Some of my fondest childhood memories are snuggling next to my mom as she read to us, utterly engrossed with the goings-on of The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, the adventures of The Bobbsey Twins, the suspense of Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Listening to those wonderful classic stories instilled in me a love of reading; I still enjoy the thrill of being transported to another world through the words of the author. It was a legacy I wanted to pass on to my own children, and I treasure the time we spent together pouring over the wonderful words and pictures of Beatrix Potter, Barbara Cooney, Chris Van Allsburg, and Eric Carle. We explored the lives of the pioneers through Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, we laughed at the antics of Mrs. Piggy-Wiggle, and we learned about our country’s history when the American Girls series first began.

Flashforward to today, and imagine this scene—a mom and her children gathered next to her, waiting to hear the opening words from Little Women as mom turns on the Kindle and begins. What? Snuggling up with a good Kindle? Is that possible? Not only is it possible, but educators and parents alike are seeing the value of getting their children to read by using the Kindle. A recent news spot on MSNBC featuring Dr. Jim Henderson, director of instructional technology in Granite School District in Salt Lake City, begins with these rather frightening words, “Say goodbye to school libraries as we know them.” But Henderson not only is sold on the Kindle for his own personal use, but he also believes that the Kindle will encourage children to read more because books will be more easily available to them. Henderson has bought Kindles for everyone in his department and plans to buy 147 more as a trial for the district’s avid readers club. He hopes that in two years, all students in his school district will be using Kindles in favor of textbooks.

So what does that mean for those of us who are in the business of creating, developing, and producing books for young people? First and foremost, it means we need to be “container agnostics” and look at print products as just one avenue for content, but not the only one. We need to think outside the traditional trim sizes and embrace this technology and others that are sure to come as yet another tool to place God’s Word into children’s hands, minds, and heart. Think about it. A tween may not want to carry a Bible into school, but he or she can easily take one with them via the Kindle. We should not only limit our thinking of new product development in these terms, but what about the wealth of content and material on our collective backlists? What better way to breathe new life into kids’ devotionals, fiction series, and Bibles than by offering it in a newer, cooler format for kids? The possibilities are endless once we open our minds to what can be done.

I may never give up my wonderful stack of picture books that I have carefully packed away with the hopes of one day sharing them with my grandchildren, but I am willing to explore any avenues that will encourage children not only to read, but to carry God’s Word with them wherever they are. Aren’t you?

Betsy Schmitt
Director of Children & Youth Products, Product Development, Agent

Here in Chicago, baseball is king these days. We have two (count ’em, two) teams in the playoffs, something that hasn’t happened in 102 years. And, I must confess, that I am a baseball fan, more specifically, a perpetually suffering, wait-till-next-year, die-hard Cubs fan.

If you follow baseball at all, you’ll be sure to hear or read the comments of a general manager after a “blockbuster” trade. This past season I heard lots of them from Jim Hendry (Cubs) and Kenny Williams (White Sox). And they almost always emphasize that a trade must be good for both teams. But that’s not what fans like me want to hear. We want to get another team’s stud in trade for an unproven minor leaguer to be named later or another teams golden arm for one of our over-the-hill, lame arms. We’d like to trick the other team and win in the deal. But, as the wise general manager will say, “A trade like that might work once, but that team would never trade with us again. A good trade must benefit all the parties.” In other words, it must be a win-win.

That expression, “win-win,” is common in business. Ideally, any negotiation or deal should end with both parties benefiting. Interestingly, in my 20+ years in Christian publishing, I haven’t always found that to be the case. Maybe it’s because my company (The Livingstone Corporation) is small or perhaps because we “serve” publishers. (Of course, it’s also possible that I’m just paranoid or a perpetual whiner.) Often I get the feeling that we are expected to do whatever we can to help the other party succeed at our expense. Usually that happens during our negotiations when the discussion turns to the costs of our services. Sometime it involves schedule.

Let me explain, here, that often we bring product ideas to publishers. At other times, they contact us for help in producing their ideas.

Lest you begin to hear the sound of a fine whine, I have to say that I understand that negotiation involves give and take, back and forth, offer and counter offer. I’m just saying that in all of this I would hope that both parties would be working for win-win. Sometime that means win-win-win (when an agent represents us) or win-win-win-win (when an agent represents someone else to the publisher, and we are retained by either the agent or the publisher).

At times, the publisher is probably thinking, “You don’t understand. This will turn out to be a big investment, and we’re taking all the risk here. We’ve got to make our pro-forma work with sales projections . . . ” At the same time we’re thinking, “You don’t understand. We’re not a freelance brother-in-law who does this in his spare time out of his house. We’re a company of professionals, with real company overhead expenses . . . ” Both valid points. And the negotiations continue.

Eventually, I guess, it gets down to trust with each party wondering if the other one has his or her best interests at heart or is pulling a fast one. We never know for sure, unfortunately, till the deal is done. But if we feel ripped off, we’ll probably not do business with that person or company anytime soon.

Fortunately, through the last couple of decades, I’ve found that most industry veterans understand this and try to work with us. The push back often comes from newer staff who feel the pressure of budget constraints and superiors’ expectations (and they don’t know us very well).

My point is simply this: Let’s at least approach the discussions/negotiations with the goal of win-win.

Dave Veerman, Chief Creative Officer