Meeting with the Editors from Blooming Tree Press
By: Renee Kirchner
I had the pleasure of attending an SCBWI meeting in Arlington, Texas on May 27, 2006, and the guest speakers were the editors from Blooming Tree Press. They came to our meeting to tell us more about their publishing company and to meet writers interested in writing for a small press.
Miriam Hees was the first speaker. She is the Publisher and Managing Editor with Blooming Tree Press in Austin, Texas. Ms. Hees was very down to earth and approachable. Blooming Tree Press is a family-owned business that publishes quality books for young readers and adults. Since they are a smaller press, everything they publish must sell well and stay in print for a long time. Eighty percent of their authors are first-time authors. Their authors and illustrators reside in states all across the country including Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Texas. They even have one writer from Alberta, Canada.
Ms. Hees is interested in acquiring more YA, but she is very picky. The story must have a redeeming quality in the end, but it doesn’t need to be sugar coated. She also likes time travel books and regional picture books. She is currently looking for a fiction middle grade book on Vietnam. She would especially like to find one that shows the relationship between the American soldiers and the Vietnam people, rather than the political situation during the war. She acquires easy readers but has a difficult time selling them. She does not acquire many picture books but she would prefer those below 1,000 words. Finally, she does not like novels written in free verse.
Our second speaker was Bradford Hees. He is the Senior Editor with Blooming Tree Press. Mr. Hees is in charge of their adult and graphic novel divisions. He has his eye out for the unusual, exciting and never been done before. His expertise is in Japanese history, Manga, and graphic novels.
The editors like to work with authors that will help promote their book. They give small advances and larger royalties than the big publishing houses. A typical print run is 5,000 books and they provide 25 copies of each book to their authors to send to reviewers. Currently they publish about ten books a year and Ms. Hees predicts that they will never publish more than twenty books a year. She would prefer for the company to stay small.
Contact Information:
http://www.bloomingtreepress.com
Send queries or complete manuscripts by snail mail to:
Ms. Miriam Hees
Managing Editor
Blooming Tree Press
P.O. Box 140934
Austin, TX 78714-0934
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