Behind the Scenes Archives - First Second Books

Behind the Scenes

To Do This Weekend: Olympians!

Congratulations to :01’s New Associate Art Director, Andrew Arnold!

Congratulations to Andrew Arnold, the new Associate Art Director managing First Second graphic novel design.  Andrew will now be responsible for art direction and design for graphic novel titles both at First Second and those graphic novels published by First Second's sister companies FSG BYR and Roaring Brook. Andrew started working at our parent company, [...]

By |2024-03-05T05:12:50-05:00August 11th, 2016|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Congratulations to :01’s New Associate Art Director, Andrew Arnold!

First Second Welcomes Editorial Assistant Kiara Valdez!

First Second is delighted to welcome our new Editorial Assistant, Kiara Valdez! Kiara is a graduate of Williams College, and she's interned at Crown, Penguin Random House, and Kodansha. Kiara speaks Japanese, enjoys a broad range of comics and is already bringing her strengths to First Second. What was the first comic you remember reading? [...]

By |2016-06-06T13:23:16-04:00June 9th, 2016|Behind the Scenes|1 Comment

Publishers Like Books

(some books on our office bookshelf currently) As a publisher, we're here to tell you that publishers are big fans of books.  Everyone who works in publishing loves books -- and loves reading. To aspiring authors, there are a lot of times when 'publishing' can seem like some sort of crazy black-box monolith with no [...]

By |2024-03-05T05:46:37-05:00December 28th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Publishers Like Books

Who Do You Call?

(business cards; from my office wall) One of the reasons that publicists and marketing people exist is to be an intermediary between authors and the outside world.  (Unrelatedly, this is also why people have FAQ sections on their websites.) When media that wants interviews or bookstores that want events and they need to get in [...]

By |2015-09-09T14:12:36-04:00September 17th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Who Do You Call?

Authors vs. Publishers

(Galleys of Faith Erin Hicks' upcoming graphic novel The Nameless City -- which is going to be awesome, you guys!) For most authors, getting a book published can be a struggle.  It's a struggle to write or draw the book, it's a battle to edit it, it's a fight to find the right publisher, and [...]

By |2024-03-05T05:52:31-05:00September 14th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Authors vs. Publishers

Authors Have Ideas; Editors Have Ideas

(Current :01 office bookshelf!  It's got some books that we've published.) Most of the time when we talk about books on this blog, we're specifically talking about books where the pitching process goes like this: Author: I have an idea!  It is this idea which I am now explaining to you in moderate depth, and [...]

By |2024-03-05T05:58:24-05:00September 3rd, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Authors Have Ideas; Editors Have Ideas

Bribing Your Publisher-To-Be With Chocolate

(the candy currently in my office which is not chocolate and which I purchased for myself, I swear) Sometimes we get asked the question -- are there little things that authors can do that will help get a publisher's attention for their pitch -- like send them some chocolate in the envelope? Now, it's well [...]

By |2024-03-05T06:00:50-05:00August 24th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|1 Comment
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