• Meet the Department

Keeping Up with the Teachers and Librarians…and the conferences! : Meet the Education & Library Department | August 3, 2016

by Janine Perez (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers)

I know you do a million different things but, in short, what does the Education & Library department do?

The Education & Library marketing department is responsible for promoting our books to teachers and school and public librarians. We do this in a variety of ways including exhibiting at conferences, submitting books to award committees, arranging author/illustrator appearances, and connecting with educators via social media and our monthly newsletter. 

(Note: At Simon & Schuster, unlike many other publishing houses, our department is responsible for all education and library marketing, for both the Children’s & Adult divisions. The answers here reflect our work for the Children’s group.)

There are a lot of educators and librarians out there. How do you find them all?

We are lucky to see many of our teacher & librarian customers in person at the conferences we attend throughout the year. We meet new teachers and librarians at book buzzes throughout the country sponsored by the Association of American Publishers’ Trade Libraries committee. We also reach our target audience through advertising vehicles such as webinars and e-blasts. In addition, we reach new customers through cross-promotions with educational websites. We also connect with many teachers and librarians on Twitter! 

What is the difference between the work that you do for picture books versus middle grade and young adult?

Actually, we promote books for these three age groups in many similar ways. However, for middle grade and young adult, we often have the advantage of having galleys or advanced copies to distribute at conferences and send out in special mailings to get the buzz started early. 

Can you list all the conferences? Also, how do you keep them all sorted?!

Annually, we attend:

The American Library Association Midwinter Meeting (January)
The Texas Library Association conference (April)
The American Library Association Annual conference (June)
The International Literacy Association conference (July)
The National Council of Teachers of English conference (November)

Every two years we attend the Public Library Association conference. 

We often plan multiple conferences at once. We have detailed conference schedules for each convention that we refer to constantly, but it is easy to confuse which authors are attending which conferences and in what city unless those schedules are in front of us at all times! 

What is one thing that people generally get wrong about the Education & Library department? 

Ha! This is funny: many colleagues think that we are lucky to travel so much. Oftentimes they view our trips for conferences as mini-vacations from the office. While it can be wonderful to travel to new places, the hours are long (we normally begin our days at 8am and end at 11pm) and the conferences can be quite intense. We frequently see nothing but the inside of hotels and convention centers! Though we love the work and time spent with the authors and educators, conference schedules are in no way a vacation! 

What is the most difficult thing about working in the Education & Library department?

The number of deadlines we have to meet for conference planning and award submissions can be overwhelming and the conference cycles can be exhausting. As I mentioned, we often are planning many at once and just when you think you’ve finished everything for one show, another demands your attention! 

What is the best thing about working in the Education & Library department?

We are extremely fortunate to meet and work closely with so many amazing authors and illustrators including legends in the children’s book world and celebrities. In addition, we are frequently moved by the touching, appreciative notes we receive from teachers, librarians, and students thanking us for books we’ve provided, authors we’ve enabled them to meet, etc. The work is rewarding and we feel we are genuinely making a difference in the lives of so many teachers and librarians and the children they serve.