Track Changes: After the Book Deal

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💻 ➞ 📚 What happens between signing the book contract and seeing a book on shelves? Industry experts walk us through edit letters, production schedules, cover designs, first pass pages, sales meetings and more.

We catch up with Jennifer de Leon as she prepares for the release of her debut young adult novel, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, on August 18. (Hear her First Draft interview here.)

Then Katherine Tegen, publisher and editor at Katherine Tegen Books, at HarperCollins; Alvina Ling, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at Little Brown Books for Young Readers (and co-host of the Book Friends Forever podcast); and Stacey Barney, Executive Editor at G. P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group talk us through

Catch up on the series so far:

Episode 1: Publishing 101

Episode 2: Agents: Who Are They, What Do They Do, And How Do You Get One?

Bonus Episode: Publishing in the time of COVID

Episode 3: Selling Your Book (Part 1)

Episode 4: Selling Your Book (Part 2)

Episode 5: Advances (Part 1)

Episode 6: Contracts

Discussed in this episode:

• Publishing seasons

• Edit letters

• Deadlines

• Copy Editing

• Sample Pages

• Covers

• Advance Reader Copies, or Galleys

• Sales Meeting or Sales Conference

• Acknowledgments

More Information:

• “archive.com/?id=8b440613f8&u=cdd0d036e9531dd416bf945b3">Edit Letters in Traditional Publishing” by Susan Dennard

• “archive.com/?id=da6006546e&u=cdd0d036e9531dd416bf945b3">Editorial Letters and Line Edits in Traditional Publishing” by Susan Dennard

• “archive.com/?id=891142657e&u=cdd0d036e9531dd416bf945b3">Understanding Copy Edits as an Author” by Susan Dennard

• “archive.com/?id=14e4b92a2d&u=cdd0d036e9531dd416bf945b3">How a Cover is Born” by Susan Dennard

• “archive.com/?id=f64cf1b4a1&u=cdd0d036e9531dd416bf945b3">Understanding First Pass Pages” by Susan Dennard

Want more information? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of the Track Changes newsletter, which goes a step (or two) further behind the scenes into the publishing world.

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Track Changes is produced by Hayley Hershman. Zan Romanoff is the story editor. The music was composed by Dan Bailey, and the logo was designed by Collin Keith.