>Still to Come, My Pretties

by Roger Sutton
Dec 01, 2009 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>Beavering away here at our Fanfare list, which will be announced FIRST in Notes from the Horn Book, so sign up, you slugs. And we--that is, Lolly, mostly--are finishing up the January issue in glamtaborous full color and new features. Lolly has really knocked herself out working on it and the editorial staff has given her plenty of good stuff to design. Right now I am at the point in my editorial where I have to makes choices between things like " . . . the Horn Book" and " . . . The Horn Book." And how is your day?

Years before I had this job, I remember listening to Anita Silvey worry over writing the HB editorial and while I made all the polite responses, inside I was thinking really, how bad could it be? It's only six times a year. I have apologized to Anita for this, publicly and in my head, many, many times in the last fifteen years.
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Anonymous

>and it has to be something which your readers will agree with - WITHOUT feeling that they might just as well have written it themselves. (who was it who wrote: "If I had more time I would have written you a shorter letter" ?? Not Dorothy Parker this time - maybe Mme. de Stael

Posted : Dec 07, 2009 03:40

Roger Sutton

>Really short can be part of the problem. The first thing is that you need to be exercised about something, but, especially in this day of tweets and blogs, it has to be something that is timely but not, uh, momenty? And it needs to weigh in at around 600 words, which, "Goldilocks"-like, is more often too short or too long than it is just right. The relative infrequency can also be a problem: you're always out of practice!

Posted : Dec 02, 2009 04:14

Brian

>Not only is it just six times a year, it's really short!

Posted : Dec 02, 2009 04:36

Anonymous

>What's the hardest part of writing the editorial?

Posted : Dec 01, 2009 11:41

Anonymous

>Rosie, dear Rosie, (dear Tina), it's just that it's unprofessional to pimp your book on blogs, especially when people are talking about something else entirely. People don't like to encounter spam in the comments section. And yes, you mean well, but you are spamming.

Posted : Dec 01, 2009 09:09

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