Every word matters
CHILDREN’S BOOK EDITOR BUILDS FROM A FOUNDATION OF LITERARY PASSION.
By PAIGE POLINSKY | Copy Chief
Josh Plattner is a graduate from Gustavus Adolphus College. He is also a video game enthusiast and devoted patron of Bull Run Coffee Bar. And at Scarletta Press, an independent Minneapolis-based publishing house, he works tirelessly as managing editor. Rebranded in 2012 as a children’s publisher, Scarletta is a small but potent force kicking its way into the literary scene. Ellen Fischer’s brightly illustrated “If an Armadillo Went to a Restaurant” exemplifies Scarletta’s whimsical, educational approach to young readers. In this interview, Plattner shares what it’s like to edit in the surprisingly dog-eat-dog world of kid lit.
Q: What path did you take to get this job?
A: Oddly enough, I wasn’t an English major. My love for words developed in my family bookstore. Readers often do very well in this line of work, so it made a lot of sense to seek out a position that allowed me to work with books. I started as an intern out of college and enjoyed the process of it all to stick around!
Q: What are the highlights/lowlights of an average workday?
A: The highlight would definitely be working with illustrators and authors that care about quality picture books. The lowlight is rejecting the work of writers who are trying to become published authors.
Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job?
A: When an author is thankful for or proud of their finished work, that’s when I feel successful. I never tire of hearing how happy the writer or illustrator of a specific work is with the finished product, something I had a heavy hand in developing.
Q: What is one “horror story”?
A: Authors are temperamental creatures. They can be enjoyable on their best days and frightening on their worst. I had an author call me during a dinner party not once, not twice, but six different times within forty minutes to rant about the changes being made to the text of their work. The following day, they were fine with nearly every change we went back over.
Q: What struggles exist in the children’s book industry that might not pose a problem for other publishers?
A: One large struggle for the children’s publishing industry is the propensity toward classic books. It’s very hard for a small publisher to produce interesting, captivating, original material without being labeled as a lesser version of this or a derivative of that. Legendary picture books like Goodnight Moon or Where the Wild Things Are are constantly utilized as the lens for which to judge books by. It’s tough when media only draws comparisons to products that are identified as the gold standard of children’s literature.
Q: How does Scarletta’s small size affect your role as Senior Editor?
A: Because of Scarletta’s size, I wear a lot of hats. Acquisitions, social media, marketing, production, copywriting, and, of course, editing are just some of the tasks I might have on my plate during a given day.
Q: On a linguistic level, children’s literature is less complex than adult-oriented writing. How must an editor adjust his or her technique or frame of mind to edit this type of work?
A: I think the role of an editor is to make sure that every word matters in a given work. We do that on a smaller scale in picture books. It is always a matter of being cognizant of your audience and the intention of your work.
Q: Today’s technology is rapidly changing. How do you see this impacting the editing field in the future?
A: I think it provides more employment opportunities! There will always be the need for work to be cleaned up, for copy to be proofread — I think we’re lucky that so many other platforms for the written word are becoming more utilized.
Q: What’s your biggest grammatical pet peeve?
A: ‘Your’ vs. ‘You’re’ — it’s an oldie, but a goodie. A semi-psychotic, exceptionally specific example of user-error is when a person uses the word “enduring” when they mean “endearing.”
Q: What advice would you give to a college student studying editing?
A: Read. Read. Read. And then read some more. A retainer of fiction, nonfiction, YA, middle grade, technical writing, etc. is an editor’s most valuable asset.
Plattner has not taken any elite, specialized editing course. He has not devoted hours of his time to the rigorous study and memorization of a style guide. But he does have a love for the English language — and, in the end, that’s what matters. This conversation taught me that passion — a genuine interest in the written word — is the foundation for any successful editor. Focused training and experience can come with time, but it takes enthusiasm to reach that point.
Flexibility and patience are two other crucial traits, particularly when working at a smaller organization. Drop any expectations of sitting isolated in a cubicle, red pen in hand; there is more to the career than solitary line-by-line proofing. In fact, abandon any vision of solitude altogether — no editor is an island, and both the fiercest joys and the bitterest frustrations involve other people. The key is to communicate clearly and effectively with your authors, achieving a careful balance of open-minded authority. They will drive you crazy, but that’s alright. Fueled by passion and precision, enthusiasm and ingenuity, editing is a most rewarding madness.
