International Publishing Professionals

Kane/Miller represents nearly 24 countries in our list of award-winning children's books from around the world.

I have come here to the Stanford Professional Publishing Course to meet new people, take home new skills, explore others' ideas and, hopefully, incorporate most of what I learned into the business and marketing plan for the future of our company.

While there are representatives here from both the book and magazine side of the industry, there are also publishing professionals here from - ironically - about 24 countries.

Over the last few days, I've sat down with professionals from South Africa, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Of course there's still dozens of other people who I have yet to talk to.

My horoscope this morning (I read it every day) states:

A foreign person will have a very positive influence in your life today, especially if they are a person from your past...

I may not know anyone here from my past but perhaps Kane/Miller's history will play a role.

Stanford Professional Publishing Course

Tomorrow morning, I leave to attend the 8-day Professional Publishing Course at Stanford University.

Although I've been told to "leave work behind," and not check in with the office or check email (yeah, 8 days' worth of email when I get back - that's a good idea!) - I will attempt to update the Kane/Miller Kidlit blog with highlights from the course sessions.

For those who are also addicted to social networking sites, you'll understand why I'm so excited to be in the same room as Guy Kawasaki. I'm very eager to hear what he, and the other speakers, will be sharing with us.

Magic Happens in Downtown Disney

Betsy Bird of SLJ's A Fuse #8 Production and Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page, were kind enough to set aside time to join me last night for dinner during their visit to Anaheim for ALA.

We ate, drank, and helped Betsy create footage for her blog video in Downtown Disney. Our food came about five minutes after placing our order. Perhaps it was less than five minutes. Either way, it was suspiciously fast, like magic.

I do have a few regrets about the evening. One was that I didn't bring them a copy of Singing to the Sun (sorry, ladies - you'll have to pick one up at the booth). I also regret not bringing along a camera, although I suspect that if I Say Please, Betsy will arrange for the photo of the three of us to reach me. Another regret was that I didn't order a Sangria. They looked beautiful and were pretty tasty, from what I heard.

The discussion over dinner ranged from the Irish travelers that Betsy ran into to the six hour drive for Jen; the upcoming ALA events, the interesting culture that surrounds Disneyland and of course, blogging and blogging for outside sources.

We shared our individual experiences about the power of reading and being able to enjoy this magic with the young people in our lives. This, perhaps, was the highlight of my night as I talked about my son and could feel the same motherly-type pride that both Jen and Betsy expressed while sharing stories about the little ones that they enjoy reading with.

It's always a pleasure for me to hit the road and meet with people familiar with children's literature and to get feedback, from a marketing point of view. I head to the Stanford Professional Publishing Course in less than two weeks so I am preparing for more networking with others in the field. For now, and over the next three days, I will continue to share the magic that surrounds ALA.