A few years ago children’s book editor Sylvie Frank reached into a slush pile and pulled out John Sullivan’s picture book story Kitten and the Night Watchman. That Frank even read this manuscript is a little amazing.
The slush pile represents unsolicited manuscripts and ranks as a low editorial priority. In the book publishing industry, however, there are those few cherished bestsellers that emerge from slush. Think J.K. Rowling and her first Harry Potter book.
But it was on impulse that Frank, who works for Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster, picked up Sullivan’s Kitten….
The Cinderella Story Grows
Frank periodically gives workshops to members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), where she said, “The most common reason for an editor to reject a picture book is because it’s ‘too quiet.’”
This observation could have been an oh-oh for Sullivan’s manuscript. His story exudes bedtime quietness with themes of loneliness and kindness. It’s setting is a sleepy construction site.
Surprise and Sorry
Frank, however, liked Sullivan’s story enough to show it to her boss, who said something like, “Sorry, I just don’t get it.”
Perseverance and Passion
Like many other manuscripts who fail to make it “over the transom,” that should have been the end of Kitten. But something in editor Frank couldn’t let go. For almost a year, she held on to the manuscript and started whittling it down from the original 600 words. Frank says she wanted to maintain Sullivan’s vision and style and yet open up spaces in the text for the artist’s contributions. When her editing was complete Kitten weighed in at some 300 words. Frank “dummied” the text into various 32-page formats.
Green Light
Finally, Frank was satisfied to show a dummy of the entire story to her boss. She also rallied for award-winning artist Taeeun Yoo to be the illustrator. This time the director said something like, “Now I see it.”
With a green light Frank hired Yoo, who sketched various kittens and night watchmen. Once the final characters were approved she drew full-page sketches. Occasionally Frank would ask Yoo to redo a page that appeared too static, or to open up space to emphasize loneliness, or to draw a scene from the kitten’s perspective rather than the watchman’s. Frank says she is very pleased with the end results of Yoo’s efforts.
Writer, editor, artist, editorial team, marketing team, book sales department, business department, and others are involved in bringing one traditionally published picture book to sell in bookstores and online. (One writer jokes the process takes so long it literally turns a writer’s hair grey!)
Picture Book Good News!
The good news for this story is that teamwork paid off. Kitten and the Night Watchman is scheduled for release in September. Recently the book received the coveted star approval from Kirkus Reviews, one of the book industry’s leading critics. Only 10 percent of books reviewed by Kirkus receive this star.
Kirkus’s reviewer showered high praise on Kitten and the Night Watchman: “The real surprise is the depth of debut writer Sullivan’s words. The construction vehicles don’t just sit on the lot: ‘Garbage trucks line up like circus elephants. / A backhoe rises like a giant insect.’ Sound effects (‘peent peent peent’ goes a nighthawk) and lived-in, careful observations make it no surprise to learn that Sullivan was a building and equipment guard and that the cat-adoption story is real.”
Such accolades make the Cinderella picture book’s journey that much sweeter.
Since editing Kitten and The Night Watchman Frank has been promoted to senior editor, and she now works from Colorado instead of New York City. She no longer has a slush pile. Instead, she reads some 600 manuscripts per year from agents and the SCBWI members who attend her workshops. Out of all those stories she selects 10 to 15.
Find full Kirkus review below:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-sullivan/kitten-and-the-night-watchman/