On Children's Books--A Day in the Life

I often get asked what's it like to be a children's editor, what's my day-to-day life like. It's hard to encapsulate because no two days are alike. There's lots of meetings, lots of phone calls, lots of emails and lots of trying to find time to do the actual work of editing in between all the meetings, phone calls and emails, but today felt like a pretty typical day, so I made note of what I did:

A Day in the Life

7:00am-9:00am: Reading at home

10:30am: Arrive in the office

10:30am-11:00am: Read a colleague's submission to discuss at Editorial meeting

11:00am-11:30am: Production meeting--generally known as the meeting where Editors lie to Managing Editorial and Production about how close projects are to going to copyediting or design i.e. being ready to publish. It's a miracle when a projet is meeting all its production schedule deadlines...Reschedule an agent lunch (second rescheduled lunch date with this agent. Oy!)--snow storm coming, too much to do and can't lose three hours today; apologize profusely to agent and pick a new day that I will definitely, absolutely not cancel.

11:30am-12:15pm: Editorial meeting--discussed department housekeeping items such as due dates for Sales sheets and copy and presentations for our upcoming Launch of our Winter 2015 list. Discussed two submissions for possible acquisition; one was a proposal for a horror novel we decided to pass on and the other was the second novel from an author whose debut we published last year that we've decided to acquire; spirited conversations were had on both projects.

12:15pm-1:00pm: Work with my Business Manager and Publisher to put together an Acquisitions P&L (Profit and Loss Estimate--a document we use to decide how much we should pay for a project by projecting potential sales and deducting things like overhead and the cost of paper in the year you think you'll publish the book); route for appropriate signatures.

1:00pm-1:30pm: Quick lunch at my desk.

1:30pm-1:45pm: Review final jacket proof for a middle grade novel due to publish in the spring.

1:45pm-2:15pm: Rework P&L and reroute for signatures.

2:15pm-3:00pm: Catch up on emails. Highlights--an agent emailing to recommend two illustrators for a picture book manuscript she knows I'm trying to pair with an illustrator. Publicity Alert announcing EW excerpt went live for one of my books; celebrate via email with author, agent and publicist. Group Publisher and Head of Sales approve last minute cover change for upcoming middle grade--just in time to make the catalog deadline; send revised cover to author and pray she likes it, but prepare to regroup if she doesn't. Audio sale for a YA; send good news to author.

3:01pm: Lament how it is 3:01 and I've gotten nothing done.

3:02pm-3:33pm: Lose 31 minutes of my life I'll never get back waiting in line for my Grande Non-fat, no water, no foam Chai Latte. Kick myself for not bringing a manuscript with me to read while I wait because of course Starbucks is already a bad scene in the 3 o'clock hour...

3:35pm-4:18pm: Reading/Editing

4:18pm: Consider a cover comp for an upcoming publication that has just arrived in my inbox. Like the concept, but execution not quite right; decide to sit on it for a bit to think through my feedback for the designer.

4:25pm:Receive final signed P&L and prepare offer to agent.

4:40pm: Send offer to agent; fingers crossed that offer will be accepted because I love, love, love this book!

4:41pm-8:00pm: Reading/Editing in the office.

8:00pm-9:30pm: Catch up on emails; make copies and file a few things; organize work to take home (three manuscripts to edit; two submissions to consider) in case there is a snow storm and I can't make it in tomorrow; clean up office somewhat...give up...go home.

Well, it's not earth shattering excitement, but there it is. Missing from this run down would be a couple things I did yesterday: finishing an eight page, single spaced editorial letter and discussing another set of edits with the author via telephone; rejecting two submissions. When I describe this day, most people are a little surprised and sad that my day doesn't include duets with Disney characters. To those I say...me too.

Stacey

On Children's Books--Every Adventure is Possible

Most of my authors live in another state and a few live in another country. Still I've managed to meet all of my authors, except one who lives on the West Coast of Canada. Go figure! But we're still trying. In the interim, this author and I have this wonderful epistolary relationship aka email. I say all this to say, it's uncommon for me to be able to attend one of my author's book events or launch parties because they usually happen far, far away. I'm no less thrilled and supportive, but it's also bittersweet to experience these first moments of my authors' post-publication journey via Facebook the day after. So tonight was a rare treat where I not only was able to support one of my authors in person, but I was able to do so at my author's very first event ever, his very first time ever reading to an audience. It was a thrill, especially as I helped him pick out the section of his book that he read and he did a masterful job. It was exciting to see the audience respond so well to his reading, to watch their faces as he read from a particularly tense section. It was fun and satisfying to see, live and in person, my author hook a reader. This is a moment both author and editor toil away for. The glory and gosh, I won't lie, it felt nice.

My author was on a stage with three other very talented authors and they read and spoke to a most engaged audience of teens, adults, other writers, journalists, at least one editor (me), agents and even a Swedish publisher. It was a varied crowd and we were rapt. I've said in other blogs on children's books how rich and nuanced the writing is and how surprising the subject matters are that writers engage for children. It was nice to see this in action tonight and now I have a few more great books to add to my reading list. You should add them too, especially if you're currently writing for children:

In a lyrical and hard-hitting exploration of betrayal and healing, the son of a Connecticut socialite comes to terms with his abuse at the hands of a beloved priest.

 

 

 

This chilling satire follows one teenager’s efforts to escape from the reality TV franchise financially supporting her large family.

The author of Endangered (2012) introduces another primate species, offering a poignant demonstration of connection between chimpanzees and humans.

 

Because of the varied audience, the questions for the authors were also varied, but a theme in the answers to these varied questions quickly revealed itself. Each book discussed tonight was inspired in part by something really happening in the world and each book connects it to the inner-lives of children. And in each case, it is an organic connection. Why? Because kids think about the world. They think about the ways in which they might move in the world and they think about the ultimate impact they may one day be able to have on the world. Kids think about themselves outside of themselves if that makes sense. They think about the larger world and consider their place in it. And each book, in its own way, engaged that and also explains why so many adults read literature for children. For that opportunity to think outside one's self, to consider something more than the routine we have built for ourselves, to remember when everything still lay ahead and we were not yet on a certain track and that every adventure seemed possible and real. My goodness, do I love children's books.

Stacey

In The News--Another Tedious Opinion Piece on Children's Publishing...

This weekend, The NYT published yet another assassination of children's books titled "Our Young Adult Dystopia". The prevailing question asked in response to the opinion piece in my publishing circle is "why do these articles keep getting published?" I wish I knew. But it reminds me very much of the kind of critique I noted of the teaching profession when I was in the classroom. That somehow one did not themselves need to be an actual educator or have any other relevant professional qualifications before offering up critique of educators, that just because someone had once been in a classroom as a student that they had the necessary expertise to tell teachers how to do their jobs. Children's books is like that--a subject where people feel free to dissect and critique without actually being children's books professionals, not even considering that these people may exist and perhaps have something relevant to say about their own industry. So then often the discourse on children's books (a world that is not just picture books and dark YA) is led by people who actually have no idea what they're talking about.

I found this to be the chief quality of the latest attack of my industry--it was written by someone who actually had no true knowledge of children's books or what is going on in the industry beyond three best-selling series and even of those series mentioned in the article, the author seemed to have very limited, surface knowledge.

Below I share my initial response to the article shared in an online discussion with other industry professionals. I don't speak for all of children's publishing (though this comment got more than one pat on the back), but at least here's a word from someone who isn't watching from the cheap seats, but is actually a working professional and understands a few more things about children's publishing than the writer of what I think is an unfortunate Times opinion piece:

Twilight isn't my favorite series, but I won't disparage others who enjoy it. And it did open up the YA market just as Hunger Games and Divergent do and many other great or not so great books do or don't. It's the nature of the beast. Not everyone has the same tastes and just because the market has anointed something that is not your taste for whatever reason doesn't mean there shouldn't be a place for it, especially in the face of millions who decide it should have a place. Publishers can make a book but so can readers (and readers have a better track record in making books than publishers) and in all the cases she cited, I'd say the readers made those books. But the publishers get called cynical. None of these books were acquired and published because of cynicism. Someone loved the story (whether or not we think those reasons are valid) and had a vision for it. The readers either responded or as she pointed out for another case, they did not. If cynicism were a sound marketing ploy, more books would work and publishing wouldn't be as this author also says a poor coal mining town. I agree I don't understand why articles like this get published. I found it rather tedious. We can definitely discuss the literary merits of books in a smart way, and learn and get better, but I doubt the audience for any of these books feel like suckers as this author suggests. The readers who love these books defend their love for them ardently and articulately and in doing so tell us what they want. We'd be wise to listen to them, especially as it's a readership of varied tastes. They read across genre, they read contemporary, they read literary, they read commercial, and they have read far wider than the writer of this article who judges based on three top-selling series. This author is simply not the audience for what she judges and that's fine. But she also sounds like she's making a judgement about something she knows nothing about. And I have to admit this author lost me when she accused book editors of being ageist. I have never once known the age of any author I've acquired and it's not a question I've ever asked before acquiring a book. And I'm sure if she bothered to look, she'd find many successful YA authors across the age spectrum. Her argument just holds no merit, and made me a little angry as you can by now tell by my rant...


As I reread my comments what most strikes me about my initial and immediate and visceral reaction to the article is the question of why can't the readers know best? With so much complaining about gatekeepers, why can't the readers be trusted to know what they like? Because they are children (though the majority of the Twilight audience were middle-aged women who read romance) it's okay to second guess them? That perhaps they don't actually like what they like? Another industry colleague made the very astute point that, for some reason, children's literature is not allowed to be as varied as adult literature, that kids are not allowed to read for pleasure as well as to learn. Reading no matter what age you are is primarily a haven, an escape; and having books that you love to read as opposed to having to read also fosters a wonderful love of reading that allows the critical thinking skills to engage with more technical or academic texts. I've said this before elsewhere on this blog, but in light of the Times piece and for my own sanity, it bears repeating: fiction for children is incredibly nuanced, and yes, varied. Some of it is great and some of it not so great, just like adult books and the reader, whether a teen or a tween or an adult, should get to decide what they like and what they don't without being judged a "sucker". Millions of readers loved Twilight. Millions of readers loved Divergent. Millions of readers shouldn't be dismissed because this writer happens to find Veronica Roth's writing flat. 

Sometimes certain things just shouldn't be in the news...

Stacey

On Children's Books--Award Winners

On Monday, ALA announced the winners of the most prestigious awards in children's books. It's an announcement children's publishing people anticipate all year long. There's a lot of pomp and circumstance and general good cheer. Authors whose names have been bandied about as potential winners don't often sleep the night before wondering if their phone will ring at some ungodly hour--The Call. Their publishers would have contributed to this restless night before THE announcements by asking to confirm their telephone numbers.

Getting THE call that you have won an ALA award can be life-changing for many authors and put them in a different bracket of author than they had been in previously. Suffice it to say, ALA Awards are a big freakin' deal. For the editors and agents and publishers, it's also a validation of tastes and all the work that goes into a book before it appears on a shelf. It's a time we get to pat ourselves on the back and sigh with relief that someone noticed all our toiling away. Yes, awards are nice.

For me as an editor, especially this year, it was also an opportunity to hear about many wonderful books I had not previously heard about or gotten a chance to check out because my head was always buried in a manuscript. The morning of these award announcements is a great time to raise my head and look around. And while many great books I'd heard of and read were recognized, there were many others I had been hearing about for the very first time. This is what's great about these awards. Even when busy editors aren't paying attention, you can bet busy librarians are. So of the award winners, those I'm most eager to check out that are new to me are:

Newbery Honoree

Morris Award Honoree

Odyssey Award Winner

Printz Award Honoree

And I'm so thrilled for a book I was most familiar with and just loved, loved, loved:

Stonewall Award Winner

For a full listing of the Awards:  http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2014/01/american-library-association-announces-2014-youth-media-award-winners

On Children's Books--Award Fever

This weekend is one of the most exciting and well-awaited weekends in children's books--midwinter ALA (American Library Association). It's a weekend that, in fact, makes me giddy. Why? Well, this weekend in kidlit is akin to the Oscars. All last year, wonderful books were published and the kidlit community of authors, editors, agents, publishers, librarians, teachers and, of course, kids(!) read these wonderful books and speculated which ones would get recognized as standing out for particular merit and distinction. This is the weekend we find out if our horse has won. A sundry of awards will be given this weekend. The most noted being the Newbery, an award typically given to a middle grade title of distinction, the Printz, an award given to a teen title of distinction, the Caldecott, an award given to an illustrator who has illustrated a picture book of distinction and the Pura Belpre and Coretta Scott King awards, which honor authors and illustrators of Latino and African American heritage respectively. These awards are important for a couple of reasons: first, they can often move the dial on sales for a book that may not have received due attention during its first year of publication; second, it's a major recognition by one's peers that you (author, agent  and yes editor, and everyone who works so hard, whether in Sales, Marketing, Publicity or Subrights, to bring quality children's books to children) have done good. It's a public and coveted pat on the back and can potentially change lives. You can become a children's books rock star overnight. Recent overnight rock stars include Clare Vanderpool, author of Moon Over Manifest and Rebecca Stead, author of When You Reach Me, both winners of the Newbery. And before John Green's The Fault in Our Stars was a Time magazine Book of the Year, John Green was a Printz Award winner for Looking for Alaska. These awards highlight who are the authors to watch and who are among the leaders in their field.

So every year around this time, kidlit people who have a horse cross their fingers and wish upon a star and hope that when the awards are announced, maybe, just maybe a book we bled, sweat and cried over it might have made enough of an impression for an award committee who reads hundreds of books every year looking for the one, to be the anointed one this year. But even if your horse isn't the anointed, we legitimately are happy for the winners and if we haven't already look forward to reading those recognized and learning from them and utilizing those lessons as we all go forward. It's a time in children's books when you realize just how amazingly generous kidlit people are and how incredibly happy we are doing what we do and how incredibly lucky we feel to be doing it.


If you're already all about children's literature, I don't have to tell you to tune in to watch the hoopla live, so if you're curious about the hoopla and want to find out what makes kidlit peeps so great, tune in 5 days, Jan. 27th at 8amEST, right here: http://live.webcastinc.com/ala/2014/live/ and watch us do our thing live.

And if you want to check out who might be in the running for these prestigious awards, check out the Heavy Medal Blog: http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/ and for two really poignant views on what happens when you book doesn't win from two talented kidlit vets, check out Don Tate's recent blog on not winning last year: http://dontate.com/2014/01/medal-worship-how-i-stuck-my-head-in-the-clouds-and-got-crushed/ and Kate Messner's poignant poem, "What Happened to Your Book Today": http://www.katemessner.com/what-happened-to-your-book-today/. And then be sure to join us all on Monday morning as we wait with breath that is bated.

Stacey

The Magical, Vulnerable Illustrator

I rarely edit picture books, but I do currently have two on my desk 

and consequently I've been thinking a lot about illustrations and illustrators. The reason I don't edit a lot of picture books is that though it may seem like an easy endeavor (matching pictures to very few words), it's actually quite a delicate art and in order to pull off a successful picture book, an editor needs to have a true eye for it and have a clear vision for how the words and illustrations will work together to tell a memorable story that resonates and creates an enjoyable experience a very young reader will want to have again and again and again...It's the rare picture book I really have that kind of vision for. Every children's book editor has an internal age that generally reflects the sorts of books they work on. My internal age is probably a twelve-year-old/sixteen-year-old split, which explains why the majority of my list is middle grade and young adult.

Editors with an internal age of around four years old are the editors that have the most consistent and admirable vision for picture books. These editors have worked with authors and illustrators to create some of my favorite picture books like I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen or Grandpa Green by Lane Smith or The Insomniacs by Karina Wolf and Brothers Hilts or One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo and David Small or Meet Me at the Moon by Gianna Marino. So while I may not be the consummate picture book editor, I do have a real love for picture books. If I wanted to I could have named a hundred picture books I love and really...I almost did. But even for these picture books I love, I don't know that I would have had the vision when the project was unformed or raw to see it through to publication. I don't know that I would have read the initial manuscripts and known just who should illustrate, already seeing the picture book take form in my head. If the project began with illustrations, I don't know that the story would have easily revealed itself to me. Crafting a picture book is a real honest to goodness talent. It's a very specific eye that can shape a picture book. It's a very particular kind of editor who again has that consistent vision. And for me, it's the very rare and special project that invites that vision in me. I'm happy to say it's happened on occasion and reaped such wonderful picture books as Hope's Gift, Tea Cakes for Tosh and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honoree Ellen's Broom all written by the incomparable Kelly Starling Lyons as part of her picture book trio on African American life and history; and illustrated by the acclaimed Don Tate, Caldecott Honoree E.B. Lewis and Coretta Scott King Honoree Daniel Minter, respectively. In each case, the stories Kelly wrote really spoke to me and the pull of the projects were undeniable and the vision was immediate and organic. It was the same with Geoffrey Norman's Stars Above Us, a story about a girl waiting for her soldier father to come home, also illustrated by Caldecott Honoree E.B. Lewis. I read the manuscripts and saw the world come alive in my head. Seeing the illustrations come into the office and seeing what was once only in my head, in the author's head, in the art director's head suddenly exist in the world is a truly remarkable thing. Illustrators are remarkable.

Though I can't yet talk specifically about the two picture books  

currently on my desk, I can say how exciting a process it is to see picture books come together. To see finished art for the first time, to see how an illustrator has made an author's words much more than words and created a whole world to get lost in. I can speak to the vibrant colors, the ambitious choice of mediums like collage or the bold stylistic choices that artists make that are both poignant and fun. A picture book often begins with the words, which are a magic all their own, but the magic of both words and art working together leaves me in awe of illustrators--they are quite literally bringing a spectacular flight of fancy to life and sending children to bed with those proverbial sugar plums dancing in their heads.When art comes into the office I can practically see that curious four-year-old decked out in footed pajamas mouthing the words along with mom or dad pouring over the pictures, discovering something new and wonderful with each read. There is certain joy in working on a picture book. As I write this, I realize perhaps I should strive to publish them more often.

What's also got me thinking about illustrators, though, is how disarming it can be to watch the anxiety in an illustrator's face when he or she brings in their art. I can practically see the "Will they like it? Please like it" written all over their faces. Presenting one's art exposes one's vulnerability. And that vulnerability is also part of the process of creating a great picture book. It's part of the magic. In that vulnerability I can see that four-year-old the illustrator once was and who in their heart they draw for looking out at me. And then there's the sweet relief when I and the art director and the author all smile and nod and agree it is wonderful because illustrators put so much of themselves into illustrations for children that it is, indeed, always wonderful, requests for revisions notwithstanding. Picture books are exciting. Not to diminish the importance of the words or the authors because it is also exciting when an author perfects a picture book text, but it becomes real when the illustrator does their thing. Today, art came into the office and two books became real. There was vulnerability, relief and magic. Illustrators are magic.

Stacey

Job One When Writing for Children

I've had two lives in publishing since I began my career a decade + ago. The majority of my career to start was spent in adult publishing. I published memoirs, biographies, literary fiction, thrillers, romance and mysteries. I had a lot of fun and learned a great deal from my authors. But I began my professional life out of college as a teacher, and it's my teaching career that actually led me to publishing. I wanted to be publish books the kids I taught would love and would spark their love of reading.  As a high school English teacher, I knew first hand that while I was wild for Of Mice and Men my sixteen-year-old students weren't so much. They were reading and loving The Coldest Winter Ever and a lot of "street" lit and adult romance. They weren't really reading books actually published for their age range. Some of it was that kids naturally read up, but most of the issue was that they weren't aware of YA lit because, at least in the schools in which I taught, the focus was all on curriculum reading, so there wasn't anyone specific, a librarian or teacher, specifically recommending YA lit to them.

Long a closeted YA/kid lit reader, I then took it upon myself to recommend books I liked to my kids. Books by authors like Jacqueline Woodson,  Walter Dean Myers, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Terry Trueman and Laurie Halse Anderson. I wanted to provide them with some variety in content and perspectives, something different from what they were regularly reading outside the classroom if they were reading outside the classroom at all. I watched them (even my "reluctant" readers) devour the books and develop a different way to engage and talk about literature (as if what they read in the pages of these books was really personally relevant to them and the way they lived their lives) that they then brought to our classroom conversations about everything from James Baldwin to William Shakespeare. It was an exciting time for me as a teacher--to have my students compare character motivations in The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien to character motivations in Monster by Walter Dean Myers. But as they continued reading and investigating books specifically for their age range on their own, they started to bemoan the lack of books that featured characters that looked like them (I taught in school districts whose student populations were largely African American, Latino and even Cape Verdean when I taught in Boston). I agreed.

During my last years of teaching, I was already back in grad school pursuing my MFA. And right around the
time my students at that time were noticing the lack of diversity in teen books, I discovered publishing in a random book publishing course I took as part of prerequisites for my fiction workshops. Prior to taking this publishing course I'd truly believed books were gifts from god placed on bookstore shelves especially for me. I never dreamed there was a whole industry responsible for the care and making of books. I caught the publishing bug immediately, and I knew what I was going to do. I was going to publish those books my students deemed missing.

And I'm happy to have done a lot of that in my career and will hopefully do lots more. But it wasn't until I switched fully to the children's books side of the industry that I was able to make what initially led me to publishing my primary focus. Because of my adult publishing life, I still have lots of "adult" friends and contacts: agents, writers, other editors. And when I switched to the children's market, I thought in many ways I was saying goodbye to the adult side of the industry and the many people I'd met and worked with because of how separate the adult and children's divisions are. I could not have predicted the turn in the market wherein YA now dominates and children's books is making, in many cases, much more money than adult books.

What this means in practical terms is that people associated with the adult part of the industry have now very suddenly and very seriously turned their attention to children's books. Agents who had previously only represented adult books are now sending YA and other children's submissions my way. Authors who had previously only written adult books are now turning to the children's market to revive or extend their audience. There is a great deal of interesting interest in what I do day-to-day in the children's book world from people who previously never gave children's books a second thought. I think it's wonderful.

But the question I get from my adult colleagues who are wading into the kiddie pool, is what is safe to write about for the children's market. This is a tricky question to answer, especially with the bad rap teen books often get for being too dark, but ultimately, after giving these colleagues a long list of suggested reading to catch up, my answer is there is nothing that's not safe to write about for children as long as it's honest. On my own list, I have published a middle grade novel about albino killings in Tanzania, which on the face of it doesn't seem like middle grade fair, but it's honestly written and from the perspective of a thirteen-year-old boy. This is an issue that affects children in Tanzania just as well as adults. Why wouldn't or shouldn't a child have a perspective on a hard issue? I have also published books where children have lost parents, suffered abuse and had sex. Again, all written honestly and from a genuine child or teen perspective. Whenever you start thinking in order to write children's books that you have to water it down, you're not writing honestly and you're not writing anything they'd be interested in reading. So if you're interested in writing for children, go out and read and then read some more. And when you do finally put pen to paper, don't dwell on the age you're writing for, but instead dwell on how honest whatever you are writing is. Readers are readers no matter their age. We're all looking for something honest. That's what moves us.

On Children's Literature

 
I began my publishing career as an intern at Lee & Low, an independent multicultural children's book publisher. I was beyond ecstatic when I'd received the call letting me know the summer internship was mine. You see, I was in the midst of a career change. I'd been a teacher (having taught the gamut from preschool to college) for several years and had decided to leave the classroom behind and brave the wilds of publishing. Children's books seemed the perfect place to start given my teaching background, and having been in the classroom as an English teacher, I was always fascinated by the discrepancy in what my kids were reading for school assignments and what they were reading for pleasure or if not big readers, what would motivate them to read. I really loved the idea of publishing books my kids would want to read.

But as I learned about the sometimes arbitrary and definitely mysterious rules of publishing, I learned that if I at all had any adult book aspirations, I needed to get out of children's books and get out fast. The thinking being that one could sort of go from adult books to children's books in rare cases, but it would be exceptionally hard, if not impossible to go from children's books to adults. So I needed to figure out ASAP where my heart really was. And at that point, I honestly didn't know. How could I?

So I followed the advice I was given by someone who'd been doing this a lot longer than I had and who had actually started as an adult editor and made the leap to children's. I figured who better to take advice from.

I was lucky enough to get an Editorial Assistant position at storied FSG. I then moved on to HarperCollins. I worked on and acquired many books that I am so proud of, but five years into my life as an adult editor, children's books was still calling. Not only because I really wanted to work on books that my former students would enjoy, but also because some of the most dynamic writing happening was happening in children's books. Even the uninitiated have heard of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, but at the time I crossed over to the children's market, people were still surprised to know that Harry Potter was in fact a children's book and The Hunger Games hadn't happened yet.

But books that had happened were A Step from Heaven by An Na, a book about immigrating to the US from Korea, Cut by Patricia McCormick, a book about a teen cutter, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, a book on teen rape, A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park, a novel about a 13-year-old potter's apprentice, set in 12th century Korea, and Looking For Alaska, the coming-of-age story of a teen obsessed with the last words of famous people, John Green's debut--the same John Green whose The Fault in Our Stars was last year's Time Book of the Year. The Fault in Our Stars is also a children's book by the way.

The writing happening in children's books, specifically Middle Grade and Young Adult was literary, original, affecting, brave, relevant, memorable, classic and hopeful. All the things I love about good literature and I wanted to be part of it.

When I told a writing mentor about my decision to move over to the children's world, he remarked that this was a good decision because children's books would be easy to edit and I wouldn't have to work so hard...

I know he didn't mean any harm, but this perception isn't his alone and even all these years later after The Fault in Our Stars won the publishing game last year and Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian has spent years on the bestseller lists and Hollywood has taken note of how fresh and original the stories coming out of the children's arena really are, people still perceive children's books as a bit of a stepchild of the industry, even in the face of all the money children's books make.That writing children's books or the business of children's books is somehow a lesser endeavor.

And that is what accounts for articles like this one that appeared in The Guardian this week: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/dec/03/childrens-books-great-literature-university-of-kent-sf-said

I applaud the outrage sparked by The University of Kent's very public, condescending and limited view on literature:

"We are excited by writing that changes the reader, and ultimately – even if it is in a very small way – the world. We love writing that is full of ideas, but that is also playful, funny and affecting. You won't write mass-market thrillers or children's fiction on our programmes. You'll be encouraged to look deep inside yourself for your own truth and your own experiences, and also outside yourself at the contemporary world around you. Then you'll work out how to turn what you find into writing that has depth, risk and originality but is always compelling and readable."

Some of the best writing out there is still being done in the children's books arena. More writing programs are realizing this and instituting wonderful degree programs specifically for children's book authors. Hamline University is one such place worth looking into if you're at all interested in pursuing the craft of writing for children. Here at Editing Genius, children's books are not taken for granted and not seen as a lesser endeavor. Every Wednesday do check in for posts specifically related to children's publishing.

Stacey