Madame Alexander is out!
On October 18, 2022, the picture book biography of Madame Alexander, written by Susan Goldman Rubin and dreamed up by editor/publisher Erin Stein (founder of the former Macmillan imprint, Imprint), made its way into the wide world. (Not Barnes & Noble physical stores, of course.)
Miraculously, this is the only one of my three books that never had its release date changed. Technically, anyway. Its original release, before the work began, was slated for Spring ‘22. But I signed for it just as I started working on ROSIE, so the plan was always to finish that book first and see where things shook out.
Well, COVID shook out. And with it came a year of stupid decisions made by nearly every publishing house. Lay-offs. Lots of lay-offs. My team at Scholastic was hit right at the start of going remote in March 2020. Love to lose one’s health insurance during a pandemic, y’know?
Then, several months later, the entire imprint that was publishing not just MADAME ALEXANDER, but also ROSIE, was put on the chopping block and the whole team was let go. Never mind the fact that they produced a bestselling book series that had just become a Netflix hit, too.
Publishing executives don’t care. And so every other team was saddled with whatever books needed to be finished. ROSIE was done and off to be printed, but MADAME ALEXANDER hadn’t started yet. I didn’t even have a manuscript when the new editor (who really was pulling for us the whole way) asked if I could turn in sketches. So I had to explain where we were.
Since Madame Alexander was our original editor’s concept, there was a moment where I wondered if the project might be killed. But it wasn’t. I was given the manuscript in November 2020 and went to work on thumbnails and sketches.
I sent them in January. And then heard nothing at all for months.
In spring 2021, I asked my agent if she had heard anything. She hadn’t. So she emailed and, surprise! The designer had left and they had reworked the manuscript. It was now longer. And so I would have to do a lot of new sketches and adjust the ones I’d already made.
Now on my third designer (thankfully still my second editor, who had also taken over ROSIE), the rest of the deadlines were much tighter. And the emotional journey got really bumpy as I churned out work for a now 40+ page book due in autumn, for a Fall ‘22 release.
When I was given the option of taking MADAME ALEXANDER in March 2020, I was really excited. Not only does it encompass a lot of eras I love and have drawn and written before (early 20th century NYC and the Lower East Side), I knew Madame Alexander dolls, have my mom’s Madame Alexander dolls, and love dolls in general. It felt like something a young me would have flipped out over. Besides, the original editor sent this to me as soon as she heard I had been laid off, for which I will always be grateful. And so it kills me that we were never able to work on this book together after having a really easy breezy time on ROSIE.
MADAME ALEXANDER had a third editor handling it by the end, and probably three or four publicity teams, too. I worked with one designer after the first left, but never developed a relationship with the art director. Never even spoke to them directly, though they gave me one piece of feedback I will never forget, for all the wrong reasons.
Much like ROSIE, this constant uncertainty and shuffling of teams kind of sank the book to the bottom of anyone’s attention. It’s already a niche subject, so it was going to take some support from the publishers that just didn’t happen.
It’s hard to have two books lose their teams so many times. Especially to lose the people who wanted to bring it to life in the first place. Everyone who ended up with our books was laden with projects from people who had been cruelly axed so that executives at the top could add to their millions and billions.
I can only hope that someday I’ll get to have a book taken across the finish line with the people who loved it to begin with. I know I’m not the only person in these pandemic years who feels this way.
I’m fairly satisfied with how MADAME ALEXANDER turned out. The process got pretty arduous towards the end, and I was rushing. I had to learn to start advocating for myself and put my foot down at one point (and the editor was totally on my side and supportive). That’s one element of this situation that I hope I can carry on to my next books.
Working with Susan Goldman Rubin, though, was really great. Though we were, as is always the case, sequestered from each other until the end, she has been nothing but kind and excited and wants to work with me again someday. I hope I can! I just hope it can be under different circumstances. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the circumstances in publishing are getting any better.