Department Spotlight: Nicole Yeager
Publishing Associate, Random House Children’s Books.
The Publishing Office is a department that is unique to each division and house. In the simplest terms, the pub office is like a control center that keeps all the other departments on track and in communication with each other. We work at the title-specific level, making sure each title is appropriately positioned and supported, and at the bigger-picture level with our full list, making sure we’re aware of ongoing trends and seizing all strategic opportunities for our books and creators. One of our main goals is to make sure the full division is working effectively and efficiently together—we love to get familiar with internal processes and then improve them for everyone involved!
At Random House Children’s Books, the publisher office includes our EVP & deputy publisher, our director of publishing & paperbacks, our publishing manager, and publishing associate (me)—so, we’re a pretty small team! Our president and her assistants are also looped into our team. We work closely with almost all departments to get our books from our editors’ inboxes into the hands of our readers. The best way to describe the way we work with other teams is through the seasonal process.
Our books begin with editorial and design, where they are crafted and polished; then, once they’re ready to be presented to the rest of the division for the specific season they will publish in, they are shared with us. We work with editorial to determine our house priorities, assign on sale dates, and to overall position the book to sit within the rest of our list for each given season. I personally work closely with editorial and design to get the big presentations ready for List Launch (lots and lots of PowerPoint slides). Launch is like the pub office’s Super Bowl. It’s 2 full-day meetings in which editors present their titles to marketing, publicity, sales, sub rights, and all other departments.
In the past 2.5 years I’ve been here, we’ve continued to make Launch more efficient, engaging, and fun! We incorporate music, fun quizzes and activities during breaks, and encourage our colleagues to utilize the chat throughout the meetings. After Launch, I get to plan DEAR Day, which is a division-wide “drop everything and read” day designed to give everyone an opportunity to read the titles they heard about at Launch. Also after Launch, the pub office works with Marketing, Publicity, and Sales to make sure they have all the tools they need to get the books out into the world; we continue prioritizing and assigning sales goals to the titles while also being tapped into the final Design and Production process. I personally get to work with Designers to get final covers over to Sales and Sub Rights for sell in purposes.
When I am “off season” (not working on a seasonal Launch), I get to work on various research and ad hoc data projects. A few recent examples include: an analysis into sprayed edges, a “brand bible” featuring big picture book brands/characters and their success, a brief snapshot of YA series with Netflix adaptations, and a title analysis of our recent Spring lists. Another area I am involved with, which I think is unique to my role and my in-office work habits, is event planning and office improvements. I had the opportunity to help plan our holiday party the past two years and worked with a few others to spruce up our office space—some fun projects to mix things up!
One thing I really love about the pub office is the freedom we each have to shape our own roles and responsibilities based on our interests and what we think would be beneficial to the full division. I am always impressed by the different areas of knowledge my team members have and how their personal expertise gets to shine through in their work. For anyone who wants to understand the full publishing process and get to work with almost every team, the publishing office is a great place to be!
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