The Lerner Blog

I left my home in Virginia and took a road trip with my favorite cousin to revisit my Missouri roots and promote The Night the Chimneys Fell, a book about the New Madrid, Missouri earthquakes. First stop was Jefferson City where I signed at the Downtown Book and Toy store. The First Lady of Missouri, […]Read more "Guest Blogger Marty Rhodes Figley: An Author’s Road Trip"

I first started working on the Follow that Food Chain series in February 2007. It’s exactly the kind of series children’s editors (at least this editor) like to work on—lively, with a solid author’s voice, and inventive. It was on a subject—animals—that we know kids will love. And we know that there is never any […]Read more "A Series in the Making"

[Written in a spreadsheet-induced haze, and so I apologize in advance.] I make an effort to read book other than children’s books in my leisure time—I’m sure most editors do—but I almost always find myself sneaking a peak through the YA lens when I do so. Not surprisingly, it’s pretty easy to find YA themes […]Read more "Obsession"

The past few Wednesday posts have been about zombies, creators, and conventions. But before editors get as far as strolling through artists alley looking for talent, we have to decide what to publish. For most imprints, like Graphic Universe, that means figuring out how to balance different types of books, while always thinking about the […]Read more "GU Comics Day: Balancing the books"

I’m not sure every publishing house uses abbreviations to the extent we do. They’re everywhere, in every department, and have been for many years. In fact, one of the first documents we give to new people in the editorial sphere is a glossary and list of abbreviations. Ever hear of a PE? For us, that’s […]Read more "Awash in Abbreviations"

If there aren’t some cat lovers among our readership, I’ll eat my hat. I have three cats at home, all tabbies from the Animal Humane Society. The oldest one, Muffin, rules the roost, and she does not like having her picture taken, much less starring in a YouTube video. Click on the video below to […]Read more "Feline Wonders"

Editing children’s nonfiction is a little like being in school: I’m constantly learning something new, whether it’s the history of football or the gestation period of a giraffe. But no matter the subject, the following resources have always served me well. The Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary,11th edition are the two books […]Read more "Nonfiction Monday: An Editor’s Essential Tools"

Email and Facebook make it easy for editors to correspond daily, even instantly, with their authors and illustrators. It makes for a much more enjoyable relationship than merely Fed Ex’ing manuscripts back and forth. Still, for all the advantages of electronic communication, there’s nothing like meeting someone in person. At ALA in Chicago this July, […]Read more "Real Live People"

When you tell people you’re a trade children’s book editor, people from outside the industry—“civilians”—often assume that you do a lot of focus group research with young readers, and that books are rigorously tested*. Formal, truly representative testing is not really compatible with the creative process that’s so essential to picture books and novels, so […]Read more "Rigorous Testing"