Today is Memorial Day and I am in the mood to memorialize a publisher. Not a publisher that has died, fortunately (though many worthy ones have), but a publisher that is in transition. I don’t know whether the transition will transform it, but I know what I like about the way it used to be and I’m going to celebrate that here.

Why would I use this forum to talk about a publisher? Because I often meet educators with a passionate interest in children’s literature and I have found that many want to understand the relationship between author and publisher. (Actually, I know plenty of authors who would like to understand the relationship between their publishers and themselves!) Whereas children ask authors, “Where do you get your ideas?” and “How old are you?” their teachers tend to ask, “Do you get to choose your illustrators?” or “How hard is it to get an editor to read your manuscript?”

My six publishers come in three sizes: small, medium and large. About two months ago, one of the small ones, Ten Speed Press of Berkeley, CA, was bought by one of the world’s largest media conglomerates. Ten Speed Press and its children’s book division, Tricycle Press, are now part of Random House of New York, a division of Bertelsmann AG of Germany. So, for those who are interested in the inside scoop [Read more…]