Interview with Literary Agent Rick Richter

I met rick at a conference in Boston, in fact, you might say I agent stalked him. I heard about him through 12x12, did my research, and found he'd be presenting at a conference. The conference sounded great, and I was able to get a good deal on airfare, so I went. I have to admit, that I was nervous meeting with Rick, but he is personable and charming as you will see from his interview. Thank you, Rick!

Let me first set up your rather amazing resume. You were a co-founder (with many others) and former CEO of Candlewick Press, a publisher at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, president of Simon & Schuster Sales and Distribution Division, the creator of Simon Spotlight, and the founder of Ruckus Media Group. You’ve also served as chairman of the Children’s Book Council, and an early director of First Book. You’re a literary agent at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth and helped reintroduce the current market to Eloise and Raggedy Ann in prior lives. I think it’s safe to say you know a lot about children’s lit. How did you get started on this path?

My father worked the night shift at the Boston Globe – the “lobstah” shift I think is what they called it – and he thought the book business was nobler than newspapers. “People don’t wrap fish in your work at the end of the day.” I remember him saying, so he encouraged me to find a job in books. My soon-to-be-wife introduced me to a friend who worked at a small company in Natick, Massachusetts – Picture Book Studio – and I fell head over heels over the work of Lizbeth Zwerger. I remember telling the staff there (the entire staff interviewed me!) that I would do anything at the company. “Anything at all.” I started packing books in their warehouse.

I was really fortunate to have two amazing bosses at this little company. The first, Motoko Inoue, went on to become Eric Carle’s long-time and exclusive agent. The second, Andrew Clements, went on the write the classic Frindle, and became a staple in the industry. So I learned to love the business at the knee of two highly principled and wonderful people. 

Now that you’re an agent, do you see the children’s lit world differently?

Absolutely, I think becoming an agent is something every publisher should do. It is a lesson in humility, a lesson in patience, and one feels the victories and set backs of the authors and illustrators we work with in a much, much more visceral way. I’m even more in awe of the talented people who make up our industry and their willingness to persevere.  

For the rest of the interview, please visit my website.

Storyboarding for Picture Book Writers

A picture book text can paint a picture or it can set the stage for a corresponding visual story. Sort of the difference between

… and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day…” (Where the Wild Things Are)

and

In the great green room there was a telephone …” (Goodnight Moon).

The first one paints a mood that the art alone can’t tell. The second one creates an image that accompanies the text. Both are good for the story they are telling, both create a visual without taking over for the artist.

The trick, as a text-only picture book creator, is to realize that you are a visual artist. Your text needs to create moods and images word by word, sentence by sentence, and it has to do it page by page and beginning to end.

One way to set yourself up for success in this area is to storyboard. Storyboarding your text will give you visual feedback on how your text works on each page. If you have a text-heavy page, you’ve either stepped into the artist’s area, or you have too many words, or your story may not be best suited as a picture book. You also need to be aware of your page turns.

For the rest of the article, please visit my website at: https://johnelldewitt.com/2016/09/02/storyboarding-for-picture-book-writers/

And just because I'm not cool enough to be able to embed video in Wordpress yet, here's a short video resource on storyboarding:

Have a great weekend.

Storyboarding for Picture Book Writers

A picture book text can paint a picture or it can set the stage for a corresponding visual story. Sort of the difference between

… and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day…” (Where the Wild Things Are)

and

In the great green room there was a telephone …” (Goodnight Moon).

The first one paints a mood that the art alone can’t tell. The second one creates an image that accompanies the text. Both are good for the story they are telling, both create a visual without taking over for the artist.

The trick, as a text-only picture book creator, is to realize that you are a visual artist. Your text needs to create moods and images word by word, sentence by sentence, and it has to do it page by page and beginning to end.

One way to set yourself up for success in this area is to storyboard. Storyboarding your text will give you visual feedback on how your text works on each page. If you have a text-heavy page, you’ve either stepped into the artist’s area, or you have too many words, or your story may not be best suited as a picture book. You also need to be aware of your page turns.

For the rest of the article, please visit my website at: https://johnelldewitt.com/2016/09/02/storyboarding-for-picture-book-writers/

And just because I'm not cool enough to be able to embed video in Wordpress yet, here's a short video resource on storyboarding:

Have a great weekend.