Interview with Cheryl Klein, Associate Editor

Email interview by Lisa Lodholm Gilman

Cheryl Klein, Associate Editor

Cheryl Klein is an associate editor at Arthur A. Levine Books (AALB), where she works closely with a wide range of American and international authors and illustrators, including Lisa Yee, Saxton Freymann, David Small, Laura Gallego García, and Kate Constable. She grew up in Peculiar, Mo., graduated from Carleton College and the Denver Publishing Institute in 2000, and joined AALB/Scholastic that same year. As an editor, she particularly enjoys “relationship stories” where two people make an emotional connection--as friends, enemies, family, romantic interests, etc.--and the possibilities and consequences that grow out of that connection; but she loves books from all genres, and her main editorial interest is good writing.

How did you first land a job as an editor? Is the reality of it what you expected?
I attended the Denver Publishing Institute in the summer of 2000, right after I graduated from college, and Susan Hirschman (founding editorial director of Greenwillow/HarperCollins) came to give our talk on children’s books. Susan was so wonderful and so in love with her books and authors that I thought, “I want to be her when I grow up”--plus her talk reminded me of my own love for children’s books (my grandfather taught children’s literature at the university level while I was growing up, and I read them throughout high school and college). Susan put me in touch with Arthur Levine, who happened to be looking for a new editorial assistant the week I was interviewing in New York, and after a few more twists and turns, the rest is history.

The sheer coolness of my job is exactly what I expected--the pleasure of working with talented people to make beautiful, meaningful books. I didn’t expect the stress and the workload, the fact that I work on nights and weekends and still my work is never done, but I suspect most jobs feel like that these days, whether it’s children’s books or firefighting or investment banking…So it’s actually a joy to be able to be stressed out in a job that means something to me.

What do you enjoy about children’s book editing as opposed to other genres?
I love the wide range of subjects I get to explore through the books I work on. Last summer, for instance, I was editing a Spanish translation set in pre-Islamic Arabia (The Legend of the Wandering King), an illustrated Jewish fairy-tale collection (The Pirate Princess and Other Fairy Tales), and a realistic contemporary middle-grade novel set in California (Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time), and I loved switching among the tones and needs of each of those projects…Each one challenged me in a different way, so I was never bored. 

Also, the stories in children’s books all have actual plots--kids won’t put up with self-indulgent tortured-white-guy should-I-leave-my-wife agonizing for 300 pages (which pretty much describes the plots of some adult books I’ve read). Things have to happen in children’s books.

What’s the best way for a submitting author to turn you off?
Speaking in clichés, particularly describing the plot of his or her novel in clichés (and this particularly if it’s a fantasy novel:  “Plucky heroine Xena must band together with her ragtag group of friends to overcome the evil Lord Darknon,” etc.). A query letter should tell me what sets your manuscript apart from the 20 other manuscripts that cross my desk in a week, and clichés say your manuscript isn’t special or original enough to warrant a further look. (This is not to say I dislike novels about plucky heroines overcoming evil lords with the help of their friends--I love The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley, among others. But if that’s the plot of your novel, your query letter should make a special effort to show the beauty of your writing, the originality of your magic, or the depth of your characters to distinguish your novel from the 200 other plucky-fantasy-heroine books on the market.)

What do you like to see in a cover letter?
Name and title, of course (you’d be surprised how often people forget the title). If the manuscript is coming in from an accepted query, a brief reminder of what the story was about so I can remember why I wanted to see it. A little bit about the author’s background if it’s relevant to the story (e.g., your book is about a chicken who succeeds in show business and you were once on Broadway) or the book’s publication (e.g., you’ve published three picture books with another house but this is your first novel).

What books would you recommend for memorable voice? Story? Illustration?
Voice:  Millicent Min, Girl Genius and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time by Lisa Yee; The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley (Who Planned to Live an Unusual Life) by Martine Murray; Looking for Alaska by John Green. Story:  No one plots better than Philip Pullman and J. K. Rowling. Watch how Pullman writes and paces his action and Rowling sets up and reveals her mysteries and please, please, steal their techniques. Illustration:  I love Marla Frazee, David Small, Petra Mathers, Marc Simont, and Mary Newell DePalma for their ability to reveal so much with their pictures that isn’t said in the text--particularly their gifts for creating characters who just burst with personality. And every picture book Ana Juan has illustrated is a fever dream of emotion and imagination; see especially Frida, a picture book biography of Frida Kahlo written by Jonah Winter.

What’s a good way for unpublished authors and illustrators to get their first “gig?”
I’m afraid I don’t know of any special technique for breaking into hardcover publishing other than the things all authors and illustrators try to do: Make contacts with editors and art directors, keep submitting, keep revising based on feedback, don’t get discouraged. Illustrators should definitely try to drop off their portfolios for review by one of our editors or art directors--that’s one of the quickest and most effective ways to get seen.

Do you give more weight to a manuscript submitted by an agent vs. the author directly? Please explain.
I give both as much consideration as the project warrants, but I will usually read an agented manuscript first, as that manuscript has already been judged worthy of publication by at least one other reader and the agent expects a quick response.

Do you choose the illustrators for the books you edit? Are some books more challenging than others to find the right fit?
I work with Arthur and our marvelous art directors to choose the right illustrator for a picture-book manuscript. Choosing an illustrator is very much like matchmaking: You want to find an artist whose artistic personality complements the personality of the text, either through their similarities (the aforementioned Frida) or their oppositions (Don’t Let the Peas Touch by Deborah Blumenthal, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering--a very domestic text with a very exuberant illustration style, so it balances out perfectly). And of course we always want it to be beautiful! So yes, it can be difficult to find the exact right illustrator for a text, but we give it time and trust that the right person will come along.

How have you seen authors creatively promote their own books?
Mostly the tried and true methods: bookmarks, school visits, contacts with the local media. Having a good relationship with your local children’s or independent bookstore is terrific, as independent booksellers will go to the ends of the earth for books and authors they love. Of course it’s great if you can find a niche or have a gimmick--be the Greek-American children’s book author, the ballet-dancing YA novelist--people hear those kinds of things and remember them, and they’ll call you when they need that role filled. But the niche or gimmick should always be in service of who you are and what your book is, not the other way around.

What makes a good author/editor relationship?
Listening, on both sides. As I read a manuscript, I try to listen for what in the manuscript isn’t working and what the author needs from me accordingly--whether it’s help with structure or psychology or an overall vision or just keeping track of the details--and then to provide that as best I can. In turn I trust the author to listen to my feedback and do what’s required to solve the problems (or to convince me they aren’t problems). It’s not necessarily a smooth process, but because the author and I always share the common goal of creating a great book, it’s invariably an interesting and rewarding one.

How would you describe your sense of humor? How does this play in your editing and selection of manuscripts, if at all?
I love humor that’s character-based or language-driven--Jane Austen is my absolute favorite writer, partly because of her gift for creating characters who have no clue whatsoever about their own ridiculousness, and partly because of her ability to identify the ironies of human behavior and skewer them with such humor and affection. (J. K. Rowling has this gift too; one of my favorite lines in all the books is that the Chudley Cannons Quidditch team changed their motto from “We Shall Conquer” to “Let’s All Just Keep Our Fingers Crossed and Hope for the Best.”) This plays into my editing in that I do think brevity is the soul of wit, and I’m always looking for ways to tighten up the pace of a scene or a joke: “Do we need that line?” “Do we know this already?” But it affects my manuscript selection only in that I’m more likely to pass on a manuscript driven by slapstick or scatological humor and connect with a manuscript more in line with my tastes. Millicent Min, Girl Genius is the prime example of said tastes, and it won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor from the SCBWI, so I’m pleased to say I’m not the only one who likes it!

Is there anything else you can add that would help and/or inspire our authors and illustrators?
I often compare the submissions process to dating:  It’s an intensely personal endeavor where everyone is looking for the right match. Editors are looking to find books they love; writers are looking to find editors who can help their books be their best; there is a giant pool of all of us out there; and when it doesn’t work out, it can be the most depressing thing in the world. But while not everyone is right for each other, that doesn’t mean there will never be anyone who’s right for you; and the best thing you can do is keep writing what you want to write, telling your truth and keeping the faith.