Kids Heart Authors Day Will Spread Literary Love at New England Indie Bookstores...

Lately it seems all the publishing news is, if not bad, at the very least distressing or confusing. Acquisition freezes, layoffs, restructuring. I was happy to see something positive reported in PW: Kids Heart Authors Day, a New England Valentine's Day event cooked up my Mitali Perkins and friends that will connect readers with authors and their books and boost independent booksellers.

Check out the Kids Heart Authors Day site to see the impressive list of bookstores and authors participating.

And Now for Some Good News--Book Sales UP Thankgiving Weekend...

Moving from Black Wednesday to Black Friday, PW reports positive BookScan numbers (that's sales through the register) over Thanksgiving weekend, with sales of children's fiction rising 33.7% over last year. Thank you Stephenie Meyer!

Art and the Economy:
Laurel Snyder, PW and NY Times...

On her blog today, author Laurel Snyder offers some interesting comments on art and poverty as prompted by the recent economic downturn and how it's affirming to writers and other creative types. Here's a snippet:

See, to pursue a writing life, to really make literature and art the center of things, you have to accept a certain amount of uncertainty, poverty, etc. You decide you’ll be a waitress forever, and never own a fancy handbag. You live in a studio apartment, eat cheap. Ideally, you do this (not because you’re selfish and singleminded, but) because you’re choosing to prioritize art and social commentary and intelligent community and the life of the mind BEFORE handbags.

Click here for the full post.

I've always admired writers who choose to pursue their art and all the sacrifices that go along with that. It makes it all the more exciting when contracts are gotten, awards are won, bestseller lists are made. I'm not sure that pursuit is something I could handle myself. I need the steady paycheck, the paid vacation, and the boss.

There was some good news in terms of the economy and children's books offered recently in PW. In a piece on wholesalers and the holiday season, they report that "Nearly all wholesalers expect children's books to be strong this year..." Click here for the full story.

My favorite economic news reported recently is about the Lipstick Index, what The New York Times calls "that frivolous financial barometer that says cosmetics sales rise in direct relation to free-falling finances." Cosmetic sales have gone up 40% in the last few months.

Books are just as cheap as cosmetics. How do we get everyone to put down that makeup, step away from Sephora, and go spend that $25 at a bookstore?

Best Books of 2008 Lists from PW and Amazon...

It's that listy time of the year...

Publishers Weekly recently compiled their list of best books of the year in numerous categories. Here are the first five on each of their lists of best books for young readers. Click here to read all the lists complete with descriptions of each of the books.

Children's Picture Books

• In a Blue Room, by Jim Averbeck, illus. by Tricia Tusa (Harcourt) (Yay Jim who use to live in the Nati!)
  
• The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum, by Kate Bernheimer, illus.by Nicoletta Ceccoli (Schwartz & Wade)
• The Day Leo Said I Hate You!, by Robie Harris, illus. by Molly Bang (Little, Brown)
• Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, by Mem Fox, illus. by Helen Oxenbury (Harcourt)
  
• A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, Marla Frazee (Harcourt)
  

(Note the three titles by Harcourt--have I mentioned the brilliance of Allyn Johnston, now head of S&S imprint Beach Lane Books?)

Children's Fiction

• Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster)
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)
• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf)
• Masterpiece, by Elise Broach (Holt)
• Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)

Children's Nonfiction

• The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir, by Cylin Busby & John Busby (Bloomsbury)
• What the World Eats, by Faith D'Aluisio, photos by Peter Menzel (Tricycle)
• Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, by the National Children's Book and Literary Alliance, intro. by David McCullough (Candlewick)
• The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West, by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
• We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun)

Amazon has all sorts of best books list, including customer favorites and editor favorites and best book trailers (topped by John Green's simple-yet-hilarious Papertown video). Check out all the Amazon lists here.

(And remember--it's never too early to start holiday shopping for your literate loved-ones.)

Ginee Seo Resigns from S&S...

Publishers Weekly reports:

Ginee Seo, v-p and editorial director of Ginee Seo Books, an imprint of Atheneum Books for Young Readers at Simon & Schuster, has resigned from her position with the publisher, according to an internal memo sent earlier this week by Atheneum v-p and publisher Emma Dryden.

The short PW piece recalls some other recent changes in editor-driven children's imprints:

The past year has seen several changes at editor-driven children’s imprints at major houses, including the resignations of Laura Geringer and Joanna Cotler from their eponymous imprints at HarperCollins, as well as the formation of two new imprints, HarperCollins’s Bowen Press, headed by Brenda Bowen, and S&S’s Beach Lane Books, with Allyn Johnston at the helm.

Here's the link to the full article.

PW Reports Cuts at Walker Books in U.K....

This is from the latest PW Children's Bookshelf ("News from London"):

Walker Books is cutting its publishing output by 10% and losing 10 jobs, eight of them through voluntary redundancies. The cutbacks will be in the 2009 publishing program, when the output will be reduced from the current figure of around 300 titles a year. Walker's U.K. managing director Helen McAleer told PW, "We have been realigning and refocusing the business here at Walker and we are growing our fiction, high-end novelty lists and TV tie-in titles, and have created new and senior roles in these areas." Jane Winterbotham, Walker's publishing director, added, "The cuts are not affecting our frontlist publishing. We are making the cuts by slowing down our reissues."

While stressing the continuing importance of Walker's high-quality publishing, McAleer also cited the company's plans for diversification. "We want to be able to offer our authors and illustrators something different; hence we have set up Walker Productions to develop TV projects from our own properties, and are looking to work with partners on these projects." Walker will also relaunch its Web site to include space for children and adults to engage with the Walker authors and illustrators, and to develop e-commerce.

Note that Walker Books in the U.K. and Walker & Company in the U.S. are not affiliated.