I had the pleasure of meeting Kira Lynn at the Usborne Books & More Advanced Leadership Retreat in Tulsa this year.  She shared the vision of Kane/Miller Book Publishers with about 100 of us, and we all felt tremendously privileged and excited to be able to represent such wonderful books.  Here is the text of her presentation to us:

"I was working on a marketing committee last year – this was a volunteer job at my children’s school – and we spent many hours (too many hours) on our “elevator speech.” That is, in order to concisely define your mission, philosophy and practice, pretend that you’ve just gotten in an elevator with someone who asks you about your school – or company – asks what you do. You have until the elevator gets to their floor to tell them.

"So...my Kane/Miller elevator speech. We publish award-winning children’s picture books and middle-grade fiction from around the world. First and foremost they are good books (and since we’re in an elevator, I don’t have time to define what I mean by good), but they also give children a subtle sense of a different place or a different culture.

"And now we’re on your floor.

"Of course, the whole purpose of the elevator speech is to captivate your...captive. To make them want to stay on the elevator and hear more.

"So... since you’re stuck in this elevator, here’s more:

"Kane/Miller was started some twenty-five years ago by a brother and sister – the Kane and Miller of Kane/Miller. Madeline Kane was a teacher and Sandy Miller was a non- fiction writer, but also involved in setting up the Film Forum, the first theatre and  film festival in New York City to specialize in foreign films. This was the inspiration. There is that moment when you’re watching a foreign film, when you forget the subtitles and the strange city and you become entrenched in, enraptured by, the story, the people, the happenings. They cease to become foreign, they just are. But, when the film is over, you feel that you’ve been somewhere else. You have a sense of different place and a different culture – you have a sense of your differences, but because you were caught up in the story, the people of the story, you also have a sense of the familiar.

"That’s what we’re looking for in our books – first and foremost a good story. Illustrations and text that are meaningful...or laugh-out-loud funny...or touching...or scary...or so true it’s not funny...books with some tension, some true resolution, a nice story arc, and a voice that rings true (whether that voice belongs to a person, a crocodile a pig or a stone gargoyle). And books where the art is multi-dimensional, that progresses on its own, that is conscious of the child as audience (but not self-conscious), art that has depth. Books, we say, that enrich the lives and the imaginations of the children who read them. That sounds lofty and principled and a bit snotty and elitist, but I don’t mean it to be. Because what we also say in our office is, “it’s not open-heart surgery; these are just kids’ books.” Most of the time a book is just a book. It’s something to page through in the back of the car or under the covers. It’s not life-changing or awe-inspiring. But, sometimes, whether individually or cumulatively – mostly cumulatively – it is.

"Sometimes, the right book finds the right child, and that’s...it.

"Okay, so a book has to have a good story, with wonderful art. The text and the art both have to be good on their own – as I’ve said, there must be a strong story arc, some tension, the art must be appropriate and accessible for children, but challenging too – and then the art and the text must compliment and depend on each other. That then, for us anyway, is what makes a good book.

"But a book from another country does more. It’s not hit-you-over-the-head more – those kinds of things rarely work. But there’s something in the art, in the setting, in the characters names or layout that makes it look just a tiny bit different. And if a parent or teacher or child flips the book over and looks at the logo and says, “Oh, this book is from China” that’s also something. A commonality that is tremendously important. We want good stories AND good culture – but they must too, just like the art and the text, compliment each other.

"We buy into the belief that kids need as much information about themselves and their world as we can provide. Knowledge is powerful. We believe in arming children with that power. And that means not just knowledge about their bodies and how they work, but about the rest of the world in which they live. And it means knowledge in easy to swallow pieces, age-appropriate pieces.

"And that’s what Kane/Miller tries to do. We publish books that make kids say “wow that’s just like me” and also “wow, that’s different.” That makes kids say, “II want to go there someday,” or even just sometimes “wow, what a silly story.” And maybe someone in another part of the world is saying “wow” about the exact same book. A common ground, even if that common ground is a silly story about a rabbit wearing underpants on his head.

"There you go, now you can leave the elevator. That’s our history and philosophy. Sometimes it translates to the books we buy – sometimes it doesn’t. The bottom line is, we’re looking for good children’s books that people will buy.

"So, how do we find these books? This part of the publishing business, what we call the buying and selling of rights has been going on since modern publishing began. Every publisher in the world buys rights to other publishers’ books. By rights we mean the right to publish a book in your part of the world. When we purchase a book from Australia, we buy North American English language rights – the rights to publish that book in the United States and Canada, in English.

"As I’ve said, every publisher does this – we’re one of the few that advertise and celebrate the fact. There are two big rights fairs per year, rights fairs in which every publisher in the world – who can afford it – attends, and displays their new books for sale. These fairs are held in Frankfurt and Bologna, and however glamorous they sound, they are grueling. We spend two days with 16 appointments per day looking at a lot of...bad books. But it’s here where we find books of interest and request that we be sent material. We also receive submissions from other publishers throughout the year, and unsolicited manuscripts – now that we’ve begun looking to American authors and illustrators  - from agents, authors and illustrators around the world.

"We do a lot of reading. 

"When you have a small list, you look to build it – in terms of breadth as well as depth. You think about the audience for each title, and try to build on titles for an audience (let me just say that Usborne does a PHENOMENAL job at this). You can’t publish one book that will appeal to everyone, but you can try to build a list that has something for everyone within your targeted market.

"So, we have books for babies and toddlers, books with great classroom extensions, books for museums, and libraries, for foundations and groups, for independent readers, dog-lovers, mystery fans, art lovers and grandparents.

"Something for everyone. We find a book we’d like to purchase. If it’s a book we’ve seen in Bologna, if it’s a finished book, we purchase the book on a royalty advance deal. Which means we pay the original publisher a percentage of every book sold. We also pay for what we call the film, though it isn’t film anymore, it’s a CD. This CD has print ready files for the art and book, which the printer can use to produce the book. We do make changes – not only to the text, but to the layout, the cover, the font or type style. We all DO judge books by their covers...

"Another question we are asked often is about the translation. Translating children’s books is like translating poetry. You have very few words to convey very complicated thoughts and images. We never, ever, ever do literal translations. We receive rough translations, either from the original publisher or we do them in house, and then we write, edit and rewrite until we have the idea and the story and the characters, but in English, in an English way of thinking and conveying.

"Now, if it’s original art and text, the process has more steps – layout, art, production design. But the end result is the same – a CD from which you can print.

"So, what have we printed? What are we printing? Again, let’s remember we’re looking for a subtle sense of a different place or culture, and well, a good, saleable story to one audience segment.

"I’ve brought some highlights, and I thought perhaps I could tell you why we purchased them, how they sold, what the reviewers said, and why we continue to sell them (and why others continue to buy them)"

Kira proceeded to share many of the books from their product line with our room of eager book-lovers.  In fact, she brought one of every single book from Kane-Miller.   We devoured them!  Some of my favorites:

from Australia

from Japan

from Australia

from Germany