Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Prairie Writer's Day Report--Insights from the Editors/Agents

Wowza. Prairie Writer's Day was exciting/exhausting/informative and just plain fun.

Editors in attendance:
Susan Van Metre of Abrams.
Karen Wojtyla of Margaret McElderry.
Louise May of Lee & Low.

Agents in attendance:
Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio.
Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, Inc.

Fly on the Wall session featuring the agents and editors revealed some intriguing insights about the industry:

*Expect the pendulum to swing back in favor of picture books.
*The eyes of management are on the children's divisions, much of this thanks to the success of the Harry Potter books.
*Time was editors had the time to groom and nuture children's book authors into best-selling novelists; now many editors read submissions with a blockbuster mentality.
*The children's book industry is more like the adult book world every day--more competitive, the place to be.
*Also means everybody wants to "try" writing for children.
*Many children's book manuscripts are being reviewed for 100,000 first-run potential, not 10,000--this mentality tends to put more pressure on the editorial side as well.

1 comment:

Bkbuds said...

Hey there, great seeing you at PW Day! I agree that the "Fly on the Wall" session was the most meaningful because they really were frank about the industry now.

Thanks for the great summary.