will be different for every person -- author, editor and reader alike. Personally, I think they are all very important. What point is there in creating a wondrous world, if it is populated by uninteresting characters? I do believe that the main importance will depend on each author, and each book. Different genres and stories will need different things. So for one story character may be MOST important, while for another it may be plot or world. It will depend on the point of each particular story.
4. What’s your favorite part of being an editor?
That's easy, reading! Really, I truly enjoy getting to be a part of the process. I love books, I love authors, I love stories, and I love getting to help authors make their stories the best they can be.
5. What would you like aspiring writers to know about the publication process?
The best advice I can give to aspiring authors is to do their research. Before you submit to an editor or a publishing company, make sure you have researched your market. Make sure you have learned how to write a proper query letter. Make sure you know what you want (do you want to self-publish, do you want to go with a small press, a large one?) Research and know so that you are prepared and so that you don't get hurt along the way.
LIESA ABRAMS joined Simon & Schuster in 2006, editing for both the Aladdin and Pulse imprints. At S&S, Liesa launched Rachel Renee Russell's #1 bestselling DORK DIARIES series and Brandon Mull's #1 bestselling BEYONDERS series, as well as Lisa McMann's bestselling UNWANTEDS series. Liesa started in children’s publishing in 1997 at the company now known as Alloy Entertainment, editing classic YA series like Sweet Valley High and developing new properties such as Nine Lives of Chloe King. She left Alloy in 2003 to become a founding editor of Penguin’s Razorbill imprint, where she edited YA titles including R.A. Nelson’s Teach Me and Maureen Johnson’s Devilish. Follow Liesa on Twitter
@batgirleditor to hear all you need to know about Batman, comics, and gluten-free treats.
What title are you most proud of and how did you find the author?This is a trick question! Obviously I’m proud of every book I’ve edited, and for so many different reasons. Every time I edit a book that I know can be a lifeline to a young reader (as books once were for me), I’m proud. And I’m well aware that those lifelines come in many forms—great fantasy stories can offer escape from difficult realities, while powerful novels about intense issues can make a teen experiencing them feel less alone.
There is one book I can mention specifically, for a really personal reason: Milo by Alan Silberberg. It’s a hybrid novel (text and art) about a boy whose mother has died and his efforts to keep her memory present for himself and his father and sister. One review for the book was from a parent whose husband had died, and she said that she read the book together with her young son, and that at one point she started to cry and her son picked up the book and continued to read. Knowing that Alan’s story was able to be a comfort to a child suffering the worst loss imaginable just floored me. My husband’s mother died when he was about the same age as the character Milo, and I knew how much a book like this would have meant to him. Truly, I edited this book for the child my husband once was. Alan and I were especially proud that Milo won a HUMOR award—the fact that a story about a kid losing his mom could win an award for humor reflected the way we’d managed to produce a book that really represents the truth of life and how sad and funny go hand in hand.
Great answer!! Sorry to throw you such a tough question! How important are trends when considering work?If there is an incredible manuscript written from the heart that happens to capitalize on something current in the zeitgeist, then that’s awesome. 9.9999 times out of 10, however, someone has written to a trend without that true passion—and it shows.
What is more important: character, plot, or world?I can’t imagine acquiring a manuscript that didn’t work on all three of those levels, but I will say that for any editor I know, it’s the character and voice that make us truly fall in love with a book. Make me care about the character, and then I’ll care about what that character wants, whatever it is.
Literary or commercial?It’s like chocolate and peanut butter—not an either/or, but “they’re best together!” There’s no reason a book can’t have a really commercial concept—which is definitely our emphasis in Simon Pulse and Aladdin—paired with literary writing.
What book do you wish you’d edited?A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
What’s your favorite part of being an editor?The thrill of reading an author’s revised manuscript and seeing how the editorial back-and-forth has resulted in a fantastic new draft. There’s a real rush from a brainstorming discussion with an author where we can see how all of our ideas are building off of each other’s and leading to something amazing. I see plots like puzzles and when the pieces start to clearly form and fit together, there’s nothing like that feeling. When an author thanks me for helping make her or his book stronger, it means the world to me.
What would you like aspiring writers to know about the publication process?So many things!
1) That it’s so very subjective and you shouldn’t give up on finding someone who will connect with your story.
2) It’s a marathon, not a race—the authors I publish who began with modest advances and modest sales and have built steadily from there are also the happiest authors. It’s a lot of pressure to place super high expectations on the very first book deal, and if you want a long career publishing books, it’s important to be realistic about a long path ahead.
3) Avoid comparisons! Every book and author is unique, and too many authors become focused on what they feel is happening for other books or authors, or feel pressured to do exactly the type of promotion they see other authors doing. It has to feel natural and organic to you to be effective.
Wow I hope everyone's paying attention, because that's some amazing advice! How many manuscripts come across your desk via agents and what percentage of those do you acquire?
I receive between five and ten submissions a week, and I probably acquire on average three to five new books a year, since I already have a really robust list of authors. When I acquire something, I love it so crazily that I feel like it would be physically painful not to edit the book. Whenever I present a book in-house, they know that’s what it means to me to have made it onto my list. My coworkers tease me about being the editor who’s always making everyone cry at sales conference.
Today I have a special treat for you! Andrew Karre is an amazing editor (just look at his credits below) and has the kind of wry sense of humor that I love. This succinct and fun interview gives a glimpse into the mind of the ever elusive editor:
In 2005, Andrew Karre helped launch the YA imprint Flux. He was an editorial director at Lerner Publishing Group from 2008 through 2014, overseeing Carolrhoda Books and founding Carolrhoda Lab. He has published first novels by such noted authors as Maggie Stiefvater, A.S. King, Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, Blythe Woolston, Carrie Mesrobian, and E.K. Johnston. In 2015, he joined Dutton Books for Young Readers as executive editor, focusing on YA and MG, fiction and nonfiction. He works from his home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Follow him on Twitter at @andrewkarre.
1. How did you decide to become an editor?
I had a summer internship in college in the home arts department of a publishing house. I spent the summer working mostly on books about entertaining, drapery, and sewing. I loved it—not so much the content, but the process of making the books. I never considered any other career else seriously after that summer.
2. What is the biggest difference between an agent and an editor?
There are lots of different ways to be each, but I think the primary difference between the roles is that a good agent is accountable to his client and his job is to bring a manuscript to a market of editors, whereas an editor is accountable to his publishing house and his job is to bring a book to a market of readers. Both need skill in shaping manuscripts, but the final outcomes are very different.
In my conception, an agent is very good at taking a manuscript to a state where several editors will be able able to see potential for an exciting final form—and each of those forms may be quite different. When I edit, though, my goal is to bring the book a final state that feels inevitable and as though it never could have been another way.
3. What have you seen too much of? Not enough of?
I see far too much teenage wish fulfillment—teenagers imagined as adults would like them to be. I read far too little of teenagers as the grand, glorious, andunlikable train wrecks they so often are.
4. How important are trends when considering work?
Trends are just as important to me in considering manuscripts as is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
5. What is more important: character, plot, or world?
Character.
6. Literary or commercial?
Good.
7. What book do you wish you’d edited?
A Clockwork Orange
8. What’s your favorite part of being an editor?
Talking with authors about their manuscripts.
9. Coffee, tea, chocolate — what’s your vice?
Coffee
10. What would you like aspiring writers to know about the publication process?
It’s a process that requires patience and discipline, but it is also one that can be creatively fulfilling. It may not be perfect every time, but I hope every author has an experience of publishing at its best.
11. How many manuscripts come across your desk via agents and what percentage of those do you acquire?
A great many and a tiny few.
In the final post of Strident Publishing Month, tall tales & short stories talks to Strident Publishing’s Managing Director, Keith Charters and Commissioning Editor, Graham Watson.
Strident Publishing is the publisher of several award winning books including, most recently, Linda Strachan's Spider.
Spider won the
2010 Catalyst Award. The winner is voted for by teenage readers and Spider was chosen as The Book of the Year 2010.
Keith and Graham, welcome to tall tales & short stories and thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. * Commissioning Editor, Graham Watson:
Hi Graham, could you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m the Commissioning Editor of Strident. I’ve been in the book trade since I was a teenager and have been involved in every part of the process from commissioning books in publishing houses to selling them over the counter in bookstores. All my heroes were writers, so being an editor is pretty much a dream fulfilled.
* Managing Director, Keith Charters:
Hi Keith, could you tell us a little about yourself and what inspired you to set up Strident Publishing?
It’s to do with history. Before I became a publisher I was an author ( and I still am). And before that I worked in business, running parts of other people’s companies. I always knew that one day I would set up my own business, it was simply a question of what.
By the time my first LEE novel (
Lee and the Consul Mutants) was published I had alread
Wyvern Publications
* Hi Holly and welcome to tall tales & short stories.
Could you tell us a little about yourself?I grew up in Long Beach, California and always had three dreams: to explore the world, to be an archaeologist and to be a writer. I have two degrees in archaeology; my second degree from York was an MA in Medieval Archaeology which led to my settling in the UK as there isn’t much medieval in the US and to be honest, I always was wary about digging up Native American stuff.
I’d written stories since I could hold a pen, but it wasn’t until I moved to the UK that I began to write my first novel (now sitting in a bottom drawer gathering dust…really, it should stay there). I worked in museums and archaeology and kept on writing during my free time. When I had a particularly long lapse between contracts, I penned my second novel, The Faerie Conspiracies, inspired by a spate of extreme bad luck and shadows in the garden. I like to think it was my subconscious kicking my pen into action as the book won the runner up prize in the St John Thomas Awards for self-published authors.
Of course, a few other things happened when I self-published for the first time. I found that I enjoyed the process of seeing a book to print even more than writing and Wyvern Publications was born.
*
What inspired you to set-up Wyvern Publications and could you tell us about the company and its philosophy?When I self-published, I didn’t want to put me as the author, I wanted a company name. I’d seen it done with music when the band or artist was new and unsigned and I liked the look of it. I chose Wyvern because I’m a little nerdy about dragons – having the medieval background probably helped influence that.
You can’t just get one ISBN from Nielsen Data. You’ve got to buy a chunk of ten or more and register your publishing name, even it it’s just yours. I wanted to use the other nine ISBNs too! At first I thought I’d just help others in their road to self-publishing, but as more interested people joined in, the company grew into what it is today (and is still growing).
Wyvern Publications has four branches now. There is
Wyvern Publishing which publishes teen fiction,
Wyvern Magazine, which produces a writing magazine for teens and writers of teen fiction,
Pixiefoot Press publishes children’s fiction, and
Wyvern Editing provides an editing service for writers.
We aim to publish quality fiction, even if it doesn’t fall into the mainstream brackets of what a genre should be. Many authors complain that their work is of a high standard, has been recognised as such, but haven’t been signed beca
If you have questions about writing and publishing for children, this week is your chance to get answers to those questions.
All this week, Harold D. Underdown will be the guest on Book Bites for Kids, every afternoon at 2:00 central time on blogtalkradio.com.
Underdown is a children’s book editor, working as a consulting editor at present. Previously, he was Vice President and Editorial Director at ipicturebooks. Before that, he was editorial director of the Charlesbridge trade program, and he has also worked at Orchard Books and Macmillan. Underdown is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books, now in its third edition. He speaks at conferences, provides editorial services to publishers and authors, and maintains an informative web site about children’s publishing called The Purple Crayon.
Today (Tuesday) Underdown will talk to Book Bites for Kids host, Suzanne Lieurance, about who he is and what he does, plus he’ll give plenty of information about writing and publishing for children.
On Wednesday he’ll cover basic information any writer needs to know to get started as a children’s writer.
On Thursday, he’ll discuss what happens after a writer signs a contract with a publisher and what it is like working with a publisher.
On Friday, he’ll talk about what’s going on right now in the world of children’s publishing. All this, and much, much more!
Listen to the show at Blogtalkradio and call in during the LIVE show to ask your question or just make a comment at 1-646-716-9239.
Book Bites for Kids,
childrens publishing,
Complete Idiots Guide to Publishing Childrens Books,
Harold Underdown,
writing for children
The first book in a series, this sets the stage for time traveling done by a teenager. Sam’s dad has disappeared and when Sam goes to his bookstore to find out if he left any clues behind, he discovers a hidden room with a statue. Taking a coin and placing it in the center transports him to another time and place. Soon he is hopscotching through history, but still no sign of his dad. Not overly exciting, this is a more current time travel book than has been seen in awhile and so will appeal to kids who like that. I can only hope the next few get better.
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Another great interview Tracy - one line will stick with me:
"I mostly have to decline material that is good, but is not right for us".
When they say that, they really mean it.....