Monday, February 7, 2011

2011 Conference Series-Editorial & Art Director Faculty: Martha Mihalick

Happy Monday All! I'm home with the flu today, but thankfully I'm able to spend some time researching and posting about our FANTASTIC 2011 Conference Faculty! I'd like to introduce you to another one of our Editorial and Art Director Faculty; Martha Mihalick. Martha is the Associate Editor with Greenwillow Books at HarperCollins. She edits a wide range of books; from Picture Books to Young Adult.

Martha majored in English, and then attended the Denver Publishing Institute, and as she says "shortly afterwards began her dream job". Martha has a very strong online presence. She has a fantastic website (see this recent post about her life long love of reading). She's on twitter, and manages both Greenwillow's facebook fan page, and Greenwillow's blog.

I found several wonderfully practical interviews with Martha as well.
  • YA Highway Publishing Interview Series
  • Christy's Creative Space interview on voice
  • Market My Words interview on marketing
  • Cheryl's Musings has a list of some of the books edited by Martha/Greenwillow Books.
Here's a question/answer from the Market My Words interview
In your opinion , what are the top things every author should do and must do to promote their book?

I think the most vital thing is to have a website—one that you regularly update, so that it never seems stale. Kids, teens, parents, librarians, booksellers, teachers will all google favorite authors to find out more about them!

This is particularly critical for aspiring illustrators, in my opinion. Most of my artist-hunting happens online. And “website,” can also mean blog.

It’s important that an author or artist’s online presence is one that THEY are comfortable with. This may be a regular website that they update once a month or so with news, etc. Or it may be a blog they update every day or once a week, or what-have-you.

After that, reaching out to your community and contacts and being available for appearances is great.
A random fact about Martha (taken from her website).
Before I realized children’s book editor was a job, I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up. Or a writer (my best friend was going to be an illustrator, conveniently enough). Or a figure skater. Or a pediatrician.

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