Kathy Dawson: Summing Up and Q&A

She told the audience of writers that editors really don't know what they're looking for until they see it.

She was asked what she looks for in picture books. Wordplay, humor, new perspectives.

She was asked about the effect of the economic downturn in her experience in publishing. She just left Harcourt after it's takeover from Houghton Mifflin. What it means is that there are a smaller number of people to do the same amount of work. But, she says, people working in publishing are passionate about it and will ride out the storm. She feels it's tougher on picture books than MG and YA. She says the pace of change in how the publishing industry works is more rapid than ever. There are things happening now. she says, that are changing the way publishing works. A lot of what happening is the industry correcting itself.