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[Publisher] Holiday House

Provrb1810meggy

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I didn't see a thread in the index, so here goes. What does anyone know about Holiday House, an independent publisher of children's books? Their website is http://www.holidayhouse.com. From my inexperienced POV, they seem legit, but I was wondering your opinions.
 

Marlys

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I didn't see a thread in the index, so here goes. What does anyone know about Holiday House, an independent publisher of children's books? Their website is http://www.holidayhouse.com. From my inexperienced POV, they seem legit, but I was wondering your opinions.
I'd recommend you look around their site a bit more. Look at how long they've been in business, and the awards their books have won. How many books do they have in print, and do you recognize any of the authors?

This should only take a few minutes, and the answers should give you some big clues as to their legitimacy.
 

zizban

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Holiday House is a very old and legitimate children's publisher. They have won scads of awards from the ALA and you find their books all over the children's section at B+N. I'm surprised you never heard of them.
 

Marlys

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Holiday House is a very old and legitimate children's publisher. They have won scads of awards from the ALA and you find their books all over the children's section at B+N. I'm surprised you never heard of them.
Sigh. So much for teaching Meggy to fish.
 

DaveKuzminski

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Of course, that hinges upon the author also knowing if the awards are genuine or merely props. There are some scams out there that have given themselves awards that are allegedly from real organizations but are really fakes (award, organization, or both) created by the scam.
 

Marlys

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Of course, that hinges upon the author also knowing if the awards are genuine or merely props. There are some scams out there that have given themselves awards that are allegedly from real organizations but are really fakes (award, organization, or both) created by the scam.
Well, it's pretty easy to check the veracity of claims for Newbery, Caldecott, and ALA honors.
 

DaveKuzminski

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Easy has nothing to do with it. Instead, take into account the knowledge and ability of the folks who you expect to know this. If research was truly so easy, PA wouldn't have "20,000 happy authors," but the truth is that many people were never taught how to conduct research and rely upon information from friends who often know just as little.
 

zizban

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I'm sorry I ruined your teaching lesson but Holiday House is just so obvious and well known. To me, it was like asking if Random House was a legitimate publisher.
 

Marlys

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...the truth is that many people were never taught how to conduct research and rely upon information from friends who often know just as little.
Uh, which is why instead of telling Meg that Holiday House was okay, I tried to suggest to her how she might figure it out by herself. :rolleyes:
 

LMILLER111

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First, I know that Holiday House is one of the major independent presses on the market. So I’m certainly not questioning their legitimacy. However, I am confused about this part of their submissions guidelines.

We do not publish books for the mass market

I can find their books in every book store I’ve ever been too. Not just some of their titles, shelves of their titles.

Does the term MASS MARKET imply something other than being distributed in mass quantity? Because clearly their books are distributed in mass quantity.
 

CaoPaux

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"Mass market" is grocery stores and other general retail establishments. (As opposed to "the trade", i.e., bookstores.)
 

suki

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I can find their books in every book store I’ve ever been too. Not just some of their titles, shelves of their titles.

Does the term MASS MARKET imply something other than being distributed in mass quantity? Because clearly their books are distributed in mass quantity.

The lines these days are blurred a bit between Mass Market and Trade, but it has to do with the production quality and market focus on the book. Traditionally, "Trade" books were primarily sold to books stores, while "Mass Market" were sold to grocery stores and drug stores, etc. Traditionally,the quality of the paper, printing, covers, etc. was a little better with Trade publishing. Today, with more and more Trade books showing up in chain retail stores, the lines are a little blurred, but it still largely comes down to market focus and, to some extent, quality of the final product.

~suki
 
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JoMarieM

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Holiday House/ Erdman's Books

I've written a children's story that I'm thinking about sending to one, or both, of these publishers: Holiday House and Erdman's Books for Young Readers. Has anybody here had any experience with these two publishers, or heard anything about them? I've read their websites carefully and they both look pretty good to me, but I'd still like to get second opinions, if possible, before I send anything off to them. Thanks.
 

Mustafa

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Holiday House is an incredible press. Asking about them, though, is a bit like asking what we think about Penguin Books. Holiday House has been around for, what? Nearly a century I think.
 

triceretops

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Hmmm...my agent is hooking me up with HH. They're looking for a young reader book for 5-9 year-olds. It will be a story about the La Brea tar pits, and I've done research on this for my Valley of the Mastodons book for the Hemet dig. This is out of my league a weeee bit, but it's only 500 to 2000 pages, which I can do in an evening. If they pass on it, agent says she could push it out elsewhere and see wuss up.

Thinking, thinking, thinking. This is a great publisher though, with really nice distribution. Does anyone have any idea if this is a flat rate, or advance and royalty program? I'm real gun shy about asking my agent for the dollar figures, since she set me up with this.

Wondering what in the name of all that is holy and decent qualifies as a platform for this type of book. It's core science, of course, but a very simplified format for kids, light on the paleontological gobbledegook.

tri
 

Vandal

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Hmmm...my agent is hooking me up with HH. They're looking for a young reader book for 5-9 year-olds. It will be a story about the La Brea tar pits, and I've done research on this for my Valley of the Mastodons book for the Hemet dig. This is out of my league a weeee bit, but it's only 500 to 2000 pages, which I can do in an evening. If they pass on it, agent says she could push it out elsewhere and see wuss up.

Thinking, thinking, thinking. This is a great publisher though, with really nice distribution. Does anyone have any idea if this is a flat rate, or advance and royalty program? I'm real gun shy about asking my agent for the dollar figures, since she set me up with this.

Wondering what in the name of all that is holy and decent qualifies as a platform for this type of book. It's core science, of course, but a very simplified format for kids, light on the paleontological gobbledegook.

tri


Sounds great tri! I hope you take the gig. Anyone who can bang out that many pages is god-like!