Springtime in Bologna. Photo: Mario Ventimiglia.

American agent Edite Kroll heard grumbling from foreign publishers in smaller markets where picture books cannot be produced without coproductions: grumbling because “despite the low dollar, American publishers are either uninterested or add on such high overhead that they are impossible for small publishers.”

There were some bright spots, including buzz around the world for a first novel called Genesis by Bernard Beckett, a thriller in which “ancient philosophy and future history collide,” according to its publisher. Just before the fair, Melbourne’s Text Publishing sold world rights to Genesis, which has already won two major prizes in the author’s native New Zealand, to Quercus in the U.K. Quercus is still a relative newcomer—its first list was only launched at last year’s Bologna—but with this title the company got firmly onto the international map. “It was magnificent to see Genesis take off so quickly and to hear people’s passionate responses to it,” said Roisin Heycock, the new editorial director. Rights head Emma Ward said that Italian and French rights had been pre-empted, and she’d be going home after Bologna to sort through a stack of offers.    

The new imprint, which is slated to launch in fall 2009, will be releasing picture books through YA titles; no figure has been set for the first list. Bray and Balzer told PW that the list will reflect the same work they’ve been doing at Hyperion. Balzer is the editor of bestselling author and artist Mo Willems, who has won three Caldecott Honors; she also edited Sold by Patricia McCormick, a National Book Award finalist, and John, Paul, George, & Ben by Lane Smith. She works with Eoin Colfer, author of the internationally bestselling Artemis Fowl series, and Jonathan Stroud, who wrote the Bartimaeus trilogy. Among the books that Bray has edited are the Newbery Medal-winning Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi; National Book Award finalist The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich; Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee, I’d Tell You I Love You But I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter, We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson and Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio and LeUyen Pham. She also launched the Baby Einstein book publishing program at Hyperion.   

Velázquez de León currently relies on freelancers, but hopes to hire two or three employees by year’s end. On his first list: Sounds Funny! A Book About Comic Sounds by Kevin Somers, and two counting books, 123 New York and 123 USA by Puck, illustrated by Somers. Due out this fall is Sounds Tough! Big Noisy Machines, a follow-up to Sounds Funny, and another counting book, 123 California. Independent Publishers Group distributes the company’s books; duopress will initially publish five to seven books annually.    

The logos belong to RP Kids (preschool titles, novelty board books and picture books), Kids Kits, Mega Kids Kits, RP Teens and RP Kids Classics. Jon Anderson, publisher of Running Press, says the new logos “will give the distinct parts of Running Press Kids their own identities.”

Falling under RP Kids are two series that represent the company’s first foray into licensed publishing. John Deere books, published in a variety of formats, depict vehicles as cartoon characters and have sold more than 750,000 copies since debuting two years ago.

Running Press also acquired the Peanuts license and has released new versions based on the TV holiday specials starring Charlie Brown and pals as well as novelty books drawing on themes and story lines from Charles M. Schulz’s comic strips. Released last fall, the first two Peanuts titles—It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas—have together sold more than 100,000 copies. “We are very careful about what licenses we take on,” Anderson says. “We are not interested in flash-in-the-pan licenses, but look to acquire evergreen licenses or new licenses that we believe will have a long-lasting life.”     

Several New York City events are planned to celebrate the launch, beginning with a launch party this evening at Books of Wonder. All four contributors to the list will be in town for the launch: Agnès Rosenstiehl (Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons) from France, Hayes from San Francisco, and Frank Cammuso and Jay Lynch (Otto’s Orange Day) from upstate New York.
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Schulman on the picket line. Photo from School Library Journal, December 1974.

As the war in Iraq goes on and on and recession grips our lives today, I am reminded of another war and another recession and how they affected one major children’s book publisher in 1974. It was Macmillan (not to be confused with the British Macmillan that now owns FSG, Holt and St. Martin’s Press).

Macmillan had the first children’s book department in America and had won a number of Newberys and Caldecotts, but by the 1950s it had lost its voice and was publishing lackluster lists. Susan Hirschman joined the department as editor-in-chief in 1964, and during her 10-year tenure she transformed it into one of the best in the industry. I was the director of children’s book marketing during that heady time. With the New York Times #1 bestseller Watership Down and the many other commercially and critically successful authors and illustrators that Hirschman brought to the list, plus the Narnia books as the anchor of the paperback line that we started in 1970, the children’s division was growing rapidly and contributing significant profit. In the fall of 1974, though the country was in a deep recession with inflation cutting into profits, we believed that Macmillan, Inc. was in good shape. Its revenue for the first nine months of 1974 had increased by $32 million (1974 dollars) or nine percent over the comparable period in 1973 and its profit was $83,000 or just one percent below the previous nine months.

But on October 14 and 15 of that year Macmillan suddenly fired 185 people from its offices at 866 Third Avenue. Why? Wall Street viewed it as a business blunder. Others viewed it as a Machiavellian scheme. It was both. Here is the back story of how it came about and the long-term damage it brought to the Macmillan children’s book operation.