From: Seo, Ginee <Ginee.Seo>
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 20:49:23 -0500

I've been following this fantasy discussion with great interest and thought I would jump in with a response to some of yesterday's postings. Ginny is right--Jean Karl was ahead of her time in this category, (as this she was in so many areas), and published fantasy and science fiction long before and long after it was fashionable. In addition to publishing Sylvia Engdahl, she published Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert C. O'Brien, Susan Fletcher, Tamora Pierce, Anne Downer, Franny Billingsley, and many other wonderful writers which it is has been my pleasure to discover, in my still?irly-new role as publisher of Atheneum Books for Young Readers. (I'm sorry, in fact, that I missed out on Sylvia's books, which were unavailable when I got here...but Atheneum's loss has clearly been Walker's gain, and I'm looking forward to reading the new edition of ENCHANTRESS...and hope I won't feel too jealous when I do.)

Sylvia brought up a point having to do with the publishing of fantasy that has always pushed one of my buttons. She says, "I always felt it was unfortunate that the structure of the publishing business forced everything Jean edited into the children's book category, because many books she chose were appropriate for high school age, and high school libraries didn't often buy "children's" fiction. It's another version of the old teenage reader problem, which has ever been with us. We publishers have been told time and time again that these readers aren't interested in reading "young adult" books, but head straight for the adult shelves, and we can pretty much expect to lose them after they turn twelve or thirteen. (Hence, in some cases, the marketing strategies referred to by Sylvia in one of her emails.) And we've kept on publishing the books anyway, inventing new paperback lines and imprints for this older reader, working with various groups to forever abolish the term "young adult" from the vernacular in favor of "teen." But am I imagining things, or are things changing at last? I'm amazed by how much terrific fantasy and science fiction is being published exactly for this high school reader--and it seems to be getting to its audience, if the success of Phillip Pullman and Diana Wynne Jones is any indication. Is this true, or am I just thinking wishfully? To redirect Sylvia's question about readership--what's the oldest age of a kid you've seen enjoying ENCHANTRESS?
(Let's not count anyone past twenty; I'm interested in high school readers.)

Ginee Seo Associate Publisher Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Received on Thu 15 Nov 2001 07:49:23 PM CST