The many hats of Theodor Seuss Geisel: editing and publishing

Editing

An editor has a tough job. She has to work with authors and illustrators to make suggestions about how to make a book better, but without changing the creator's intent. An editor might suggest cutting out unnecessary text or making an additional illustration, all in the name of making the story clearer to the reader.

Ted Geisel was editor for many of the individual books published in the Beginner Books series, but he also served as president of that Random House enterprise and was the ultimate editor for the series, creating strict guidelines for the development of any title that bore the Beginner Books label.

Geisel also worked with a number of editors when writing and illustrating his own books, and he learned to be open to suggestion whether it came from his wife or his colleagues at Random House. He also expected to be listened to when he thought his work would not benefit from any changes. He always presented his books to his publisher in the form of a "dummy book" -- a practice book that shows how the published book should look -- which helps make the editing process for the final book much easier.

Dummy books

What's this book going to look like? What shape is it? how many pages does it have? Where are the illustrations and text placed? The "dummy" is the creator's chance to put his or her final vision in place, even if it means making more revisions to get it just right. In creating The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Geisel started Bartholomew out with just 48 hats, changed it to 135, and ultimately to 500!

The following resources can help guide students through making their "dummy book," and later, their final "published" version:

• Author Jackie French Koller offers written and illustrated instructions on book making.

• Page by Page: Creating a Children's Book from the National Library of Canada  looks at the stages of development of two children's books.

• Visit Write on Reader for kid-friendly instructions on writing, editing, and simple book making.

Publishing

A publisher is a risk-taker. It takes lots of money to print, distribute, and promote books. The publisher has to decide if an author's book is worth the financial risk. And because a publisher doesn't want to take a lot of risks, part of his or her role is to advise and encourage authors to create interesting and marketable books. Taking those risks also means the publisher gets a say in how the book looks -- even what the title is.

As Ted Geisel tried to sell his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, he found out that publishers didn't want to take a risk on a book they thought was very different from current books for sale. Geisel said, "Although I knew nothing about children's books it sounded pretty good, so I decided to get it published. It was rejected by twenty-seven publishing houses before the twenty-eighth, Vanguard Press, agreed to take a chance on bringing it out."

After the publication of The Cat in the Hat, Geisel became very involved in publishing. Beginner Books was born as a publishing house along the lines of Seuss's ground-breaking supplementary reader. Geisel was the president of Beginner Books and made decisions such as how books should look and how many copies should be printed, but most importantly, he was a guide and standard for the authors and illustrators writing for Beginner Books.

Bookmaking activities

With "dummy books" complete and final revisions made, students are ready to publish! Most bookmaking techniques for self-publishing can be adapted for any age group, so consider students' abilities over age in the following suggested activities:

PreK-K

Explore, make and do. Since this may be the first bookmaking opportunity for very young readers, experimentation on their part may yield the best results. Set up a classroom publishing center with a variety of sample books (real and homemade) and bookmaking materials: different weights of paper, scissors, tapes, stapler, hole punch, yarn, crayons, paints, and markers. Pictures from magazines are great for those who want to illustrate with photos. Supervised use of a Polaroid or digital camera is also great for bookmaking and for creating an "About the Author" page.

Grades 1-3

21st century authors. For some students, getting to use a computer to finish their book may be the biggest motivator for writing it! If your students have access, allow them to type and print their manuscripts. There is bookmaking software available, but it may be more cost and time effective to have students work in a word processing program they are already familiar with. Some may find it a challenge to lay out their book on the computer, so encourage peer support and technical assistance. And don't forget -- a handsomely printed book deserves good covers and binding, so be sure to have those materials, and plenty of paper for printing, on hand.

Grades 4-6

Make a collective effort. Student publishing can be a fun group activity. Consider creating one large book -- a collection of all students' stories. Assign different publishing roles to small groups of students -- layout, design, cover, binding, etc. -- with the goal in mind to "print" multiple copies so that at least each student can have one. Students might consider advance sales of their book to family and friends to cover paper and printing costs!

Grades 7-9

Trust your publisher. Instead of having students self-publish, have them publish each other's work. Assign each student author a student publisher to work with. The publisher makes the decisions about final title, binding, cover design and book layout, and creates his/her author's book in its final format. If possible, provide publishers with a printing budget -- possibly in the form of classoom dollars that can purchase book binding materials. Student publishers and student authors will need to work together so that the book remains true to the author's vision, but also stays withing the publisher's budget.

Grades 10-12

See their hand in it. Older students are most likely to be technologically proficient enough to desktop publish their books. If that's the case, don't let them! Give them the opportunity to do things by hand and see what they can achieve without computers, scanners, and color printers. The illustrative effects of hand lettering can enhance the story and illustrations, as well as give students a chance to practice good penmanship! The rare hand lettered book deserves rare treament in binding and covers. Since this is a hands-on project, provide materials of different textures and color to create a cover that demands to be touched and opened.