Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Books => Topic started by: stacer on September 13, 2004, 10:56:18 PM
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I just got the coolest assignment ever in my grad school career. For my children's book publishing class, our semester project is to pick a book that would be considered a "classic" and pretend that we're the editor in charge of publishing it now, in 2004. We're talking the whole caboodle--editorial suggestions (for those parts of the book that have just bugged you all these years), book design (paper, typography, illustration), cover art and design (including picking an artist), marketing plan, etc. Our last two classes will be our "sales meeting," at which we each make a case for our books.
So, would Wizard of Earthsea get published now? How about The Hero and the Crown or Beauty? I could probably do more with LeGuin, but I'm partial to McKinley as an author. I already signed up for LeGuin, though, so I may or may not switch.
If you could do this with a favorite of yours, what would you pick? Ground rules: pre-1985 pub. date.
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I'd probably take Susan Cooper and toss out "Over Sea, Under Stone" and go straight to "The Dark is Rising."
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Ooh, how about a politically correct version of Huckleberry Finn? Or a wholesale slaughter of A Separate Peace? You know what would really tickle my fancy--a modern fantasy publication of The Odyssey.
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I don't think that Huck would be politically corrected. There are lots of incorrect books out there. however, I don't think it would sell as well. I wonder about Stranger in a Strange Land or about Sword of Shanarra.
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I'd probably take Susan Cooper and toss out "Over Sea, Under Stone" and go straight to "The Dark is Rising."
Actually, I just found out that OSUS was written for a family adventure contest, so it was the first one she wrote. She included Merriman as an amalgam of her great-uncle with bushy white hair and Merlyn. Later, she wanted to expand the story, so The Dark Is Rising was born. But I do agree--The Dark Is Rising is so much more interesting. (If you want the whole story, see 100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey. She's my teacher, actually, and we're using the booklist from 100 Best to choose from, because then we know that there's enough research out there for these projects.)
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It seems to me that if you're limiting it to good books, then you wouldn't be able to eviscerate A Separate Peace. That's sad.
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Well, the idea is that it'd be something we'd want to publish. Perhaps it'd come across my desk and it'd be resigned to the circular file. We're all about picking the winners. (As Anita said at the end of class yesterday, "Boy, we're going to make millions this semester!")
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What about the Amazing Electric Elephant?
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I'd probably choose something predictable of my character, like Dracula or Frankenstein. Maybe the Time Machine, or something more 'classic' like Tale of Two Cities, etc.
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Well, I can't say much about Wizard, since it's my fave book. But I don't see how it could not be published today in this post Harry Potter/LOTR movie world ;)
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But *how* would you publish it--that's the fun part of the assignment. What changes would you suggest, how would you design the book and cover, how would you market it. This is what I'm going to be doing all semester. It fascinates me.
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Ah, I see! I've never really been sure why I latched on to this book when I was a kid. There's parts that are between Lovecraft and Tolkien in their going-on-ness. Not something today I would think would hold a kid's attention.