BESTSELLERS & BEST FRIENDS
My book publishing blog, with murder mysteries woven through it.
If this is your first visit, be sure to start with “1. Let’s do it!”
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It’s around 2004 and I’m looking for a book-ish story to publish online to our millions of kids on Funbrain.
The “book” needed to be visual, enjoyed quickly, and funny.
Sort of like a newspaper’s daily comic strips in which brilliant creators, in tiny spaces, establish characters, tell stories, and make readers laugh.
In my search, I talked with book publishers, editors, writers, agents, and—BLAM!
Right away they all said, “You can’t do that!”
Argh! Just like, “You can’t put fake vomit on a book!” (post) And, “You can’t launch a bestseller out of hotel bars in New Hampshire!” (post) And, “You can’t make noise around Norman Mailer.” (post)
A literary agent told me with full confidence: “Kids don’t want to read online!” When was that proven? Who’s tried it already?
A children’s editor said: “Kids only want to play games.” How do you know? Kids have always loved stories.
I do the old, “kids enjoyed stories even before there was written language or a printing press, and—" Beloved children’s publisher: “Not these kids today! They’re the worst!”
I didn’t get the prejudices. Never will.
But to be fair, I got the reality. How would this book-ish story look on a screen? What would the interface and navigation be? What advertising inventory would it offer (content must deliver income)?
And really, why would any writer want to risk losing book royalties by having his/her story on screen for free?
Same for the agent who represented it and the publisher who invested in bringing it to life.
Yet it had to be free to kids on Funbrain, where there was no end to what kids could discover and learn, no matter their income or where they lived. You didn’t have to be a rich kid with a credit card to enjoy Funbrain. I always imagined a child hiding out at a public library, frightened by something happening at home, yet for a moment, comforted by being at Funbrain.
I was possessed (and getting grumpy) about this. My management team and staff politely rolled their eyes. Just another of my weird hang-ups.
How would I ever find this book-ish story that was visual, funny, in a format that could be enjoyed in short moments, and wasn’t already in the hands of a responsible publisher?
Then one day our design manager, Jeff Kinney, nervously pulled me aside. “I’ve been working on a book for ten years. It’s about a wimpy kid. Maybe we could use it? Could you at least look at it?”
Damn it! There’s that “could you look at my manuscript” moment that never went well. Jeff and I were good friends. He was a great web designer, in many ways the key to making our advertising clients happy, and aw shit, I was going to have to break his heart.
“Sure, I’ll look at it, Jeff.” Then I set, as best I could, his expectations.
He emailed me sample pages. And that night at home, I pulled up Jeff’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid email. Except for maybe his wife and brother, I was about to be the first to see his story about a kid named Greg Heffley.
I clicked “OPEN.”
Holy hell! Amazing! The BEST stuff EVER shared with me.
I immediately called Jeff, “Let’s do it!” And the rest is remarkable, unbelievable, and for Jeff, well-deserved history. The BEST thing ever about publishing.
Tomorrow: Spy magazine and me