[I asked Marcia Marshall, a veteran nonfiction editor on our staff, to talk about her long collaboration with Sandra Markle.] I started thinking about how long Sandra Markle and I have worked together. On my disorganized bookshelves, I found the first title we did together: Exploring Winter, published in 1984. Sandy did the black-and-white line […]Read more "Working with Sandra Markle"

I’m kind of surprised that there hasn’t been more blogosphere discussion of the article called The Defiant Ones in The New Yorker of a couple weeks ago. It’s a piece about picture books and well worth reading (even though it’s more about parenting ultimately than about books). There was one particular facet of the author’s […]Read more "Put down that screwdriver"

by Erin Finnegan, editorial intern My name is Erin and I’m the intern here at Graphic Universe. It’s up to me to write this week’s blog entry while Carol is in Minnesota. I decided to ask several of our artists the same questions for an Artist Spotlight series. This week I interviewed Tintin Pantoja, the […]Read more "GU Comics Day: Shining a spotlight on: Tintin Pantoja"

If you’re planning to enter our Gross Body Science Draw a Germ Contest, please be sure to get your entry to us by 11:59 pm on Friday, November 13. You still have plenty of time if you enter electronically! See all the details here.Read more "Reminder—Draw a Germ Contest Ends Friday!"

[I’ve again asked Jon Fishman to comment on his experiences with Lerner Books UK.] Creating covers might be the most high-stakes part of book publishing. Although we’ve all heard that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, we do anyway. The cover is what catches the eye (or doesn’t), it’s what makes a person […]Read more "Judging Book Covers"

Writing and publishing seem to attract more than their fair share of commentary. And much of it, unsurprisingly, gets written down and published. Just for fun, I’ve gathered a few of my favorite literary quotations. If you have any favorites, please add them to the comments! My favorite literary quote comes from Flannery O’Connor, the […]Read more "On Writers, Books, and Such"

By Carol HinzEditorial Director, Millbrook Press A few months ago, I blogged about some of my favorite editing tools, and I’ve been thinking I should talk a little more about editing itself. While every publishing company and every editor is different, here’s an overview of what kind of things I’m typically thinking about and looking […]Read more "Nonfiction Monday: What a Nonfiction Editor Does"

By Sara Hoffmann Senior Editor All right, blog readers, I have a confession: I am a grammar curmudgeon. Dangling modifiers drive me crazy. Misplaced apostrophes make my hair stand on end. I cringe when I spot those “ten items or less” signs at the grocery store. (It’s all I can do to stop myself from […]Read more "Grammar Curmudgeon"

[I asked Ben Nussbaum of USA TODAY to give his view of his job.] So what exactly makes a book a USA TODAY book? How do you translate the personality of a newspaper (what we call our “brand equities”) into a book? Answering that question was a big part of my job when I first […]Read more "A USA TODAY book?"