Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Lots of Publishers Are New-Author Friendly...

As I've been going over my possible First Books candidates for the 2009 CWIM, I've been keeping a list of the publishers producing all the debut books I've been reading about and mulling over. Today I will share:

Here are publishers with multiple books in my stack:

  • 6 books from HarperCollins or HC imprints (Greenwillow, Tegen)
  • 3 books from Scholastic or Scholastic imprints (Levine, PUSH)
  • 3 from Random House or RH imprint (Wendy Lamb)
  • 3 from Farrar, Strauss & Giroux
  • 3 from Dutton
  • 2 from Henry Holt
  • 2 from Simon & Schuster (1 S&S, 1 Atheneum)
  • 2 from Penguin Group (1 Putman, 1 Razorbill)
  • 2 from Sylvan Dell
  • 2 from Onstage
  • 2 from newcomer Gumboot
Here are publishers with just one book in my stack (in alphabetical order. I had to sing the alphabet song several time to accomplish this):
  • Abrams
  • Concordia
  • Delacorte
  • Flux
  • Front Street
  • Holiday House
  • Lobster Press
  • Red Deer
  • Sterling
  • Tilbury
  • Tricycle Press
  • Whitman
So this year HarperCollins is gets the gold star for most debut authors who happened to contact me. (Last year it was a tie between Delacorte and Sylvan Dell.)

Also of interest--I had at least three authors tell me they were plucked from the slush pile! Lots of authors who contacted me do not have agents. And I have the exact same number of picture books as young adult novels--that never happens! I always hear from far more novelists than picture book writers and illustrators. Who says the picture book market is flat? Apparently publishers on the above list are buying them.

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