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Author Tells Kids What Goes Into Book Publishing (Hint: Lots of Rewriting)
posted: March 4th, 2010 01:58 pm |
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Harbor View Elementary School students spent time today with Stacia Deutsch, bestselling author of historical children’s books, as part of the school’s Author’s Festival.
Deutsch, of Irvine, and her writing partner, Rhody Cohon, have written more than 30 books together, including the “Blast to the Past” series, which takes modern children on time-travel adventures to help historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and Walt Disney.
The first draft of the first book was 70 messy pages about the Wright Brothers and was called “After School Adventures: First Flight,” Deutsch told the students. Unsure how to make a book out of that draft, she described attending conferences and reading books and figuring out that the first step was to get an agent.
“‘We’re not sure your book is good enough,’” the agents replied, Deutsch said, putting samples of the rejection letters on an overhead projector.
Finally, she found an agent and an editor — and the real work began.
“We rewrote 69 pages,” she said. “Out of 70.”
The editor also forced them to make sure their vocabulary and phrasing weren’t too sophisticated for a second- to fifth-grade audience. Some words, they changed. Other times, they believed in their audience’s intelligence.
“‘I looked through you’ doesn’t mean you became clear,” she said. “Is that too hard an idea for a second grader? No. They know people don’t become clear.”
After rewriting came the task of working with an illustrator. Deutsch said she found the inspiration for the look of one character while waiting in line at Autopia at Disneyland, where she asked permission to take a quick photo of a boy in front of her.
Checking for mistakes on the “first pass” came next, then checking illustrations for anachronisms, selecting cover art and a title and then promoting — “I need more hours in a day,” she told the students.
Deutsch then asked the students which historical American figure they would like to see in a book, someone who changed the world, she said.
The students suggested many presidents, along with Michael Jackson, Rosa Parks, Heath Ledger and John Wayne.
“John Wayne! I never heard that one before,” Deutsch told the students.
The school’s Author’s Festival is an annual event that brings published writers, usually of kids books, to Harbor View.
