Are there advantages to working at a publishing house outside New York?
It opens up my mind, but I’m from California so I admit to being biased. I find I’m able to relax more into the work here, instead of worrying about what people in other houses are doing. And because Harcourt is where it is, I can’t just go down the street if I’ve had a bad day and look for a job elsewhere. I’ve made a commitment to being here, and I make it work. What are the current economic pressures on children’s book publishing? At Harcourt it used to be just the editor and publisher talking about whether we should sign up a book, but in recent years we have started having acquisition meetings where everybody is involved. It helps us to be more educated before we make hard and fast decisions. Something obvious to a sales or marketing person might not have crossed the mind of the author or editor. But if an editor stands up for a project that others aren’t quite getting, we’re willing to back it. We still follow editorial passion. We’re also better now about smaller print runs, whi
