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 Read More »
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 Read More »
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 Read More »
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
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 Read More »
test heading (here is an unrelated picture of some books) Everyone thinks they know best -- especially when it comes to their job, the thing that they do professionally, the job they have because (presumably) they do it better than anyone else. And in a lot of cases, people do have jobs because they can Read More »
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 Read More »
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
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
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