Behind the Scenes Archives - Page 2 of 20 - First Second Books

Behind the Scenes

To Do This Weekend: Olympians! - First Second Books

Publishers Want to Publish Books

test heading (here is a photo of my bookshelf at the present time, which is actually a moderately reasonable representation of our publishing, though of course many books are omitted for purposes of being on the bottom of the bookshelf behind some boxes) Publishers really want to publish books.  It's practically the whole reason for [...]

By |2024-03-21T02:35:22-04:00August 20th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Publishers Want to Publish Books

Fall 2015: Real-Live Actual Books

You guys! We have advance copies of our whole list for Fall 2015 in the office.  It is glorious!  So many books!  So shiny and attractive and new! Here's a quick preview. Covers of books (with Human Body Theater being slightly shiny because of spot gloss)! Also, we've got back covers!  These are some attractive [...]

By |2015-08-11T18:03:24-04:00August 17th, 2015|Behind the Scenes, Books|Comments Off on Fall 2015: Real-Live Actual Books

Negative Reviews

test heading (my Fall 2015 review copy shelf right now) Sometimes the books we publish aren't everyone's cup of tea. That's something we're actually pretty okay with.  We publish a whole bunch of books, over a number of different age levels and genres, addressing lots of different subject matter.  If you are a person who [...]

By |2024-03-21T02:35:42-04:00August 13th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|1 Comment

Will Publishers Steal Your Ideas?

test heading (art from Richard Sala's lovely graphic novel Cat Burglar Black. No publishing idea theft occurs during this book.) Every so often, someone e-mails or calls or comes up to us at a show to tell us that they have a wonderful book that they're working on, but they don't want to show it [...]

By |2024-03-21T02:36:53-04:00August 10th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Will Publishers Steal Your Ideas?

Win Friends and Influence People . . . at Conventions!

test heading (from this year's MoCCA Festival!) We're at the beginning of this year's indie/small press convention season, so: it is time for some convention-ing advice! It can be very difficult to go from 'aspiring young cartoonist' to 'person who is fully engaged in the industry who knows everyone and has lots of friends and [...]

By |2024-03-21T02:39:56-04:00April 20th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Win Friends and Influence People . . . at Conventions!

Practically Perfect In Every Way

test heading (these are the illustrations in my copy of Mary Poppins -- they're by Mary Shepard!) Mary Poppins may be "practically perfect in every way," but she's a fictional character.  And also magical. First Second is a pretty awesome publisher, but I have to admit: we are neither fictional or magical, which means that [...]

By |2024-03-21T02:40:35-04:00April 13th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|1 Comment

The Premise vs. The Plot

test heading (The premise of Box Brown's Andre the Giant, from the flap.  Nonfiction is pretty easy to grok, premise-wise.) The premise and the plot of a book are two different things. The premise is the concept of the book. The plot, on the other hand, is what happens in the book -- all the [...]

By |2024-03-21T02:42:10-04:00April 2nd, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on The Premise vs. The Plot

Saying No to Your Publisher

test heading (from The Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew) It can be very difficult to say no to your publisher. After all, they're paying you money AND publishing your book.  And clearly they don't think the things they're asking you are crazy, or they wouldn't be asking you them (or at [...]

By |2024-03-21T02:42:30-04:00March 30th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Saying No to Your Publisher

Marketing Timing

test heading (Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang's short story based on their graphic novel In Real Life over on tor.com) There's a lot you can do to promote your book right when it's coming out, or in the month or two ahead of that.  What are the things that can't wait, that you should do [...]

By |2024-03-21T02:42:50-04:00March 26th, 2015|Behind the Scenes|Comments Off on Marketing Timing
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