Jennifer Holm Interview
Jennifer Holm is the best-selling and award-winning co-creator of the Baby Mouse, Squish, and Sunny Side Up graphic novel series, and she's also the Newbery Honor winning author of numerous middle grade novels like Our Only May Amelia, The Fourteenth Goldfish, and Turtle in Paradise.
In this interview for Kids Comics Unite, we focus on how she got started in her career, her creative process, and why she branched out into graphic novels with her brother, artist Matthew Holm. She dishes on so many fascinating things:
- Her first job in NYC, before she became a writer (it involved PeeWee’s Playhouse)
- How she got her agent, and the unusual route she took to selling Baby Mouse to Random House
- How her first book ended up becoming a middle grade novel (originally she thought it was an adult book)
- Her biggest piece of advice for new authors
- How many times she typically revises (or rewrites entirely!) a book
- How and why she works with freelance editors, in addition to her agent and editor at her publishing house
- The television production technique she and her brother Matt use to create graphic novels together
- The reason why Baby Mouse is 2-color
- Why Jenni writes for middle grade (hint: she hated being a teen)
- The exact components of her author visits; how she makes them super interactive and fun
- The theme she returns to over and over in her work
Jenni is well-known for being an incredibly generous creator who constantly gives back to the children's book community. This interview is a perfect example of that.
Click to view the full interview on YouTube.
Kristen McLean Interview: The Future of Children's Book and Graphic Novel Publishing in the Covid-19 Era
Last week I interviewed Kristen McLean, publishing industry analyst and VP of business development for market research firm NPD Group.
She answered a lot of burning questions about what's happening in the children's book and graphic novel market right now, like:
- What's happened to book sales overall since the coronavirus crisis began?
- What's the biggest "white space" in the book market at this time?
- How have comics and graphic novel sales been affected in 2020?
- How might the comics distribution system in the US change in the near future?
- What categories of books are selling best during this crisis? What's been negatively affected?
- Which trends might be accelerated by this crisis?
- How is the crisis causing innovation to happen, and which innovations might change the publishing landscape once the acute crisis abates?
It was a fascinating discussion. Click to view the full interview on YouTube.