Eric Svenson
I was on a frontlist road trip visiting Georgia and Alabama indies in 2009. Before jumping into the new title presentations with buyers, there is an opportunity to chat about what’s trending, hot titles, promotions, backlist opportunities, local and regional authors. On consecutive days, owners Diane Capriola [Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Ga.] and Karin Wilson [Page & Palette in Fairhope, Ala.] spoke glowingly of how well they were selling a self-published picture book about a cool, bright blue cat with a new pair of white shoes.
The art and characters were fun, the message positive and upbeat, and it included a catchy little song. There was even an adorable video online of two children “reading” the book... but they had just memorized it. A sweet testament to the love of this story even in its earliest form.
I sent the video and reports of local enthusiasm to the New York office for review, and we quickly fell in love with Pete the Cat. Harper got the book, and 15 years later we are still proudly publishing new Pete the Cat books annually, with millions of units sold and even more adoring fans.
Molly Ellis
In spring 2018, we were in the midst of generating prepub buzz for Potato Pants!, a whimsical picture book by Laurie Keller about a potato and his eggplant nemesis struggling to find the perfect pants. Laurie attended the now-defunct BookExpo and brought with her as a display item a bespoke hand-painted potato in the likeness of the main character, which was quite a hit. Unfortunately, Laurie inadvertently left the potato on the table where she’d been seated for a lunch with booksellers. I noticed it and threw it in my bag with the intention of returning it to her later, but immediately had to go to a series of off-site events with author-actor Taye Diggs, who was at the show to promote a picture book of his own. With my phone on silent, I didn’t realize that a significant manhunt was ensuing back at the Javits Center involving the missing potato, and that the rest of the publicity team was searching the convention center high and low. There was even some mild suspicion that it may have been stolen, and a potential list of suspects to consider—which was basically anyone who’d attended the lunch!
Luckily, I finally glanced at my phone before anyone got too far into the game of Clue, and I let them know that the potato had been safe and sound with me the entire time, while Taye cracked up beside me and noted that “this kind of thing never happens at TV and movie events.” Later that evening, I returned the treasured potato to its rightful owner, but not before snapping a photo.
Erica Finkel
I’ve been working with author-illustrator Thyra Heder for years, and one of my favorite parts of our process is our in-person meetings, where she’ll lay out her picture book dummy on pieces of paper and we will physically move them around and brainstorm until we feel like we’ve cracked it. For her last book, Nose to Nose, we hadn’t yet had our meeting, and I was pregnant and quickly approaching my due date, so Thyra came out to my house on Long Island one summer Friday. We had a great meeting and really felt like the story was shaping up—and just in time! I went into labor that night. Thanks for waiting, baby!
Susan Van Metre
A favorite of mine is from my Penguin days. It may not be 100% true. The Penguin Putnam warehouse received the first shipment of Eric Carle’s A Very Quiet Cricket. Unaware of the sound chips inside the books, which were activated anytime they moved the boxes around, the warehouse crew thought they had a pest infestation on their hands and destroyed the shipment.
Anne G. Zafian
Circa 1999, I accompanied a very famous adult novelist to a Target Corp. sales conference in Vegas, where his appearance was a surprise for staff in the movies/music/books department. I sat beside and assisted said author as he signed books for the attendees, many of whom arrived at the table breathless and happy, saying, with genuine enthusiasm, “It’s so nice to meet you!” To which said author would dryly reply—deadpan and without an ounce of gratitude—“Nice to be met.” Some attendees didn’t notice, and others bristled at the thoughtless retort. I tried to make up for his gracelessness, thanking each person as sincerely as possible.
Following the signing, we joined the conference dinner in the hotel convention hall, at which another guest of the conference, who had just launched her first album, performed. On a tiny stage barely elevated from the floor was Britney Spears, 17 or 18 years old, singing and dancing her heart out. From the ridiculous to the sublime!
Susan Kochan
I once got a picture book manuscript in the mail from a kindergarten teacher friend who was taking an NYU course on writing children’s books. There was no cover letter, just a sticky note that read, “This might be garbage, but the people in my class said I should send it to you.” The book was Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell. Almost 25 years later, it has sold more than 450,000 copies.
Anne Hoppe
In 2000, Nancy Geller—Harper’s last full-time reader, and likely the last person at any house whose job consisted solely of evaluating manuscripts—sat kitty-corner from my office. Nan had worked at Harper since the days of Ursula Nordstrom, and in addition to having a world of experience, she possessed—and still retains—a rather penetrating voice, one that reached my desk whether I wanted it to or not. This was mildly irritating, until the day I heard her say to our mutual boss, Robert Warren, “I really liked that Terry Pratchett manuscript.” A fan of Terry’s brilliant and funny fantasy, I knew he was published by our adult colleagues. I levitated to Nan’s office to find out what was on offer to the children’s division, pouncing on the manuscript so quickly that I almost, but not quite, gave her papercuts.
The manuscript was The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, which went on to win the Carnegie Medal and launched the professional relationship that was the editorial love of my life. Multiple bestsellers, a knighthood, two Printz Honors, and a galaxy of acclaim later, we are now in the midst of an ambitious repackage of all 40 of Terry’s Discworld novels across children’s and adult, and looking forward to publishing Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch, by his daughter, Rhianna, in fall 2025.
Anne Schwartz
My teenage daughter had recently fallen in love with poetry, and there was one poet who she thought could write a genius picture book—did I know Matthea Harvey, she texted me one day at work. I did not, but I would look her up, definitely... at some point. Right then, I was luxuriating in not having that much to do. I was reading the slush pile—something I hadn’t done in, well, years. In front of me was a manuscript about a girl with a tiara-wearing mother and a topiary-trimming father who, on their vacation in Norway, is adopted by a tiny glacier. She names her new pet Cecil and brings him home in a cooler.
Wow, what kind of brain could create such a delightfully weird story? I looked at the name of the author. Matthea Harvey. Reader, I signed it up.
AZ Hackett
When I was in sixth grade, Suzanne Selfors was one of my favorite authors. At about the same time, my mom helped me set up my first email account. So, when I saw that Suzanne had left her email in her author bio, my natural conclusion was to try out my writing skills to let her know how much I loved it. I’m sure the email that 11-year-old AZ had drafted at the time was not very coherent, but nevertheless she responded! She let me know that if I was interested, we could organize a time for her to do a video call with my class to teach us about the writing process. I was absolutely ecstatic about the idea, but when I presented it to my teacher, he didn’t want to do it. I was crushed. Not only that—I was so embarrassed that I never emailed Suzanne back.
Cut to about 11 years later: I’d just started as an editorial assistant at Viking Children’s Books when one of my bosses, Jenny Bak, sent me a manuscript to read. To my surprise, it was a draft of what would become Suzanne’s newest middle grade novel, Ratty. I absolutely tore through the story, once again falling in love with her words like I had all those years ago. I told Jenny that we should put in an offer for it, and mentioned the story about what had happened when I was 11. Not too long later, Jenny told me that she had bought the book, making it the first title that I had helped acquire as an editorial assistant. And, apparently, she’d told Suzanne my story, too.
A few weeks after that, a package from Suzanne arrived for me. It had a collection of items from her bookstore, accompanied by a hand-written card in which she thanked me for helping find a home for her book, and forgave me for not writing back to her all those years ago. It felt like a major full-circle moment for me, which—perhaps not-so-ironically—is one of the main themes in Ratty! Every time I tell this story to someone, I say that I wish I could go back to 11-year-old AZ, grab her by the shoulders, and tell her that in just over a decade it would all work out—in more ways than one. That not only would her love for reading and writing take her places that she never would have dreamed, but also that one day she would be able to make up for leaving her favorite author on read.
