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Presenting Editor Andrea Pinkney
by Bonnie Ferron"Indefatigable" would be a good word to describe Andrea Pinkney, Vice President and Publisher at Houghton Mifflin's Children's Division. She has been on the job since June 2002 and oversees Houghton Mifflin Children's Books, which includes the Clarion and Kingfisher imprints. She works with about fourteen editors, and the three imprints publish approximately 300 books a year!
Ms. Pinkney's previous job was Editorial Director of Hyperion Books for Children. During her five years there, she oversaw the editorial direction and execution of all Hyperion titles, about 200 titles annually, across several trade imprints. As part of that role, she was the founding editor and the driving editorial force behind the Jump at the Sun imprint.
Houghton Mifflin is one of the few publishers who still accepts unsolicited manuscripts. Every submission gets read. However, while it is possible for a new author’s work to be discovered in the slush pile, Ms. Pinkney says, "Many of the new authors I find come through agents who are familiar with what I am looking for and will present new talent to me."
Houghton Mifflin's authors include such luminaries in the field as Caroline Arnold, Lois Lowry, Allen Say, Chris Van Allsburg, and David Wiesner.
In picture books, Ms. Pinkney looks for strong characters and an interesting theme or a new twist on an old theme (moving away, dealing with grandparents, life at school, etc.). Writers should submit their best work and not be confined by genres.
A picture book coming out this spring, Willa the Wonderful (written and illustrated by Susan Milord, her first fiction picture book), has everything Ms. Pinkney is looking for in a story. Willa, a pig, knows she wants to be a fairy princess when she grows up. Willa practices her fairy princess role and presents her idea at career day. In spite of protestations from her teacher and her friends, Willa finds a way to show everyone how important it is to have a fairy princess around!
For novels, Ms. Pinkney wants to see strong writing with strong characters in a compelling setting and a story with emotional resonance. Linda Sue Park's book, A Single Shard (Clarion Books, winner of the 2002 Newbery Medal), exemplifies all these attributes. Linda Sue Park's first novel, Seesaw Girl, was discovered in the slush pile.
In addition to Andrea Pinkney's work as a publisher, she understands the writing process because she is also an author. Her books include Ella Fitzgerald (nonfiction); Abraham Lincoln: Letters from a Slave Girl (nonfiction); and Mim’s Christmas Jam (fiction). Another fiction picture book to be illustrated by Shane Evans is in the process of development. To find writing time, Ms. Pinkney is very disciplined with her family/writing/work schedule. She generally devotes one or two late nights to writing as well as about four hours on the weekends.
Publishing children's books is a joy to her: "I love coming to work on Monday mornings!" Unsolicited manuscripts are not to be addressed to Andrea Pinkney. The correct submission procedure is to send them to Houghton Mifflin Children's Books, 222 Berkeley St., Boston, MA 02116. Response time is three to six months.
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