• The ECC Questionnaire

Q&A with Miriam Miller, Subsidiary Rights Manager, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group | January 25, 2017

by Jessica Anderson (Macmillan Children's Publishing Group)

1) Tell us a little about your role at Macmillan. What do you do within the Children’s Group?

As Rights Manager, the biggest part of my job is licensing domestic audio rights and foreign rights in territories around the world to help our books find the broadest audience possible. I’m lucky to have the opportunity to attend the Bologna and Frankfurt Book Fairs and connect with foreign and audio publishers here in New York to talk with them about our list.

2) Have you held other kinds of jobs in publishing? How did you end up doing what you do now?

My first few jobs were at literary agencies reading manuscripts, answering phones, and learning to think about what makes a book work across the market. I have a background in foreign literature and have always found the global life of books fascinating, so transitioning to rights was pretty natural!

3) What was the first book fair you attended? What advice would you give someone going to their first fair?

Bologna 2016 was my first, so I’m no expert yet – but my best advice is to relax! We work with an amazing community of intelligent and passionate book lovers, and you’ll find that people you meet at book fairs are very kind and encouraging. Everyone is there with the same goal: to do the best we can for the books. Also, BYO snacks.

4) How do you determine what qualities make a book appealing for the broader international market? Are there any specific subjects or styles that limit a book’s potential for international appeal?

This is tricky, as the answer is always changing. Stories with deep, universal themes and great writing have a better chance, particularly if they aren’t tied to a specifically American setting. Writing done in verse is very difficult to sell abroad (just think of the added challenges for translation). On the picture book side, we can have a tough time with cartoon-y art, particularly if it’s created digitally. But it’s ever-evolving and every book is different!

4) From movies and television to podcasts, video games, and beyond, there so are many different ways to adapt a book. What are some of your favorite multimedia adaptations and why?

Hmm, I’m shamefully behind on non-book pop culture these days, so I’ll share a couple of adaptations I’m excited about: A Monster Calls and the upcoming Handmaid’s Tale. Two fantastic books paired with fabulous casts – how could you go wrong? I’m also a huge fan of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, which is an ingenious musical adaptation of part of Tolstoy’s War & Peace.

5) Reading anything good right now? Alternatively, what was the last book you really loved?

I just finished Ann Patchett’s glorious and transportive novel State of Wonder. I also recently read our forthcoming graphic novel Spinning by Tillie Walden and found its intimacy and resonance truly moving.