What is coveted by some, admired by many, unnoticed by most and increasingly in the hands of children today?
Hint: the owners include Margaret McElderry, Michael di Capua, Richard Jackson, Neal Porter, Frances Foster, Joanna Cotler, Laura Geringer, Arthur Levine, Anne Schwartz and Paula Wiseman. And beginning this fall, Julie Andrews. (Yes, that Julie Andrews.)
The answer: children’s imprints that carry the name of the editor.
What began as a way of honoring an editor for a lifetime of editorial achievement is now big business. Eponymous imprints, awarded to no more than two editors in the early 1970s, when the practice began, and to a few more in the 1980s, have been minted for nearly 20 in the last decade, many of them to talented editors in mid-career. These imprints are still uncommon in proportion to the number of children’s book editors, but are increasingly bestowed, publishers acknowledge, to retain and attract star editors, as a means of promotion and as a way of creating brand recognition in the marketplace.
"Publishing has always been represented by the names of the individuals involved," says Susan Katz, president and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, the house with more eponymous imprints than any other. "That’s how publishing started. Harper Brothers. J.B. Lippincott. William Morrow."
The decision to award an eponymous imprint is a "very important and careful decision," Katz says. "We look at an editor’s track record, the types of books they’ve done, what it would mean to them and to the house. We don’t want to go imprint crazy. It could be very confusing. If you go overboard, [imprinting] tends to lose its distinction."
Unlike the traditional publishing structure, eponymous imprints are set up as one-person (plus one assistant) publishing shops within a bigger house. Intended to give editors the freedom to publish without the approval of an editorial committee, the arrangement also allows them to dispense with management duties that would usually fall to them as director/executive-level editors. Thus insulated, imprinted editors can focus on nurturing their writers and illustrators and on doing what they do best: producing good books.
"It’s a way for experienced editors to cope with the size of the companies in which they work," says Leonard S. Marcus, children’s book author, historian and critic, noting that the growth in eponymous imprints coincided with the appearance of publishing conglomerates in the 1990s. "As publishers merge, it’s harder for individual editors to have their own voice. It’s a medieval system. Everyone who can, builds a wall around their castle and defends their turf."
Indeed, children’s publishing began as "imprints," or small divisions within the world of adult publishing. The awarding of a imprint to promote an editor is nothing new, either. Editors have called their lines Philomel, Greenwillow, Blue Sky. But these days, publishers are increasingly encouraging top editors to shed their traditional anonymity, in one case even maintaining an eponymous imprint after the editor was promoted to head up a division.
"I was thrilled to be offered the job of editor-in-chief of such a venerable and prestigious list," says Megan Tingley of her new position at Little, Brown. "My imprint was well-established, with approximately 40 titles, and another 40 or so under contract. From a business standpoint, it didn’t make sense to abandon it, so we decided to keep the imprint alive."
"At first I thought it was egocentric," says Anne Schwartz, who left her Apple Soup imprint at Knopf in 1995 to begin Anne Schwartz Books at Atheneum. "I firmly believe that the books aren’t about me, but about the book. I shouldn’t need my name on the imprint. But then I thought, well, I deserve this."
Paula Wiseman, whose first list for Paula Wiseman Books at Simon & Schuster appears this fall, left behind her Harcourt Brace imprint, Silver Whistle, which she began there in 1997. "An imprint with my name felt right at this time," Wiseman says. "As editors, we grow and change with our own experience. Starting a list is exciting and energizing."
"Some people like the responsibility and the notoriety," Jean Feiwel, president and publisher of Scholastic, points out. "But the scrutiny is a little tough. You have to have the appetite for it."
The track records from the first eponymous imprints are powerful motivators for more. Imprinted books have taken many top honors in recent years. Richard Jackson, for example, has edited 14 Newbery Medals/Honors, five Caldecott Medals/Honors, seven Boston Globe/Horn Book Medals/Honors, one National Book Award and two Coretta Scott King Medal/Honor books. And Michael di Capua has edited four Newbery Honors, eight Caldecott Medals/Honors and four National Book Awards.
In the Beginning
The practice of awarding an eponymous imprint to a star editor in children’s books began in 1972, with the creation of Margaret McElderry Books at Atheneum. Ursula Nordstrom Books was announced the following year at Harper & Row.
Nordstrom, a highly influential editor, had already spent 42 years at Harper & Row, 33 of them as director of Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls. She had published Where the Wild Things Are, Harriet the Spy and Charlotte’s Web, among many other classics.
At Harcourt Brace, McElderry’s career had also been long and distinguished. In 1952, she became the first editor whose books won both the Caldecott and Newbery Medals in the same year, a feat unequaled until 1994 (when Walter Lorraine’s books won the distinction). After running Harcourt Brace’s children’s department for 25 profitable years, McElderry was dismissed in 1972. It was then that Atheneum offered her an imprint.
When McElderry was at Harcourt, her colleagues in adult books, Helen and Kurt Wolff, became the first ever to be honored with an eponymous imprint by an American publisher. The Wolffs, who were innovative publishers in Germany in the 1920s, founded Pantheon Books in 1942, shortly after they immigrated to New York, and published numerous internationally acclaimed writers. When the couple joined Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1961, they were awarded their own imprint, Helen and Kurt Wolff Books.
"When it happened to me, I realized it was an honor," says McElderry, who retired from running her imprint in July 1998 and became editor-at-large. Her imprint is now run by Emma Dryden.
Nearly a decade passed before another eponymous imprint was named, Charlotte Zolotow Books at Harper & Row, in 1981. The imprint capped a career that had begun in 1938 and was spent entirely at Harper & Row. The books Zolotow edited included two Newbery Medal winners, and she herself had written nearly 70 books by then, including the 1953 Caldecott winner The Storm Book.
Richard Jackson Books followed in 1986, at Orchard, when Jackson left Bradbury Press after 18 years and numerous medals and honors. And Michael di Capua Books began in 1987 at Farrar, Straus & Giroux; di Capua had been with FSG for 21 years, editing a long list of luminaries that included Maurice Sendak, Natalie Babbitt, Randall Jarrell and William Steig, and an equally long list of adult authors, having served as editor-in-chief of the adult division.
"The more consolidation in publishing, the more attention is paid to the bottom line," says Neal Porter, whose imprint began at Roaring Brook Press in 2001. "Publishers have become safer. There are large editorial meetings, and sometimes you can end up with a really bland book as a result.
"I can do any kind of books I like," Porter adds. He recently published Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan’s Action Jackson, a picture book on the artist Jackson Pollack, which won the 2003 Robert F. Sibert Honor. "I like to do books that are a little unexpected—provocative. I don’t want to just publish ‘nice’ books, but books that are edgier, different. Books that others might not take chances on."
"I’m in a great position to take chances," says Anne Schwartz. She had always admired Ian Falconer’s covers for the New Yorker. When she approached him about doing a picture book, she found that he was already working on one. Their collaboration resulted in Olivia, which won a 2001 Caldecott Honor. Subsequently, Olivia, its sequel, Olivia Saves the Circus, along with two Olivia board books, Olivia Counts and Olivia’s Opposites, have sold a combined two million copies. A new book, Olivia...and the Missing Toy, is scheduled for release this fall.
"It’s always a sort of gamble," says Wendy Lamb, whose imprint was created for her by Random House in 2001. "The book I never found is the book that changed my life. It showed me how hard the search is. I feel really lucky. Christopher Paul Curtis entered the Delacorte Press Prize when I was in charge of the contest."
Curtis’s manuscript, titled The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, didn’t win the prize, but Lamb published it and the book won a 1996 Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award. Curtis’s next novel, Bud Not Buddy, won the Newbery Medal in 2000. Lamb also edited the 2003 Newbery Honor-winning Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff. "I’m doing a lot of fiction," Lamb says. "I love adventure, boy action stories. Deep-sea fishing. I love historical fiction. A first novel is always so exciting. I’m attracted to books I am going to learn something from."
"The reason the imprint is named after me is simple," says Megan Tingley. "What is the one thing I have to offer that no other publisher can? Me. The imprint reflects my personal taste and vision. It reminds authors, illustrators and agents that there is an actual person they are working with here. It gives me a direct line to attract new talent. My idea was to create a boutique environment where authors would receive a lot of personal attention, yet benefit from the sophisticated and broad marketing, publicity, sales, and distribution of a large publisher."
Although imprinted editors operate with a great deal of independence, like their more anonymous counterparts they must persuade their publishers to support their choices on a book by book basis.
"Being a ‘name brand’ means having the increased ability to go to bat for my authors and artists," says Laura Geringer, whose imprint is in its 12th year at HarperCollins. "It also facilitates bringing new talent to everyone’s attention. Rather than having to invoke past successes for each new acquisition, the existence of the imprint itself announces a high level of success. When I beat the drum about a new writer or an artist, the history of the imprint backs me up." Geringer edited the Newbery Honor books What Hearts by Bruce Brooks and Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly. Other of her titles include If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Santa Calls and The Tub People.
An eponymous editor’s enthusiasm alone was what brought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to Scholastic. "Their reaction was ‘You tell us,’ " says Arthur A. Levine, who proposed the project to his publishers. "They said, if you love it, we should do it. They didn’t read the book. They were supporting the person that they had hired." The result has made Arthur A. Levine Books the most profitable venture in publishing history; J.K. Rowling’s popular series has sold more than 92 million copies to date.
"I bring everything that I am to everything that I publish," Levine says. "I work from an emotional, intuitive point of view. Overall, a book has to make some sort of emotional connection to me as a reader. I know what I feel when I read a book. I never publish anything that’s not of my heart. I’m not looking for the next Harry Potter—I’m looking for the next wonderful book of my heart."
The need for individual identification is not a big trend among British editors, says Barry Cunningham, publisher of The Thief Lord, and the editor who discovered J.K. Rowling. Based in Frome, England, Cunningham’s imprint is carried by Scholastic in the U.S. He named his imprint The Chicken House, for the chicken house (on wheels) on his property. "I wanted to create the feeling of a house, an environ that is fun and interesting and a good place for my authors to be," he says. "This is a venture, a funhouse in itself." The Chicken House focuses on publishing first-time authors around the world, especially those "turned down by a lot of other people," Cunningham says. "I follow the courage of my convictions. There are no committees backing us up. It’s gambling and librarianship."
The "venerable British tradition" of eponymous imprints (Jonathan Cape, Victor Gollancz, Andre Deutsch, Hamish Hamilton) was exclusively in adult books in a bygone era, and all are currently run by successors, according to British editor David Finkling, whose children’s imprint was first carried by Scholastic U.K., and now by Random House.
When David Fickling Books first began, an American editor sent him an e-mail saying, "Welcome to imprint land." "I thought that was funny," Fickling says. "To be honest, at first I felt a bit sheepish about having my name as an imprint, but I suppose, like a first-time author, I have become used to it. Anyway, it’s flattering, but a little exposed."
Fickling publishes British books by British authors that have not been Americanized. His authors include Linda Newbery and Mark Haddon (whose The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is currently meeting with great critical and commercial success for Doubleday here, where it was published as an adult title).
Distinctive Voices
Editors and publishers agree that it is not the moniker that determines the success of a book, but rather the book itself. Those who prefer the traditional anonymity say publishers are no less supportive of their books and that they themselves are no less committed to taking risks.
"I have no problem getting the publisher’s attention," says Maria Modugno, who turned down an eponymous imprint when she joined HarperCollins earlier this year, instead taking on the title of editorial director. "My first impulse was that it would be great to have my name on the spine of a book. Picture books are so collaborative. But a book belongs to the author and illustrator. I think it’s great for the editor who wants that, but it’s just not me. I have no regrets; I don’t at all feel lost in the shuffle."
"My preference is to be behind the scene," says Bonnie Verburg, who launched her imprint Blue Sky Press at Scholastic in 1993. "The most important thing is the voice of the author, not me, not the designer."
"I never think of a book as a Margaret Frith Book," says Margaret Frith, former president and publisher of the Putnam and Grosset Group (1989—1996), and the longtime editor of Tomie dePaola, Jan Brett, Jean Fritz, Eric Hill and Paula Danziger.
Eschewing an imprint of any kind, Frith says she already has her "dream job": she edits a small group of her favorite authors. "We live in the age of branding," Frith says. "I just prefer to brand with the Putnam brand, the house name. Putnam’s been in business since 1838, and that’s good enough for me."
Nancy Paulsen, president and publisher of the children’s group, agrees that Putnam editors, like Frith, have a strong preference for being associated with the prestige of the Putnam imprints. "We are all very involved," says Paulsen, who continues to edit books in addition to her administrative duties. "We feel joint ownership. So many people go into making a good book."
And it takes more than a good name to sell a book, says Margaret McElderry, who has edited more than 2,000 books for children. "A good editor has to be aware of the marketplace, what kinds of books are successful, just a general awareness of what’s going on," she advises. "It will influence your own reading and judgment. My imprint has changed with time. I began to do more nonfiction. You swing with the times, but don’t let the times swing you."
And sometimes, a good name can be too much of a good thing. "Sometimes I find it [the imprint] inhibiting," says Richard Jackson, who has published such authors as Cynthia Rylant, Avi, Gary Paulsen and Dav Pilkey. Last year, Jackson published Nancy Farmer’s The House of the Scorpion, which won the National Book Award and a Newbery Honor.
"I can’t do a certain kind of unsavory or commercial publishing because it wouldn’t work as a Richard Jackson Book," he says. "There’s a certain expectation attached. I’ve heard it said that my books are printed on scar tissue. [The books] are personally challenging, rather close to the bone."
And while many recently minted eponymous imprint editors say the recognition makes them feel more loyal to their houses and less likely to seek employment elsewhere, the fact is, editors have moved their namesakes, even more than once, leaving behind backlists, unfinished books and conflicted authors.
Nevertheless, imprinted editors say they have few regrets. "It’s the best job I’ve ever had!" says Joanna Cotler, whose imprint is in its eighth year at HarperCollins. "In a very nice way, the house recognizes your ability and honors you. When it first happens, there is a kind of exposed quality about it. Now I feel I can show others what my vision is."
"You can hide your failures much more easily when you’re an anonymous editor," says Frances Foster, who received her imprint from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1995 after she lost her job of 20 years at Random House in a downsizing. "With [an eponymous imprint] you go public from the beginning."
Foster, who published Louis Sachar’s Holes, winner of the Newbery Medal and National Book Award (some of her other authors include Peter Sís, Suzanne Fisher Staples, Ann Cameron and Kate Banks), says that as someone who is drawn more by the literary quality of a book than its commercial potential, she has had her share of flops. "Some of what you learn is that there are certain books and ideas that are very, very hard to publish," she says. "I did a little picture book, charming, offbeat, about an old woman who died and came back as a dog. It totally flopped. I’ve had other books that were critical successes, but didn’t sell."
"When you have your name on something, you’re really putting yourself on the line in a personal way, something you don’t do when you’re part of a larger organization," says Ginee Seo, who did not pursue an imprint of her own when she left HarperCollins in 2000 to become v-p and associate publisher of Atheneum, which comprises seven editors and two eponymous imprints. "I’m not comfortable with that," she adds. "I’m probably too chicken to have an imprint of my own! Maybe I don’t feel yet that I’ve earned it. That feeling could change, but right now I like being part of a bigger group, contributing to an imprint that has an amazing tradition."
How do editors distinguish their imprints from all the others?
"I feel that what gives you vision, and makes your vision distinct, are the things you love," says Cotler. "One Hundred Years of Solitude sits in my brain. The paintings of Matisse. They’ve informed my vision of the universe." Cotler’s books include Newbery Honors The Wanderer by Sharon Creech and Wringer by Jerry Spinelli, as well as National Book Award winner Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez. Francesca Lia Block and Jeanne Steig are also her authors.
"Voice distinguishes," says Jackson, who named Hamlet as an early influence in his life, and one that still informs his reading today. "It is particularly important that books have a sound, that the voice is legitimate and is coming from somewhere. There’s a visual voice as well. New writers are my particular pleasure."
"I connect with that ‘literary’ quality," says Melanie Kroupa, whose imprint is at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. "I certainly strive for that. I love young picture books and older books that directly speak to kids. I look for voice and strong characterization in fiction, and passion and insight that brings a subject alive in a fresh way in nonfiction. I like books with feisty, spunky, quirky characters." Kroupa’s titles include the Caldecott Honor Hush! A Thai Lullabye, by Minfong Ho, illustrated by Holly Meade; Three Cheers for Catherine the Great by Cari Best, illustrated by Giselle Potter; and We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History by Phillip Hoose.
"I gravitate to books my own children would like," Wiseman says. "My son can’t get enough books with sports themes. I want to find the stories and the books that children will respond to, and will want to read. Books that are relevant."
"I guess I’m drawn to writers and illustrators who are funny," says Michael di Capua, who moved his imprint from Farrar, Straus & Giroux to HarperCollins and finally to its current home at Hyperion. "Jon Agee and Jules Feiffer are typical Michael di Capua authors, each with his own unique sense of humor. My way of doing things is extremely hands-on. I’ve been told that my fingerprints are all over my books, and I think it’s usually meant as a compliment."
Three books that di Capua feels have changed his life are The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell, illustrated by Maurice Sendak; We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy by Maurice Sendak; and Brundibar, a new picture book by Tony Kushner, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, scheduled for release this fall. And he credits two "amazing mentors" during his 20s: Robert Giroux, for adult books, and Maurice Sendak, for children’s books.
Walter Lorraine Books, which is the only namesake imprint at Houghton Mifflin, was started in 1995, when Lorraine stepped down from his longtime role as publisher of Houghton’s children’s division. Lorraine’s authors include David Macaulay, Allen Say, Bernard Waber and Arthur Geisert. He garnered the 1994 Newbery and Caldecott Medals for The Giver by Lois Lowry and Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say. Lorraine declined to be interviewed for this article.
"My books are both commercial and literary at once," says Katherine Tegen, who will debut not only her own imprint at HarperCollins this fall, but will oversee The Julie Andrews Collection, the first imprint given to a celebrity (see p. 85). Of her own imprint, Tegen says, "The books have great humor in them. There are some strong boy things, and some girl things, and humor." Her launch list features a "funky gothic romance novel for teens," one YA novel and four picture books.
Name Recognition
Does the extra name on a book mean anything to anyone?
"The first one that I was aware of goes way back: Ursula Nordstrom," says Kathleen T. Horning, director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) in Madison, Wis. An imprint’s name does not, however, determine whether she likes a book, Horning says. It simply draws her attention to it. "There are lots of fine books that don’t appear under imprints," she notes.
Awards committees also pay no attention to whether a book is imprinted, adds Horning, who is a former chair of the Newbery committee. "We don’t pay any attention to who the publisher is. We even try to get away from discussing who the author is. You don’t talk about a book in the context of an author’s other books. This makes it fair for newer authors."
"An imprint might mean that you might pick up a book with greater expectation," says Kate McClellan, director of youth services at the Perrot Memorial Library in Old Greenwich, Conn., who chaired the 2002 Caldecott committee. "But members of these committees have no interest in who the editor or publishing house is. When you get right down to it, the only thing that matters is the book itself."
"Additionally, no library patron has ever asked to see books by a particular imprint," McClellan says. "Even after an editor has given a talk at the library, no one has asked to see the editor’s books."
"As a reviewer, there are certain imprints that I have such respect for," says Leonard Marcus. "The editor’s name on a book is a strong signal to me that this is a book I should pay attention to. In the end, it makes no difference who the editor is, but an imprint might make me read it first. Not every book [Richard] Jackson publishes is wonderful, but a lot of them are. So I put them higher on the pile to read."
Getting a reviewer’s attention is a greater part of a book’s battle for recognition and survival in the marketplace. Marcus, for instance, who has been the reviewer for Parenting since the magazine’s founding in 1987, writes only 150 reviews for the magazine each year, but about 8,000 books come across his desk.
"The editor’s name often announces a type of book," says Lisa Dugan, children’s buyer at Koen Book Distributors in Moorestown, N.J. "It doesn’t really influence my buying," she says. "I let the book speak for itself. I buy by author recognition."
"It’s not my approach to books," says Judy Hamel, co-owner of Children’s Corner in Spokane, Wash. "I look at books individually. I read the reviews. We, like everyone else, are dependent on reviews. Our mission is to bring the best of the books to the attention of our customers. Customers are a great source. They’re always asking, have you read such-and-such. We respond and learn from everyone. And we try to have the books the customers will ask for."
"Frankly, there’s more interest in it in the publishing world, and not so much in the bookselling world," says Lilla Weinberger, co-owner of Readers’ Books in Sonoma, Calif. "I’m more influenced by the book itself. I use imprints as a filter in adult books, but I don’t need the filter for children’s books."
Weinberger says an imprint does not affect the number of copies she buys or even whether she buys a book at all. "Most customers are pretty clueless," she adds. "They don’t care who the publisher is, much less the imprint."
Some literary agents say that the imprints have not influenced or changed they way they work, but note that an editor’s visibility can help unagented writers better identify where to send their manuscripts.
"It’s a plus in many ways," says Amy Berkower, president and CEO of Writers House. "It says who’s doing what. And it’s a means of identifying where in the larger marketplace you specifically fit in." Berkower is concerned, however, that as more and more top editors are eschewing the path to the publisher’s suite and choosing to remain editors in a star system that bestows individual fame and recognition, publishing houses will increasingly be run by people who do not truly understand literature.
"When I got into publishing," says Margaret Frith, "the job that you looked forward to getting was editor-in-chief, then publisher. Maybe what we had going was a good thing."
Imprints that have been disbanded due to death, retirement or editors who left the industry or left for another position, include Jean Karl Books, Ursula Nordstrom Books Charlotte Zolotow Books, Phyllis Fogelman Books and Willa Perlman Books,.
Eponymous imprints are likely here to stay. "It’s a reflection of our culture as whole," Marcus says. "The wish to put one’s own name on book reflects the more generalized longing we have for fame and recognition." But whether or not a list is named specifically for an editor or not, good and lasting books for children will continue to be produced, no matter what name is on the spine.
