Jon Anderson: Big Picture Panel, Simon & Schuster

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?

Justin Chanda: You Have Your 1st (2nd, 3rd) Contract(s) Here's How You Can Help and Hurt Yourself

A barely visible Justin enjoying
WeHo, also known as West Hollywood

MUCH MUCH MUCH of Simon & Schusterer Justin Chanda's talk we were verbøoten to blog or tweet about, BUT:

A few allowed-to-be-mentioned points from Justin Chanda's excellent talk on what to do once you have a book contract.

#1 Be kind to the assistants! Of every department in all of publishing. Be kind to the assistants, they do a lot of thankless work and are paid a pittance, they're there because they love and believe in books and authors, so show them the respect and love they deserve in turn.

#2 Justin quotes one of his favorite people, Debbie Ohi, who says that the success of another chilren's book creator in no way diminishes or steps on your own success. Always cheer on other writers, celebrate each other's work, and build community.

#3 Do NOT kvetch online about your publishing house. Even if they were in the wrong, they will be shamed, certainly, but odds are you don't have the full story, and even if you do, every other publishing house is watching social media and if they see someone that is perceived as reactionary or difficult to work with, they pay attention to that. Be a professional, complain to your critique group in the privacy of a hotel bar.

#4 Before you want to suggest this to your publicist, remember: The TODAY Show really only features a children's book twice a year, and at least half of those features are celebrity driven, if this is your or your freelance publicist's best publicity suggestion, well, keep brainstorming.

Fun fact! Justin's office building was used as the model for the American The Office's headquarters.  Contrary to rumor, Justin Chanda was not used as the model for Michael Scott.

Justin Chanda: The World's Biggest Rod Stewart Fan and How He Edits Picture Books

One of the best, if not the best, picturebook dummy critiques I ever received was from editor Justin Chanda. And BECAUSE it was so fantastic, I felt compelled to attend this session and blog about it for all of you who are not able to be here. Here in this cold, dark Hyatt basement instead of working on my tan/having a Blue Hawaiian poolside.

So here is How Chanda Revises.

A picture book is an Experience. Long before e-books, picture books were the first interactive book, a well done spread of image and text physically compels you to turn the page. "The page turn is key."

Though a picture book IS marriage of word and picture, at the end of the day, it's a picture book, the pictures are very, very important, the best picture books are the ones where the words are making the pictures better and vice versa.

He looks for:

Short, young, funny text. The market trends for picture books are for five- to six-year-olds.

Economy of text. "If you think you can cut a word, you can cut two. If you think you can cut a sentence, you can cut two. If you think you can cut a paragraph—trick question! You should not have paragraphs in a picturebook manuscript."

A good sign after reading a manuscript is saying, wow, that was satisfying to read. Now I want to reread it. If you want to reread it 100,000 times, that's the stuff classic picture books are made of.

"Rhyming. Your picture book can rhyme. Good. But for every one book that uses rhyme successfully, I can show you fifteen that don't."

The MOST important thing you can do while working on your picture book is to READ IT OUT LOUD.

The first thing Justin does when working on an acquired picturebook manuscript is paginate it. Pagination shows you unequal distribution of text, lets you set up awesome punchlines, and helps you start envisioning things as picture book spreads (which is how you should be looking at it.)

These are not the spreads he's talking about.

But this is.

And by paginating, you can see if there's way too much action on a page making it impossible to illustrate (too much action is different than too much text but often correlates).

WRITERS, make sure you leave something for your illustrators to illustrate. We don't need you to write in the color of the sky.

ILLUSTRATORS, make sure you are not simply illustrating what the author wrote.

What to do with art notes? It's great you are thinking visually! Obviously include them if they're setting up a joke that's the opposite of what the text is saying, but don't be sad when your editor doesn't send them on to the artist.

And now I will let the rest of Justin's tips stay with the conference-goers, but I will tell you he's showing the editorial process behind ROBOT ZOT!

and CREEPY CARROTS!

and THE GREAT LOLLIPOP CAPER

and more!!!!

Alexandra Penfold: Sparkly New Agent at Upstart Crow!

Putting great books into the hands of young readers is something Alexandra Penfold has been doing for the last decade, and now she’s doing it wearing a new and very dashing hat.

Alexandra’s career trajectory is a bit different from most editors, she was a business major in school and did a bunch of different internships including interning for the writers' office of All My Children. From there, Alex enjoyed working with Tracy van Straaten, who at the time was in publicity at Simon & Schuster. And Tracy’s awesomeness inspired Alex to jump into a career in children’s book publicity at S&S. Alexandra then transitioned into the editor role at S&S with Paula Wiseman, and for eight years she had a blast there.

Now she’s a newly minted agent at Upstart Crow Literary and her afternoon session is excited to hear what she’s looking for as she starts to build her client list of picture book makers, and middle grade and YA authors.

Alex wishes there was a magical formula to tell us what makes an irresistible book, but there isn’t one.

Which is bad news, but because there’s no magic formula, good news! Alex doesn’t like to poopoo any genre or category, she's open to being surprised by books she never imagined she’d acquire or represent. The only exception to that is high fantasy, she’s still not into it, no matter how much Tolkein her husband reads to her, sorry, Bilbo.

Not only can Alex relate to the editors she’s pitching, she can relate to her clients, too. Alex and a friend co-wrote a flipping awesomecookbook (that will be out in April!) and Alex remembers well her anxiety while on submission as an author.

Alex explains to the group the ins and outs of acquisitions from an editor’s point of view: an editor is putting their reputation on the line every time they bring a book to an acquisitions meeting. It's an investment on all levels and as an agent, Alex will still only represent books she loves wholeheartedly and will fight for.

One of the many lovely tips Alex left us with was the paramount importance of great characters in your work, knowing them inside and out. If you see Alex this weekend and want to get into a heavy discussion, just ask her if Scarlett and Rhett eventually get back together after The End of 

Don't forget to follow Alexandra Penfold on Twitter @AgentPenfold

SCBWI TEAM BLOG Pre-Conference Interview: ADs Lucy Ruth Cummins & Denise Cronin

Over the holidays, SCBWI TEAM BLOGger Jaime Temairik posted interview with two fabulous Art Directors in her blog CocoaStomp.

First Jaime talked to Lucy Ruth Cummins, Associate Art Director at Simon & Schuster. Below is a bit from her interview. Click here to read the full post. 

Jaime: Okay, help is on the way. In the meantime, I'm having my people send Justin [Chanda] a bunch of emails so he'll be distracted and hopefully you'll be able to answer a few more questions. Illustrators will definitely want to know if you are currently acquiring?

Lucy: We are always acquiring new talent. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled. Even if I can't place someone on a project immediately (and it is true that some parts of publisher's lists are shrinking!) I'll often keep them on hand waiting for the right project. An example of this is the debut book from illustrator Jon Klassen, CATS' NIGHT OUT by Caroline Stutson - Jon just received the Governor General's Award for this project, and I had had his work on hand for several years before I was able to pair him with the perfect project. Although we may not always be able to immediately put the rubber to the road with new folks, good artwork makes a strong impression and the quest for a winning collaboration is always on my mind.

As for what I'm looking for - there's never anything specific. I love such a range of things, but I'm mainly looking for things I'm touched by. I love cute. I love simple. But I also love creepy and detailed! There's no one thing I'm looking for and I'm always happy to be surprised.

Next Jaime talked with Denise Cronin, Vice President in the Penguin Young Readers Group and the Art Director for Viking Children’s Books. There's a snippet below. Click here to read the full post.

Jaime: Denise, did you know not only are you an Art Director, you're a flipping Vice President? What is your average day like?

Denise: If you count time spent on the train, checking files and reading manuscripts, my day is about 9 hours. We are usually juggling about 60 books at various points of development. I work very closely with the editors and the designers in my department from start to finish. Making books is very collaborative. Rarely do I work alone.

Be sure to check out both the interviews for insights from these terrific art directors and to see if they had the same answers to Kill, kiss or marry: Helvetica, Baskerville or Comic Sans? If you attend the conference, you can meet each of them during their breakout workshops. And--attention illustrators--there's still space in the Illustrators' Intensive, Beyond Books: Picture Books and the New Media.

And remember, whether you join us in New York or not, SCBWI TEAM BLOG will offer full coverage of the conference and intensives, live blogging throughout. Bookmark or follow the Official SCBIW  Conference Blog today! 

 

Editor Panel - Justin Chanda (Simon & Schuster)

It's almost Justin Chanda's first year anniversary of being the publisher of Atheneum and McElderry. According to friends, Justin likes Rod Stewart, hanging wall calendars, and swearing, but he LOVES children's books.

Lin: Tell us about your imprints.

The three imprints Justin is in charge of—Atheneum, Simon &; Schuster Books for Young Readers, and McElderry are all separate but do interact. Justin takes a moment to reiterate what he brought up in his session yesterday, that "commercial" is not a bad word and not always separate from literary.

Books for Young Readers is the "commercial" imprint, and yet they just won a Printz for THE MONSTRUMENTOLOGIST. BFYR publishes lots of series, teen, picture books. It publishes Scieszka and Haddix, too.

Atheneum is the "literary" imprint, the Newbery maker, the home of THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY and KIRA-KIRA. And it's also the home of OLIVIA, which has achieved great commercial success.

McElderry is considered a boutique imprint with a small list. Specializes in poetry and high concept literary fantasy like Cassandra Clare, or YA like Ellen Hopkins.

Lin: Do the imprints interact and share?

The imprints do interact, but as far as submissions are concerned, it's not the best idea to submit the same thing to all, there should be a reason why you submitted to one, like Atheneum, instead of blanketing all the imprints. It shows them you aren't doing your research.

Lin: If Martians landed in Century City, how would you describe the creative climate of children's books?

Justin: Does the Martian speak our language? Or is it clicking?

His answer on the state of the business, e-books, and why his editors' faces melt (from love, not Martian death rays, can be read here.)

Favorite Chanda-isms:

Concerning digital picture books "We don't want to make the Betamax or laser disc, we want to make the VHS and DVD."

"If everyone writes to the trends, the vampires win."

"Eventually trends end, we're interested in what is new."