How a Book is Made: A Video Series

HarperCollins did this inaugural seven part video series about the making of Lauren Oliver's The Spindlers. The first two videos discuss the author's process, then it moves into editorial, art, managing editorial, production, and the author reading. I already know a lot about the process of writing and editing the book, but I found the part about the art and the physical printing of the book very interesting, because that aspect is not often discussed.

Here's episode 4, about the art:

Here's episode 6, about the production:

You can find the rest of the video series at this link.

A New Kind of Book Packager?

               

I've been very interested in the development of Paper Lantern Lit. Lauren Oliver is one of the co-founders, and she is one of my favorite YA authors. Her writing is beautiful and I will literally read anything she writes. For those not familiar with the concept, Paper Lantern Lit conceives of a concept and chapter outlines for the book and then audition people to write the story. On some levels, it makes sense. I see some agents putting in a lot of time and effort shaping a first time manuscript, that it makes sense to take that to the next step and become a book packager/agency hybrid. And because they provide an outline, there are no surprises plotwise when they get the finished product from an author. They can control the topics based on the trends they see being profitable. But I still feel like a book packager and an agency fulfill different roles in an author's career and in the marketplace. However, they have been very successful so far, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye on them as they grow.