The Complete Idiot’s Guides

5 for the Record

Harold D. Underdown

Harold D. Underdown, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Children’s Book Publishing, is a children’s book editor, currently working as a consulting editor and running the well-known children’s publishing site “The Purple Crayon.” Previously he was vice president and editorial director at ipicturebooks. Before that, he was editorial director of the Charlesbridge trade program, and he has also worked at Orchard Books and Macmillan. He speaks at conferences and provides editorial services to publishers and authors.

What is it about children’s books that makes it such an enticing field in which to work?

I’m a children’s book editor, and have been for 20 years, so my perspective may be somewhat different from a writer’s, but here’s how it looks to me. There are several things that I like about working in children’s books:

Money doesn’t dominate to the extent that it does in adult books, though this is changing, as publishers notice how successful children’s and YA books—particularly novels—can be.

Quality matters, as exemplified by the annual Newbery and Caldecott awards, and the months of discussion leading up to them.

The variety is exhilarating. There are not only many different types of books and magazines, but different age groups, different approaches in fiction and nonfiction, books with illustrations and without, and as many or more different genres of books as found on the adult side.

Don’t be enticed by the idea that it’s easier to write for children than for adults. It’s actually harder, because they aren’t the same as us—but this makes for an interesting challenge.

How did you get started in children’s books?

I started as an assistant at the old Macmillan Children’s Books (not the same as today’s Macmillan—one of the confusing results of the buyouts and consolidations that are a big part of the recent history of all branches of publishing, as I discuss in my book). Before I got the job, I had been an English major in college and taught for a few years. Today, being an English major and perhaps working as an intern at a publisher are still the starting points for many editors.

Getting started for writers is different. Many, though by no means all, are parents (typically moms) who start writing after their children start school or leave for college. They may take writing courses or even enroll in a writing program, but for most the typical path is to learn the craft through a kind of apprenticeship, which usually takes years.

Illustrators take yet another path. Almost all of them actually get degrees at art school, in illustration or less commonly in fine art.

What is the most difficult aspect about writing or illustrating, from your perspective as an editor?

I would say it’s developing the persistence and thick skin needed to build a career as a children’s book author. Technique can be learned. You either have a creative bent or you don’t.

Success can take years to achieve, if you ever reach it, and that’s hard. You have to keep at it, with no guarantees, except for one—that if you don’t keep at it, you’ll certainly never get there.

In what ways have children and their lifestyles changed over the years that makes publishing for them easier or more difficult—or more interesting?

Obviously, books face more competition for children’s time than they did in the past. Compared to just 50 years ago, today kids have video games, computers, the Internet, not to mention more homework. The fact that they are still reading books is a sign of the power of reading, the draw of getting lost in a good book. That hasn’t changed and I don’t believe it ever will, and that’s why even as more and more of our lives are focused on computers and similar devices, telling a story well will still matter.

What has changed the most about books for children—particularly concerning ebooks?

You may be surprised to hear me say this, but I believe that ebooks are not the biggest change in children’s books in the past 20 years or so. For one thing, ebooks for children are not selling in anything like the numbers that ebooks are selling in the adult market, and that will continue to be the case for the immediate future. Right now, the recession is having more of an impact on our business than the slow development of ebooks (slow because they’ve been around for more than ten years and only recently became a mainstream product). Over the long term, there are at least three larger changes than ebooks in our business: the increasing domination of corporations; the shift from the library to the bookstore market; and the “information overload” that has become a fact of life for all of us.