For many who attend BEA, the Editor’s Buzz Panel is a highlight. But, depending on whom you ask, that means Adult, Middle Grade, or Young Adult. (For those who haven’t done so, many book samples, including some buzz panel books, are available for download from Publishers Marketplace.
What are the differences between the three panels? A visit to each suggests one obvious dividing line: the Adult panel had an equal number of fiction and nonfiction books, six in all. The room was filled with a broad range of industry players, including editors and agents, but also many who have little to do with the content side of the business — and some who are no longer even in the business. It has reached the status where people say to one another “let’s meet at the Buzz Panel,” and the SRO crowd attested to that. The event, meanwhile, routinely runs past its 75 minute allocation, and this one was obviously no exception.
The YA and Middle Grade Buzz presentations were addressed to a room full of editors, agents, and what seemed like a lot more book retailers — all of whom seemed familiar with both the editors and their authors. It felt a little more clubby. The attitude of the panelists — several of whom were repeat presenters — was more that of first among equals. As well — and this goes for Middle Grade in particular — the humor (well, they are for middle graders) was very much in evidence.
What struck this attendee is how the story of how each book arrived on that particular editor’s desk is very similar for all books and all editors — but nevertheless, as one editor put it, familiar in that discovering the story you’ve never read before, is the moment when you know you’ve got a winner. Check out this year’s Buzz Books and the editors who presented them below:
Adult Buzz
Anna deVries, Senior Editor, Picador with Damon Tweedy’s Black Man in a White Coat: Reflections on Race and Medicine; Diana Tejerina Miller, Editor, Alfred A. Knopf with Garth Risk Hallberg’s City on Fire; Scott Moyers, Publisher, Penguin Press with Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen; Colin Dickerman, Editorial Director, Flatiron Books with Dan Marshall’s Home is Burning; Alison Callahan, Executive Editor, Scout Press with Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood; Deb Futter, Publisher of Twelve and Vice President, Editor-in-Chief, Hardcovers, Grand Central Publishing with Julie Checkoway’s The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui’s Ditch Kids and their Quest for Olympic Glory.
Laura Chasen, Assistant Editor, St. Martin’s Griffin with Marie Marquardt’s Dream Things True; Wendy Loggia, Executive Editor, Delacorte Press with Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything; Arianne Lewin, Executive Editor, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers with Jake Halpern’s and Peter Kujawinski’s Nightfall; Christian Trimmer, Senior Editor, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers with Daniel Kraus’ The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume 1: At the Edge of Empire; Elizabeth Bewley, Executive Editor, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers with Estelle Laure’s This Raging Light.
Middle Grade
David Levithan, Editorial Director, Scholastic Press with Alex Gino’s George; Nancy Paulsen, Publisher, Nancy Paulsen Books with Lisa Lewis Tyre’s Last in a Long Line of Rebels; Martha Mihalick, Senior Editor, Greenwillow Books with Nicholas Gannon’s The Doldrums; Elise Howard, Publisher and Editor, Algonquin Young Readers with Adam Shaughnessy‘s The Entirely True Story of the Unbelievable Fib; Andrea Spooner, Editor, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers with Ali Benjamin’s The Thing about Jellyfish.
