Jack Cheng's Blog, page 8

11. The Publicity (Fixed)

See You in the Cosmos has been reviewed in newspapers and magazines like The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and TIME for Kids. But media coverage around this book and others like it don’t happen by accident; they come as a result of the persistent efforts of the book publicist. This week, we speak with not one but three publicists: Lindsay T. Boggs and Kaitlin Kneafsey of Penguin Young Readers (US), and Sophia Rubie of Penguin Random House Children’s (UK). We learn about their paths in the industry, about crafting pitches that cut through the noise, and about the challenges and merits of doing publicity for children’s books.

Music by Saint Benjamin. See You in the Cosmos is available now in bookstores and libraries. Find your copy here.

11. The Publicity

See You in the Cosmos has been reviewed in newspapers and magazines like The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and TIME for Kids. But media coverage around this book and others like it don’t happen by accident; they come as a result of the persistent efforts of the book publicist. This week, we speak with not one but three publicists: Lindsay T. Boggs and Kaitlin Kneafsey of Penguin Young Readers (US), and Sophia Rubie of Penguin Random House Children’s (UK). We learn about their paths in the industry, about crafting pitches that cut through the noise, and about the challenges and merits of doing publicity for children’s books.

Music by Saint Benjamin. See You in the Cosmos is available now in bookstores and libraries. Find your copy here.

10. The Librarian Conference

This past Thursday and Friday, I was in San Antonio for TLA—the Texas Library Association’s annual conference. I brought my microphone. In this episode, we talk to librarian Curren McLane, a member of TLA’s planning committee, and to Venessa Carson, who is part of the School and Library Marketing team at Penguin Young Readers . We also get an airport-hot-take from Marissa Grossman and Kate Meltzer, two Penguin editors who were also in attendance, and, in my downtime, I roam the main exhibition hall.

Featured Exhibitors:

Deb Goble of Junior Library Guild (which made See You in the Cosmos a June 2017 selection )Ronda Pike of Southwest Book CompanySteve Orlando of CoLibrì Systems North AmericaJan Sikes with the Texas Association of AuthorsGabriel Ransenberg (and Van!) of Austin Public Library’s The Van ShowCatherine Stier from the Southwest Texas chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and IllustratorsRyan Lindee of PolyPrinterDavid Martinez of South Texas School Furniture

Music by Saint Benjamin. See You in the Cosmos is available now in bookstores and libraries. Find your copy here.

9. The Audiobook

See You in the Cosmos was born out of audio; the novel is written as transcriptions of the recordings that the main character, Alex, is making on his Golden iPod. This week we talk to Karen Dziekonski, producer at Penguin Random House Audio and Listening Library, about bringing these “transcripts” alive for the audiobook. Karen goes into her time with StoryCorps, as well as the challenges of casting Alex. We also hear a couple auditions from Jason Culp and Robert Fass for an unusual supporting character, and an excerpt of the finished audiobook, narrated by Kivlighan de Montebello and recorded at CDM Studios.

Music by Saint Benjamin. See You in the Cosmos is out now anywhere books (and audiobooks) are sold. Get your copy here.

8. The Interior Design

This week we talk once again about design—the design of the book’s interior. We hear from Jason Henry, senior designer at Dial Books for Young Readers, about the invisible work that goes into turning the Word-doc manuscript into a printed book.

Music by Saint Benjamin. See You in the Cosmos is out now anywhere books are sold. Get your copy here.

7. The Copyediting

You’ve met my editors; now meet my copyeditors. This week we hear from Regina Castillo, Copy Chief at Dial Books for Young Readers, about what copyeditors do, and we also chat with Wendy Shakespeare, Senior Editorial Manager at Penguin Random House Children’s UK, about anglicizing (or anglicising) American books for a British audience.

Music by Saint Benjamin. See You in the Cosmos is out now in bookstores everywhere. Get your copy here.

Interlude

We've come back to where we began our story: roughly eight months out from publication. We pause for a moment before digging into the even more behind-the-scenes—and invisible—aspects of the publishing process.

6. The (Internal) Launch

As See You in the Cosmos launches this week in the US, UK, and rest of the English-speaking world, we look back on the internal launches that took place within the publishing houses roughly one year ago. We talk again with my editors Anthea Townsend and Jess Dandino Garrison about the room where it happens, and about presenting a book to their colleagues at the publishing house.

Music by Saint Benjamin. Order your copy of See You in the Cosmos here.

5. The Cover

The challenge of writing and editing a middle grade book with a broader audience translates to a similar challenge in cover (or jacket) design. In this episode we talk with Jacqui McDonough, Art Director at Penguin Random House Children’s in the UK about the design process, what designers and art directors do, and hiring The Heads of State for the cover illustration.

Music by Saint Benjamin. Subscribe via iTunes, SoundCloud, Overcast or RSS. See You in the Cosmos comes out Feb 28 in the US and March 2 in the UK. Pre-order today.

4. The Editing

This episode we go deeper into editing with Jess Garrison of Dial Books for Young Readers and Anthea Townsend of Penguin Random House Children’s UK. We talk about our three-way collaboration, and about the differences between fiction for middle grade, young adult, and adult readers.

Music by Saint Benjamin. Subscribe via iTunes, SoundCloud, Overcast or RSS.