Getting Pitch Ready Day Six: Locate your Editor
Look at your list of the five publishing houses that would work for your book. Search each company in google with the word editor. See if you get any results for the names of the editors that work at that house. Pretend Chronicle Books is on the list of your top five publishers. Here I searched Linkedin. I searched Chronicle Books in the category "people". Waa-laa!—I have a list of editors for children's books at Chronicle Books. I would add these editors to my Chronicle Books chart and see if I can tease out which editor worked on which book—and, which editor worked on the books that I particularly like? You don't want just any editor at the publisher, you want the editor whose style and sensibilities are similar to yours.
​
So, how can I figure out which editor worked on which book? Read through their profiles on Linkiedin. Any clues? Read through each book's copyright dedication pages. Sometimes a thank you is mentioned to the editor. Google the editor. Google the books you like. Anything come up? Look on Facebook or on Twitter. Another great resource is The Original Art show—it's a children's book illustration show that takes place annually in New York City at the Society of Illustrators on 63rd street and it celebrates the best illustrated books of the year. It's certainly worth a trip to New York if you are nearby. Most importantly they also produce a catalog each year that lists the editors for the selected books. You can look for your favorite editor and see what books he/she worked on.
k@kristenbalouch.com | Brooklyn, NY
© 2018 by Kristen Balouch