Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 2 Volume 9 | Page 37

NEWS
H ARPER A LLEY WILL BE HEADED UP BY
F IRST S ECOND B OOKS VETERAN A NDREW A RNOLD
P HOTO BY REAMYDE / F LICKR
)
T
he imprint is under HarperCollins
Children’s Books, but in a statement
about the imprint, Arnold said they are
“looking to publish books that readers of all
ages can enjoy, from the youngest readers
to teens and adults. ”
This latter part of this line is important
to Arnold because he doesn’t want readers
to assume he means only kids when he says
HarperAlley is an all-ages publisher. He fur-
ther defines it by, “We believe that a good
story is a story that any reader can relate
to. That’s what we mean when we say
‘readers of all ages.'”
According to Arnold, HarperAlley ex-
pects to publish about 10 books a season,
or 30 books a year, and is already acquiring
books with a “staff solely dedicated to
HarperAlley and editors and designers who
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
have successfully published graphic nov-
els.”
HarperCollins already boasts a number
of graphic novels in its back-catalog. For
the future, they recently signed a three-
book deal with “Mooncakes” artist Wendy
Xu, whose first book under the deal is due
out in 2021. They also recently won a bid-
ding war for publishing rights to Nadia
Shammas and Sara Alfageeh’s graphic novel
“Squire.”
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Arnold worked as art director and ac-
quiring editor at Macmillan’s First Second
Books. Launched in 2006, the Macmillan
imprint has become an important incubator
for comic book publishing executives.
Creaters he worked with during his time
P AGE 32
S UMMER 2019