Instititute of Children's Literature

Rx for Writers

Transcripts

"Advice from an Online Editor" with Jennifer Reed

Thursday, April 25, 2002

Moderator is Kristi Holl, Web Editor for the Institute's web site. Kristi is author of 24 juvenile novels and 150+ articles and has taught writing at the Institute of Children's Literature for l5 years.

Jennifer/Jeff is Jennifer and Jeff Reed. Jennifer is editor of Wee Ones E-magazine, an online children's magazine for kids ages 3-8. She has published over 100 stories and articles for children, plus writes for Chelsea House Publishers. Jeff is also a publisher, as well as the arts editor for Wee Ones.

Names color coded in blue are audience members who had questions.

Interviews are scheduled for Thursday evenings: 8 Eastern, 7 Central, 6 Mountain, and 5 Pacific.

Moderator: Good evening, everyone! I'm Kristi Holl, your moderator, and I'm delighted to be here tonight with Jennifer Reed, editor of Wee Ones E-Magazine who will give us "Advice from an Online Editor." Jennifer has also published over 100 stories and articles for children both in print magazines and online and also writes for Chelsea House Publishers. Jennifer's husband Jeff is also a publisher, as well as the arts editor for Wee Ones. Welcome, Jennifer!

Jennifer/Jeff: HI! And thanks for having me/us!

Moderator: Jennifer, you are first a children's writer, having published with many children's magazines and recently books for Chelsea House and Enslow. What has your experience been like? How long did it take you to first get published?

Jennifer/Jeff: It has been a long process but well worth the wait. I first was published back in 1998.

Moderator: Did you have any formal education in writing?

Jennifer/Jeff: I received my BA in English and then took the course at ICL. That's about it for formal education. Everything else I learned on my own and through writing groups.

Moderator: When did you know that you wanted to write for children?

Jennifer/Jeff: When I was in Japan, I took the ICL course, and that convinced me I wanted to write for kids. Then I had my own, and I was sure this was the way to go. It became a passion, which I think you need to have when writing for children.

Moderator: Have you held any editing positions? What publications?

Jennifer/Jeff: I was the assistant editor at Scuba Times Magazine, and the editor for the Skywriter, a military newspaper in Japan. I also volunteered my editorial services for a magazine in Virginia Beach.

Moderator: Did your experience as an editor help or hinder your career as a writer?

Jennifer/Jeff: It definitely helped. I understood better what an editor goes through to find suitable manuscripts. I love editing and working with an editorial staff on magazines and newspapers. It's a lot of fun!

SaraJ: How did you get the editing jobs you mentioned? Did you just apply or audition or what?

Jennifer/Jeff: I just applied. I was willing to work for peanuts and sometimes just volunteer to get the experience. I took menial jobs too, like secretary at a magazine, then I moved up. I had a resume too.

Moderator: As both a writer and editor, what are your thoughts on the children's writing market today?

Jennifer/Jeff: As a writer I get discouraged. It's a hard business to break into. I do think there are more opportunities today than ever, with the Internet opening up to children's authors. But then there are other areas I'm not thrilled about. Like... book publishers thinking first about sales, than how good a story is. I hear that manuscripts have to be approved by marketing departments first. Think about how many great stories aren't getting published because of this!

jackprophet: Where do the market people get their information?

Jennifer/Jeff: I don't work for a book publisher, so I am not sure. I imagine they take all the numbers into consideration: how much it costs to produce a book and how children's book sales are doing. Maybe they base their marketing on historical data too, like they have some idea what sells the most. For example, well known names seem to sell.

Christine Collier: Jennifer, I love Wee Ones and feel we need many more e-zines like it; do you know if there will be others coming along?

Jennifer/Jeff: I have no idea. I hope so because competition is always good. There needs to be better web sites for kids than just games.

Moderator: What inspired you and your husband to develop a children's magazine?

Jennifer/Jeff: I couldn't sell a darned thing to Highlights, and I loved to edit, so what the heck, why not start our own magazine? Plus, there weren't many literary sites for children on the Internet a year ago. More are coming out though.

Dolly: Jennifer, do you read all the submissions you get for Wee Ones, or do you have help in this area?

Jennifer/Jeff: I wish I had help! I read them all, and then ones I'm stuck on, my kids read. As we grow, we hope to expand our staff.

Moderator: What were some of your concerns when starting your magazine?

Jennifer/Jeff: Costs mostly. How could we afford to operate this, with no money coming in? Could we pay our contributors? We really wanted to be able to pay because it just seemed the right thing to do. And many websites, e-zines don't pay their contributors. We wanted to be different. Finally, would people take us seriously or would we be considered just another website?

Moderator: Why make it an online magazine as opposed to a print magazine?

Jennifer/Jeff: Mostly, the cost of producing a print magazine kept us from going this route. And we felt we could reach many more children by going online. After all, today we are read in 60 countries! I don't know how many print magazines can say that. The readership, I think, is the biggest difference aside from the obvious. You can't hold our magazine in your hands and smell the print. This bothers some people, but more people are getting used to the Internet, especially children who are growing up with computers and are more savvy than many adults when it comes to the computer and Internet!

Moderator: Was it difficult to do? What kind of research did you do?

Jennifer/Jeff: It took us about a year to put the entire thing together. We read a lot of children's magazines to see what they were printing. We looked at what was being published for what age groups and if there was a specific need somewhere. We had to become business oriented and think about how much we knew about running a business. Not to mention web publishing: we had to educate ourselves in html, web layout, web hosting, domain names etc.

Moderator: What did you find with all this research?

Jennifer/Jeff: We found that it was not going to be as easy as we thought. That's why it took us a year to put it all together. We found that there weren't any children's magazines online, and we wanted to be the first. The places that did call themselves e-zines weren't close to what we had envisioned. We wanted our e-mag to be as close to a print magazine as we could get it. We found that parents with young children needed more support and education on the importance of reading to children at a very young age. And we found that getting the submissions and the look and feel of the magazine were a lot harder than the actual mechanics of putting together a web magazine. At first we weren't going to pay people for their work, and we got few submissions. Once we started paying, they have poured in. :)

KiddieLit: I understand that Wee Ones buys first electronic rights. Would you explain this?

Jennifer/Jeff: This means we buy the first rights to publish your piece, and it will only be published electronically, meaning on our website, for one issue. Thereafter, all rights revert back to the author. Today more publishers are buying all rights, and I don't like this! I like to be able to resell my work and I know many of you do too.

mvanornum: How is an online magazine marketed? E-mail lists? Search engines?

Jennifer/Jeff: Search engines, interviews, e-mail lists, newspapers, magazines, other websites, we've done several radio interviews and were trying to get on the Rosie show and Oprah--no luck yet. Mostly, though, word of mouth! You, our contributors have been our best marketing source thus far. Many teachers also introduce their students to Wee Ones, a great plus for everyone, I think. :)

Granny Janny: Jennifer, are you accepting stories for the Christmas issue yet?

Jennifer/Jeff: We are nearly full for our November/December issues, though there is room for a few more. We'll be opening up our 2003 issues in a month or so. I'm struggling with this as I don't like to plan years ahead like other magazines, but then I don't like to fill everything up so quickly either. It just means I send out more rejections. Which I hate doing.

pie: I've heard many say that e-books and e-zines will never make it because you can't put your kiddie on your lap and snuggle up to a computer. What do you say?

Jennifer/Jeff: Hog wash! There is no denying that computers will be a part of our children's future. Books will never go away, and I wouldn't want them to, but computers aren't going away either. Think about this: children who don't like to read but enjoy working on a computer may find that reading on their computer is much more enjoyable. We reach kids who don't like to read, generally. I had a mother thank me for Wee Ones because her son was visually impaired. The font or text on our website is bigger than most books and he could read it much easier than a print book. Hmmm, the possibilities are endless. There is a future for e-books and e-zines, but it's going to take time.

jackprophet: Are you able to tell how many hits your site gets, by area?

Jennifer/Jeff: Yes, everything is documented which is great for us because we can see our strong areas as well as our weak. Right now, we receive over 30,000 hits/month and this number is growing steadily.

pie: Has Wee Ones enabled you to quit your day job?

Jennifer/Jeff: HUH! My day job is taking care of the kids. I stay home. But really, I feel lucky in that I don't consider any of my work a job. I write for magazines and book publishers still, and I teach at ICL. I would never want to quit those things. And a note: Wee Ones isn't making a penny--yet. It has to do with business on the Internet and this is an area we are working on changing.

mvanornum: Is your e-zine designed to be printed and read, or read on screen?

Jennifer/Jeff: Definitely read on a screen. You could print out the stories and articles, but it won't look the same as on the Internet. Also, with color pictures, you use a lot of ink!

KiddieLit: I find your website very kid-friendly and user-friendly in general. Did you design it yourself?

Jennifer/Jeff: My husband is in charge of the design. He did it all himself. Having two kids has helped us make it this way. We knew we wanted it to be easily navigable. We are constantly working on this, however, and make changes every month. I feel like we are ever changing.

Moderator: Are there many areas online for children's writers to get published?

Jennifer/Jeff: I am constantly seeking these out. The list is growing, but I find them hard to find. Guideposts 4 Kids went online and they are our biggest competition. There are many e-book publishers too, some good, some bad. I wish there were more areas, but some of you might even know of places I have never heard.

Moderator: Is Wee Ones actually another website? If not, what makes it special or different?

Jennifer/Jeff: I hope we're not just another website!!! I suppose technically we are. But we're special because of what we offer: something for children, parents and now teachers. We've been on over a year, when many websites go belly up after only a few months. I think our vision is different too, and the fact that we pay our writers and contributors makes us stand out.

Moderator: What is your mission? What do you hope to achieve with Wee Ones?

Jennifer/Jeff: Our mission is to bring families together by reading together, online. We hope to open doors to children and parents to encourage them to read. Parents need to be a major part of their children's education, and it just isn't always happening. We wanted an e-magazine that would help parents and supplement their children's education. In our research we found that most parents don't read to their children. This shocked me because I thought all parents read bedtime stories to their kids, but it isn't so.

Moderator: Why did you choose the age level 3-8?

Jennifer/Jeff: It seemed that there were more print magazines geared towards older kids, the 9-12 age group and only a handful focused on younger children. Nothing was on the Internet for this age group, or at least nothing that we could find. This is a vital age to get kids to read and we wanted to give them an incentive. We also thought parenting kids at this age was hard. Learning to balance everything is difficult. So we also produced Wee Parents to offer support in other areas than reading.

Moderator: Jennifer, do other editors take you seriously?

Jennifer/Jeff: At first, I didn't think so. In fact, I think a lot of writers thought we would be offline in a few months. Today, many editors and publishers take us very seriously. We are listed in the major children's market guides, have announcements made through ICL and SCBWI, have been asked to speak at SCBWI conferences and also writer's groups. Publishers see us as a viable place to market their books and we receive many children's print books and e-books from reputable publishers each month wanting us to do a review. I think after this first year, we have proven our commitment to what we do, and now people are sitting back and treating us just fine!

Moderator: Do writers and illustrators take you seriously too?

Jennifer/Jeff: Very much so. They see our announcements in reputable publications, so they know we are real and serious. I think the number of submissions we receive each month states that they like us and enjoy what we are trying to achieve on the Internet. In fact, I am surprised at the numbers of reputable authors and illustrators who submit to us each month.

Moderator: What is your submissions policy?

Jennifer/Jeff: E-mails only, no longer than 500 words, well written stories and articles for the 3-8 age level. We are looking for all types of material, and I know you don't want to hear this, but please read an issue and check out our archives to see what we've done in the past. We try to keep our submission policy like other print magazines, hopefully clear and easy to understand. The guidelines are on our site too. We accept things for Wee Parents and Wee Teach as well, but because we are on a tight budget, we can afford to accept only so many pieces a month. Generally it works out to 5-6 fiction stories, 5-6 nonfiction, 5-6 poems, arts and crafts, recipes, occasionally a rebus, puzzle etc.

Moderator: What do you pay your contributors?

Jennifer/Jeff: Well, we don't pay as well as some publishers, but we do pay!!! 3 cents a word and then additional payment for photos and artwork. We also pay $5 per poem and for cover photos. Once we are making a profit we will be raising our pay scale among other things. :)

Moderator: What are the areas open to writers?

Jennifer/Jeff: All areas are open to writers except the hidden words, hidden pictures, and the color and print section. We also accept very few science articles as we have Dr. Fred Bortz as our science editor, and he sends us an article each month.

Angel1nikki: Can I have the site address of your magazine, please?

Jennifer/Jeff: Sure! It's www.weeonesmag.com - don't forget the "mag" part because if you type in just weeones, you'll go somewhere else. :)

red2: Do you find a manuscript more appealing if a game or puzzle is included since the Internet is interactive?

Jennifer/Jeff: Sometimes. It really depends on what the game or puzzle is. We are looking for interactive things that accompany an article or story though and are always open to this. We find the best ideas often come from our contributors.

Tigger: I understand you want artwork with any rebus story that is submitted. I have a rebus with pictures that I have drawn in black and white. Do you prefer black and white drawings so you can add the color or already colored drawings? How can the drawings be sent via e-mail? By using a scanner? Thanks!

Jennifer/Jeff: We accept rebuses with artwork only because it takes us too much time to find artwork or even create it ourselves. We would rather pay an illustrator to illustrate a story than a rebus at this point in time. Color artwork is the best as we don't color in the pictures. You can scan your artwork in and send it via e-mail as an attachment. We find this works great and illustrators don't have to make photocopies and take the time of mailing their work. Also, we don't want any original artwork, so scanning handles this very well.

Dolly: Jennifer, how far in advance do you accept seasonal material?

Jennifer/Jeff: Hi, Dolly. 6-9 months, generally. Same as most other children's magazines.

Sandy Lynn: Is there a fee for accessing Wee Ones?

Jennifer/Jeff: Nope. Right now we are completely free. Just type in the web address and have fun. However, this may change in the future. You might be finding that more sites require you to log in and actually pay a monthly or annual fee to use their site. We're hoping not to go in this direction but are looking for corporate sponsors to underwrite us. That way, Wee Ones can remain free and available to everyone.

red2: You had mentioned that Wee Ones does not make a penny. How are you able to pay your contributors?

Jennifer/Jeff: Well, it comes from our own pockets currently. We do have one corporate sponsor and accept donations, but mostly, the money I make in my own writing goes right back into Wee Ones. Instead of taking out a business loan and going into debt, we felt we could do this ourselves and thus, we owe no one anything--just out contributors each month. Again, I stress, we are working on changing this and the sooner, the better! It's manageable so far. :)

cakeyr8nb0: What are you looking for in terms of teacher resources?

Jennifer/Jeff: We're still defining this area, but right now, articles on how to teach reading in the classroom. How to use the Internet in the classroom, maybe funny essays on a teaching experience and short lessons. We want to encourage teachers to utilize technology in the classroom; more classes have computers today, so we think it's important.

jackprophet: Hope you enjoy your trip to Norwell/Scituate this summer. Do you get feedback from parents about your web site material and do they suggest topics for you to feature?

Jennifer/Jeff: Thanks, Jack! My parents are our main supporters. They are our printers too and print for free all our paper goods. They started a business from scratch and give us solid business advice as well as suggestions for the site. Actually, both Jeff's and my parents have been wonderful in this area.

mvanornum: Do you have a preference for material that includes hyperlinks, taking advantage of the web's capabilities, or do you prefer plain text submissions?

Jennifer/Jeff: We do like hyperlinks, but we do not put any outside links on the Wee Ones E-magazine. This is to keep children from going off into Never Never Land--the scary Internet. What we do is put the hyperlinks in our Wee Parents e-mag under resources. This way we hope that parents will view the added sites with their children. We take Internet safety very seriously. It scares us how easily children can get into trouble. That is one reason we changed our parenting name from Big Ones to Wee Parents. :)

Moderator: Why develop an online parenting and teaching magazine?

Jennifer/Jeff: Solely to encourage and educate parents and teachers about reading to children. Even the President's policy on reading backs up the fact that children in America aren't reading at the levels they should be. Parents need to take an active role in their children's education and reading starts at home, when they are babies. It's such a simple thing to do: pick up a book and read a story and the benefits for children will last a lifetime. Authors are vitally important to this cause! Parents and teachers need a boost, so here we are!

Moderator: How many submissions do you get a month?

Jennifer/Jeff: 200 +, which shows that we're being taken seriously, I think! It's a lot, but we are excited that so many people love to write for kids! Jeff handles most of the art submissions which takes a load off of me. :)

Moderator: What is the quality of submissions you receive?

Jennifer/Jeff: Actually, I am pleasantly surprised. Most of the submissions are pretty good. We can overlook typos and small errors, but maybe only 20% are unpublishable pieces. This is good and bad. It makes my job much harder to pick the ones I think should go into the magazine. Many times, I reject a manuscript not because it's not well written, but because I just don't have the space. It's a hard decision and sometimes I don't always make the right ones, but then I'm learning too. I receive a lot of submissions from SCBWi members and students at ICL, so I know they are learning well. It shows in their writing.

Moderator: You touched a bit on this earlier, but what options do writers have if they want to get published online? What's out there?

Jennifer/Jeff: There are e-book publishers if you want to sell a book manuscript. One that I recently became associated with and have sold a picture book manuscript to is StoryPlus.com. There are kids' sites that accept submissions, and you really have to search for their submissions guidelines. If you find a kid site that has stories, and they don't have a Submissions button, look under their contact info. The market guides also are now listing sites that buy or borrow stories and articles. I find many children's magazines aren't online, so this makes it harder for authors.

Moderator: In your opinion, is e-publishing a worthy endeavor?

Jennifer/Jeff: I think so. I look at it this way: I am willing to give any new idea a chance. It's another new horizon so why let it go? I am thrilled with the quality of site like StoryPlus who operate much like a print book publisher. If e-publishing is done right it's a worthy endeavor. I published one e-book with a great publisher, but then she went out of business a year later. So, as in the print book business, you need to be careful who you submit too.

Moderator: What future do you see in e-publishing in general? In Wee Ones in particular?

Jennifer/Jeff: I see a great future. I see an entire generation of children growing up on computers and in the next 10-20 years, I think it will be huge. I see Wee Ones growing and changing with the times. We hope to open a small office and hire some help. We are planning on not just raising the pay scale, but adding more material. Who knows, maybe we'll go into print too. We are committed to Wee Ones for a while. I can't say exactly how long, but every new business needs at least 5 years to make it, so we'll see. We've been here this long. It keeps getting better, and Jeff and I are more excited than ever!

Moderator: Where do you hope to expand or develop Wee Ones?

Jennifer/Jeff: We have laid out our vision for Wee Ones in the next five years. Right now, we will maintain it as is and when we find an underwriter, who knows? The possibilities are exciting to think about. Print is a possibility while still keeping the e-mag. Time will tell. :)

Moderator: In those 200+ submissions per month, what exactly do you look for when accepting material?

Jennifer/Jeff: Something original. We get many kitty stories and talking animals. Although this can be a good thing, we see a lot of it! I like to see children interacting with children and solving their conflicts on their own. Articles that have child appeal and aren't written for kids older than 8-10. Although our age group is 3-8, we know that children as young as 2 and as old as 12 are checking us out. Lively, interesting stories with dialogue and relatable characters are a must!

Moderator: What's the hardest thing about being an editor?

Jennifer/Jeff: Saying no. I hate--and I mean hate--telling an author that we cannot use their work. Because there are so many submissions, I can't respond personally. I used to and I used to comment on many pieces, but I just don't have the time now. I try to encourage authors not to take rejection personally because always it's not a personal thing. I want to find an editor to do this for me. :)

Moderator: (Dare I ask?) How well do you work with your husband? Do you plan on expanding the staff at Wee Ones?

Jennifer/Jeff: Overall, we work great together. We love being together probably because the first 8 years of our marriage we hardly saw each other. (He was in the Navy). We have the same vision, share the same dreams and feel the same about many issues. It all helps. Jeff has his talents and I have mine. Sometime we don't see eye to eye, but I've learned to give in a little and not be so controlling. Yes, once we grow financially and can hire more people, we will. We are thinking about setting up an advisory board which will not be a paying position, but it will help us keep a clear view on our mission and give us feedback.

Moderator: I know you mentioned having children. Are they involved with the business in any way?

Jennifer/Jeff: They are. They give us a thumbs up or thumbs down on stories we just can't decide on. They contribute artwork to the Kid's Korner and tell their friends and classmates about Wee Ones. We want them to be a part of it, to see how a business operates and to understand the importance of reading. And they can see that we are making a small difference in the world. When they see submissions coming in from India, England, France and Trinidad, they get excited. When they see that a reader from Saudi Arabia logged onto our site, the world gets a little smaller. It's a nice thing to be a part of.

Moderator: Have you received any recognition for your e-mag? If so, from whom?

Jennifer/Jeff: We received the seal of approval from the National Children's Literacy Project. We also received an honorable mention in the Writer's Digest E-zine Contest. But mostly, I think that SCBWI accepting us as a legitimate publisher is great recognition, as well as the Institute of Children's Literature. We have numerous smaller awards on our site as well.

Moderator: You are to be congratulated!! What can you say to encourage writers today who want to publish in this age group?

Jennifer/Jeff: Never quit. It's a numbers game--the more you submit, the better your chances are of getting published. If you have a dream to write for children, do all you can to educate yourself and learn the craft of writing. It's not easy and you'll get rejections. Embrace them and learn from them, but keep writing and keep submitting. One day you will receive that letter in the mail (or e-mail) that says, "We love your story and want to publish it!" It does happen, so keep your dream alive and never give up!

Tigger: Do you usually do most of the editing yourself, or do you send pieces back to the author for revisions?

Jennifer/Jeff: I try to accept stories and articles that need little editing. But if it is minor, I do it myself. Jeff does some too. I rarely send a piece back for revisions because of time and the energy it takes. We receive so many submissions, we can be choosy this way. :)

dickman: If you do not accept a manuscript because you are out of space, might you consider it for a future issue?

Jennifer/Jeff: Of course. If it is seasonal, I will try to place it accordingly. If a story or article is really good, I will always try and find it a home. But if you send something that relates to summer, and the issues are full, rather than holding onto it for a year, I will send it back to the author. If I think it is good, I'll ask the author to resubmit it at a later time.

Angel1nikki: Do you have any weekly stories that continue from one week to the next?

Jennifer/Jeff: No. The issue comes out monthly and although we have considered doing a series, we haven't taken that plunge yet. I think it is a good idea because it's a good incentive to get kids to come back. Another area we will be expanding on later, so watch our submission guidelines page for upcoming changes!

MBVoelker: Would you be interested in photo-heavy articles, or do you prefer mainly text?

Jennifer/Jeff: Because of download capabilities, we prefer only 2-3 , sometimes 4 photos or illustrations per story or article. Not everyone has high speed computers to load multiple images, and we need to consider this too.

dickman: What kind of articles seem to be the favorite of children 3 to 8?

Jennifer/Jeff: Kids like to learn about animals or kids doing unique activities. I know my kids are very much into outer space and dinosaurs, but animals seem to be very big. Sometimes unique and unusual history articles that are simple work well too.

barbkann: What kind or styles of poetry do you particularly like?

Jennifer/Jeff: I think kids enjoy reading funny and rhyming poems. We prefer poems that are no longer than 20 lines, but if it has humor, chances are kids will love it. I like gentle, easy flowing poems that express a particular idea or concept, something that children ages 3-8 can identify with.

Moderator: I'm sorry to have to interrupt here, but we're out of time already. Jennifer and Jeff, thank you so much for coming tonight and sharing your collective online expertise with us. This has been a fascinating and informative evening!

Jennifer/Jeff: Bye and thank you for all the great questions!! I enjoyed it! So did Jeff. :)

Moderator: Do come back in two weeks on May 9 when Marian Flandrick Bray will be talking with us about "Writing Animal Fiction and Nonfiction.." Author of twenty books and over 200 articles and short stories, the theme that tends to run through them all is animals. She's written for middle grade and young adult audiences, covering subjects from blackbirds and grey squirrels to horses and dolphins. So if you love animals and would like to further your writing career by writing about them, join Marian on May 9th. And now, good night, everyone!

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