Do Editors Get Better with Age?

At our monthly SCBWI meeting on Monday, I learned that Emma Ledbetter, assistant editor as Atheneum, is going to be one of the advisors at this year’s Falling Leaves master class in Lake George – and that made me smile. Three-and-a-half years ago, Emma was my mentor at the Rutgers One-on-One Conference. It was her first Rutgers -- and mine. And it made me wonder whether editors, like authors, get better with age.

Now, before anyone sees this as negative or an attack on Emma’s abilities, let me say that I have no complaints about her. I implemented one of her suggestions in my picture book, and she suggested I send it to her boss (mentioning her in my query letter), since, as an assistant, she didn’t yet have acquisition authority. But that doesn’t answer my basic question: Do editors get better with age?

It’s a truism that authors get better with age. While a few authors’ best-known works were their first books (Elie Wiesel, J.D. Salinger) that doesn’t mean it was their best work. And scores of author got better after they had a few books under their belts (Mark Twain, Stephen King, Charles Dickens, George Orwell, etc., etc.) So, what this really tells us is that writers get better with practice. The closer they get to their 10,000 hours, they better they get. But practice takes time, and time brings experience and age. Experience makes one a better writer because it gives you something to say and something to draw upon – but experience, without practice, gives you something to say without the skill to say it.

The same is true of editors. After all that education and English degrees and hundreds of books under their belt, experience makes them better editors because a good editor doesn’t just fix commas and semicolons -- she develops and massages the author’s style until the message gets out. And that is something a veteran editor does better than an inexperienced assistant. (And this is to say nothing of the relationship between author and editor, which would probably be a great topic for a future post!).

Of course, that’s true of any job, whether it’s master mechanic, carpenter, accountant brain surgeon. Time on the job makes you better -- and I’m not making some academic argument here. I was once in Emma’s shoes (and yeah, that's as uncomfortable as it sounds). That is, I got my first editing job nineteen years ago, and I’d sure like to think I’m a whole lot better now than I was then. Today, I’m the Executive Editor at AlbanyEditing. There is no way I could have handled that two decades ago.

Come to think of it, I'm sure I couldn't have handled Emma’s job at a big publisher like Atheneum then either.

Emma Ledbetter has a great reputation in the world of kidlit, and Nancy Castaldo, the Eastern NY SCBWI regional advisor, sang her praises. Since she was good three years ago, I can only imagine that she’s amazing now. And I hope to see that in person at Falling Leaves!

P.S. I'm still funding my next book through Indiegogo. Any amount you can contribute, is greatly appreciated. And the best part is, you get a copy of the book! Thanks for your donation!

Raising Money to Publish the First Children's Book on Mary Dyer

Please help me make my book Mary Dyer, Friend of Freedom a reality. The book is written, edited and formatted, but I need your help setting up an author website, creating some marketing materials and covering a few publishing costs. Any amount you can contribute to Indiegogo will be greatly appreciated. And you'll get a copy of the book and more!

So thanks for your help in putting Mary Dyer's story into the hands of young readers everywhere. She is a forgotten hero, but your contribution can change that.

Thanks!

My Next Book: Mary Dyer, Friend of Freedom

My next book is Mary Dyer, Friend of Freedom. Mary was the first woman executed in America for her religious beliefs. Her death spurred a revolution in the colonies to enforce religious tolerance. Even King Charles II in England got involved.

The book will be published by Atombank Books, a new company set to launch late this summer. It looks like Mary Dyer, Friend of Freedom will be their first book (Yay! -- Thank you Amy Tombank!). Unfortunately, I need help meeting some additional expenses, including setting up a full author website, creating marketing materials for schools and libraries, and some publishing costs. Right now, I'm trying to raise those funds through Indiegogo -- with your help.

Mary Dyer is a forgotten civil rights hero, and her death helped make many of our First Amendment freedoms possible. It still amazes me the amount of religious intolerance we see, and I'd love to put Mary Dyer, Friend of Freedom into the hands of schoolchildren everywhere. I'd love to spread her message of religious tolerance for everyone. So if you can help me, please visit Indiegogo and contribute what you can. Trust me -- any amount will be greatly appreciated -- and you could easily get a free copy of the book and learn much more about this remarkable woman.

Thanks for your help!

Book Details: Middle-grade non-fiction for children 8-12 years old. Approximately 104 pages with illustrations, a timeline, and a glossary. Mary Dyer, Friend of Freedom is the first book for children about Mary Dyer, and will be marketed largely to schools and libraries to add to their collection of civil rights leaders.

How I Sold My First Children's Book

An unexpected way into children's literature.

There’s a saying in Hollywood: There’s the way you’re supposed to make it, and the way everybody actually made it.

The same could easily be true of kidlit. The way it’s supposed to work is you submit your work to an editor or agent, they call you back and your book is sold. That’s it – clean, simple, wipe your hands and start your next book.

But not so fast. Consider these three.

• Mo Willems went and won six Emmy’s as a writer for Sesame Street. That got him an agent. Two-and-a-half years later, he (and the Pigeon) had a book deal. That’s nearly two Emmy’s for every year he had to wait!
• Jon Sciezska got thirty rejections for his first picture book. Then he found out his wife worked with the wife of an illustrator – Lane Smith. Lane agreed to illustrate his book, and one of the editors he’d already sent it to now decided she liked it. I can’t tell you how many rules were broken here (resubmitting? Having your own illustrator? My God!), but that’s how The True Story of the Three Little Pigs found its way into print.
• Nick Bruel (Bad Kitty) was working in a bookstore when he noticed one woman always coming in and buying children’s books. When he asked her about it, she said she was a children’s literary agent. He said he had some illustrations he’d like to show her. That’s how he got his agent. No conferences, no referrals, no cold submissions. Just a book store and a lot of talent.

The story of how I got my first kidlit publishing contract isn’t so dramatic, but it does show there are other ways in the door. I answered an ad on a website. They said they were looking for writers to write children’s books about celebrities from the ‘40s and ‘50s. They already had Frank Sinatra, but were looking for others.

I thought about this for a while. I figured everyone would pitch Elvis or Marilyn, or maybe Deano to complement Frank. Maybe even the Duke. Who could I pitch that somebody else wouldn’t? Nat King Cole? Buffalo Bob? Trigger the Wonder Horse?

And that’s when it hit me – if there’s one celebrity from that era that children still know, it’s Judy Garland. Shirley Temple had faded, and so had Mickey Rooney. But The Wizard of Oz has kept Judy Garland in front of millions of kids, even today. And that’s how I pitched them.

Seven days later, I was asked to draw up an outline for the book based around the Frank Sinatra model. I did, and four days later, they hired me.

But here’s where it gets really interesting: they wanted three books at three different levels – K-1, 2-3, 4-5. The books were not going to be sold to the public, but were to be distributed to long-term care patients. And it was a flat-fee freelance job with no royalties or advances or future books.

Nothing glamorous. No pigeons driving buses; no wolves setting the record straight, or bad kitties flipping through the alphabet, just three biographies on Judy Garland. But it counts. That’s my entre into children’s publishing, and I’m thrilled to be there. It goes in every query letter I send out – you know, while I’m trying to land that editor or agent. 

Because that’s how you’re supposed to do it…

Even when you’re not.

The Best Picture Books Featuring Exotic Animals

Here are some picture book animals that defy common wisdom.

What do you think of when you think “exotic animal?” Alpacas? Komodo dragons? Marmosets? Pythons? Blue-tongued skinks and Argentinean tegus? Sure, those are exotic. But in the picture book world, so are tigers, salamanders, slugs and bobwhites. Why? Because they don’t sell.

In picture book language, exotic animals are any animals that don’t sell well, no matter how common they are. This is why we see plenty of picture books that feature cats, dogs, cows, ducks, and monkeys. Kids know them and love them. Familiarity breeds cash.

Now, this doesn’t apply to non-fiction picture books, which are designed to teach young readers about capybara, geckos, three-toed sloths and the unfortunate albatross. But when it comes to fiction, making an “exotic” animal your hero often leads to a rejection letter that says they love the story, but could you make the main character a duck? Or anything else you’ll find on Old MacDonald farm.

So here’s a list of some authors who took a chance on strange little critters and found (great) commercial success.

Top Exotic Creatures in Picture Books

1. Wombats. These are a recent arrival on the picture book scene, but have proven immensely popular and may become an “it” animal, thanks largely to Charles Fuge’s delightful “Little Wombat” series. Following in those cute footsteps is Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggery Shields. It contains enough Australian slang to make any wombat homesick. And you know your species has arrived when it earns its own holiday book. Christmas Wombat by Jackie French gives us the high holidays Down Under
2. Iguana. Another animal rarely seen in picture books, but popping up more often is the iguana. T.E. Watson’s (2001) and Karen Kaufman Orloff’s (2004) two different I Wanna Iguana books might make any kid actually want an iguana, and Orloff’s has now launched an entire “I Wanna” series. There’s also Mañana Iguana (Ann Whitford Paul), which gives the desert lizard a Mexican flair, and Private I. Guana (Nina Laden) that gives the little-seen lizard a detective license and air of mystery.
3. Llama. There aren’t many books that feature a llama, but what Anna Dewdney started has led to a wildly popular series. There’s Llama Llama Red Pajama and Llama Llama Mad at Mama and a whole bunch more. Llama is fun to say, rhymes
   
   with plenty of words and, unlike wombats and iguanas, hasn’t inspired a lot of imitators.
4. Naked Mole Rat. And coming in as the most exotic animal in picture book fiction is the naked mole rat. Any surprise? Mo Willems’ Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed is the only fiction picture book to feature the naked mole rat because even Mo struggled to make them cute (of course, he succeeded!). And even though he has several series under his belt (Pigeon, Elephant and Piggie, Cat the Cat), he’s resisted any pressure to create Naked Mole Rat Plays Dress Up, Naked Mole Rat Goes Trick or Treating or Naked Mole Rat with Nothing but the Radio On.

So exotic animals can be blue jays or cardinals, but not pandas or lions. In picture book parlance, an exotic animal is anything that doesn’t sell – until it does. I’m thrilled that some authors and publishers have defied convention, and I hope we’ll see more exotic animals like bandicoots or bush babies in picture books. Who knows? It just might get kids to read some of those small-selling non-fiction books about their new favorite (and strangely exotic) animal!