SCBWI talk by YA author Linda Gerber--Part II
Yesterday I posted about Linda Gerber's talk to the Tokyo chapter of the SCBWI. Today, I'd like to continue with Linda's descriptions of Book Packager series, publisher-driven series and author driven series.
You might be wondering what a book packager is. Well, they come up with the concept, get the writer, and produce the project which they then sell to a publisher. A publisher driven series is one designed and conceived in-house by the publisher. An example is Linda's own book Now and Zen which is part of Puffin Books' Student's Across the Seven Seas series (S.A.S.S.).
A book packager series or even a publisher-driven series can be written by different authors, using different characters, revolving around the same theme. Again the S.A.S.S. series is a good example. Another type of series can be one where a pen name is established and then ghost writers are hired to write the story. Think Nancy Drew and how long she's been aorund. Last, a publisher may see a gap in the market and contract authors who already write for them to produce the stories.
An author driven series, of course, is one where the entire concept comes from the author. The character may grow from book to book, like Harry Potter, or stay pretty much the same age from one adventure to the next. Bottom line it's the author who decides what direction the character and series take.
The publishing world is tough and competitive. Writing for a book packager can sometimes be the way to get your foot in the door. It worked for Linda. She has another S.A.S.S. book coming out set in Finland and she went on to seal a three-book deal for Puffin's (a division of Penguin Books) Sleuth series. So keep your eyes open for opportunities. They're out there.
UPDATE: 11/17/06 The above post has been edited to reflect the corrections Linda made in the comments to this post. Sorry for any confusion on the original.
Keep on Writing!
Patrizia
You might be wondering what a book packager is. Well, they come up with the concept, get the writer, and produce the project which they then sell to a publisher. A publisher driven series is one designed and conceived in-house by the publisher. An example is Linda's own book Now and Zen which is part of Puffin Books' Student's Across the Seven Seas series (S.A.S.S.).
A book packager series or even a publisher-driven series can be written by different authors, using different characters, revolving around the same theme. Again the S.A.S.S. series is a good example. Another type of series can be one where a pen name is established and then ghost writers are hired to write the story. Think Nancy Drew and how long she's been aorund. Last, a publisher may see a gap in the market and contract authors who already write for them to produce the stories.
An author driven series, of course, is one where the entire concept comes from the author. The character may grow from book to book, like Harry Potter, or stay pretty much the same age from one adventure to the next. Bottom line it's the author who decides what direction the character and series take.
The publishing world is tough and competitive. Writing for a book packager can sometimes be the way to get your foot in the door. It worked for Linda. She has another S.A.S.S. book coming out set in Finland and she went on to seal a three-book deal for Puffin's (a division of Penguin Books) Sleuth series. So keep your eyes open for opportunities. They're out there.
UPDATE: 11/17/06 The above post has been edited to reflect the corrections Linda made in the comments to this post. Sorry for any confusion on the original.
Keep on Writing!
Patrizia
posted by YACWW @ 7:27 PM
1 Comments:
At 3:59 AM,
Gerb said…
Hi, Patrizia!
Thanks for the write-up. It was so nice to see you again at the workshop.
I wanted to clarify something - the S.A.S.S. series is not done by a book packager - it is a publisher-driven series conceived inhouse and produced by Puffin.
A book packager is a separate entity. They conceive, create, design and produce (and sometimes even print) books and sell the whole shebang to publishers as a completed project. Examples of recent book packager series include Gossip Girls and The It Girl. Both of those are put out under the name of Cecily von Ziegesar, though she only wrote a few of the Gossip Girls books and not any of the It Girls books.
Have a good one!
Linda
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