FIRST SECOND READS (BLOG)
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Adventures in Cartooning CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!
test heading Oh for time travel! How I wish I could get all the ADVENTURES IN CARTOONING books back to my seven-year-old self! Here comes the latest offering from James Sturm, Alexis-Frederic Frost, and Andrew Arnold! This holiday season, give the gift of zany inspiration to that young, undiscovered cartoonist. It's all you expect of that [...]
Sales and Marketing
test headingI recently got an autobio comic from one of our authors which indicated that perhaps we weren't making the distinction between sales and marketing clear enough. Sometimes these things are a bit difficult to parse -- and it doesn't get easier to understand when you realize that every publisher tends to handle the marketing/sales [...]
SPX Recaps!
test heading First Second doesn't typically exhibit at SPX -- they're a whole four hours away, and by car! How would we even get there? (That is an obviously facetious question.) But our designer, Colleen AF Venable, and I went down to the show this year. I was only able to attend SPX on Saturday, [...]
The Submission Process: Options for Writers and Artists
test heading (photo from The National Library of Scotland) So last week we talked about submission letters from people who could both write and draw. But what if you can only do one of those things? What if your skills are writerly or artistly only? Is there no hope for you? Do not give up, [...]
The Submission Process: What to Submit
test heading (photo ganked from The Library of Congress; I'm sure you'll be surprised to learn our office is not actually full of boxers) One of the questions that we get pretty frequently is, 'I want to submit a graphic novel to you. Um . . . how does that work?' This is [...]
The Publishing Process — A Timeline
test heading (ganked from The Smithsonian Institution. You will probably be as old as this man is now by the time your book gets published. Or at least feel like it.) It takes a long time to publish books. Probably this is because we publishers are cruel, unreasonable people whose goal in life is to [...]
ZITA SPACEGIRL RETURNS!
test heading Have we got a treat for you! The beloved space girl Zita is back, with more stardust and adventure than ever! Congratulations, Ben Hatke, for this second volume brimming over with thrilling new worlds, creatures and spacecraft... “An action-packed, high tension adventure story that is marvelously inventive, beautifully drawn, and filled with both [...]
First Second 2012
A Year in Pictures of Books So when I posted earlier this week about how we had all the books we're publishing in 2012 in the office, I didn't realize that meant that I could take pictures of them all for everyone! And then I did, so, pictures! Having come to this realization, I then [...]
New Book: Curses! Foiled Again
We've just got into the office advance copies of Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallaro's Curses! Foiled Again, the sequel to Foiled, which was a story about fencing and teen boys being aggravating and sometimes magic, too. It looks super-pretty! Why yes, that IS gold foil you see on the title text. It is both attractive [...]
Freelance Publicists
test heading (image ganked from The New York Public Library) Occasionally, authors ask: should they hire freelance publicists? If you are an author and having similar thoughts, the first thing to do is call or e-mail your publisher. Ask them if they can explain to you what they're already planning to do to publicize your [...]
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