• The ECC Questionnaire

Emily Heddleson, Associate Manager, Penguin Books for Young Readers | May 1, 2012

Emily Hedleson, associate manager, Penguin Books for Young Readers

What was your first job in children’s publishing? How did you come by your department?
Through a series of lucky chances (also known as talking the ears off of ANYONE who would listen in my attempt to get as many informational interviews as possible), I started out as an editorial intern at Bloomsbury. I got my first official job at Penguin as assistant to both the VP of Marketing and the Director of Retail Marketing. I realized after about a year that I wanted to get more involved with the School & Library side of marketing and was able to move over to that group as the Author Appearance Coordinator.

How long have you worked at Scholastic?
For a wonderful year and a half!

What was the first conference you took part in? What advice would you give someone going to their first conference?
The first conference I went to was while I was still in retail marketing – the whole experience was overwhelming, but so much fun! If I were going again for the first time, I would be less shy about going to the different publishers’ booths. We’re all colleagues, and it has been wonderful at conferences to get to meet my colleagues from other companies who are all so passionate about children’s books. In addition to that, it’s fun to see what other groups are publishing and there are usually some good galleys to pick up.

How did you make the transition from the Assistant level to the level of Associate Manager? Can you share a piece of knowledge you wished you had known while making that transition?
It was a process of figuring out what I enjoyed and what I wanted to be doing – and finding the opportunities to allow me to do those things, whether it was requesting more responsibility or a different type of work within the same position or moving to a different type of job entirely. It’s really important to evaluate what it is that you want – as we all know, this is an industry in which we don’t get the same type of compensation we might in other fields, so it’s important to love what you do and be happy where you are.

Can you describe your typical day?
There really is no typical day for me! Between meetings, preparation for conferences and events, and traveling and working at the conferences, I do such a wide variety of things within my role. I spend most of my time working with my amazing team to plan and set up our presence at conferences – with our booth space and giveaways on the show floor, author programming at conferences, and coordinating entertainment. I’m often looking at least a year ahead in addition to taking care of details for the conferences that are closer. There’s a lot of room for creativity, so I get to have a lot of fun thinking of new ways to do things. I’m also constantly learning – as with any part of publishing, it’s necessary to be responsive to the market, so I try to keep up on changes and trends in the library and education worlds to make sure that what we’re doing is relevant and interesting.

And what’s a typical conference like?
We have three main components to a conference. First is the booth space on the exhibit floor – it’s a sort of showroom of our new and upcoming books, we do giveaways of advanced readers copies and promotional materials, plus we usually have author signings in the booth as well. There’s always someone in the booth, so people can say hello and ask questions. The second is the programming – educators and librarians go to these conferences for professional development, and when possible, we work with the organizers to have authors speak and present as well. The third main component is entertaining! While every publisher entertains differently, most of us either have author dinners or other types of events where our authors get to talk to our educator and librarian contacts about their new or upcoming titles. The main purpose of these conferences is to get the word out about our books and make connections with industry professionals.

What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
If there’s anything else you could possibly be happy doing besides children’s publishing, DO IT. Fortunately or unfortunately, children’s publishing is my passion and I’m delighted to be a part of this world, and to know so unequivocally that this is where my heart lies!

What skills do you think are indispensable to working in school and library marketing?
Sociability, flexibility, and efficiency. You have to be very social in this role – much like a publicist, but working with educators and librarians. It’s important to create relationships with educators and librarians who you will be working with throughout your career in this part of the industry, and it’s fun too! The one thing you can count on in any type of event is that something will go wrong – you have to be flexible and able to think of creative solutions. In a similar vein, you have to be able to move quickly and get a lot done – there’s always something going on and you never want to miss an opportunity!

What is one of the worst (it doesn’t have to be the worst) mistake you’ve made? How did you get beyond it?
I won’t go into the details, but I think the worst thing that I did was not confess to messing something up (when I tried to fix it, it snowballed and got WAY worse than if I’d told my boss about it in the first place). That happened really early on in my professional life, and I’m grateful for that experience – it taught me a lot about knowing when to handle a situation on my own and when it’s necessary to bring in a boss or co-worker to help out when something’s gone wrong.

Any funny, interesting, surprising anecdotes (about your own experience or publishing in general) you want to share?
The best anecdotes are shared when relaxing after a long day at a conference, so you may want to ask me again if we have the opportunity to meet there.

What is your favorite word?
Perspicacious. I strive to embody its definition!

What are you reading now? Or what was the last book you really enjoyed?
Right now I’m reading the new Maggie Stiefvater book, The Raven Boys – it’s coming out in September, but if you’re lucky enough to go to BEA or ALA, you may be able to snag an advance reading copy!

Recent years have seen a rise in picture-book biographies. Were your life ever to be chronicled in such a way – and don’t be modest, now-who would you choose to illustrate it?
I’d like to have a dual team (I have no idea how this could possibly turn out) of two late greats, Barbara Cooney and Trina Schart Hyman. Trina Schart Hyman would make me seem more brave and plucky and my story more beautiful and Barbara Cooney would add details and nuance to make my story meaningful and relatable. Between the two of them, the story would be far more worthy of attention than I would ever deserve. Plus, I would LOVE to sit down with both of them for a stiff drink so I could hear all their stories – I so wish I could have met both of them!

A little birdie told us that you were on one of the first ECC boards. What is your favorite ECC memory or story?
I loved being on the ECC! It was so much fun, and such a great way to be involved in the industry and get to know people from all different areas of publishing. While I had fun at all our events, my favorite moments were always during the CBC trivia competitions – between the planning, the creative questions and themes we came up with, and the breathless anticipation of sitting with all of my friends in the back, just waiting to see if someone would be able to figure out the answers to our hardest questions!