Over the past seven years I've had the great privilege of working with HarperCollins editor Kristin Daly Rens. She's incredibly patient, fantastically insightful, and funny to boot. If you ever have the opportunity to collaborate with her I highly recommend taking it. You don't have to take my word for it, though, all you have to do is read this interview to know what a gem she is.
PJ: What does an average day look like for you?
KDR: Every day is a little different, but for the most part, my work days begins at around 7:30, with reading submissions. If I’m working from home, I’ll curl up on the couch to read; if I’m heading into the office, I read on the bus and subway. Once we hit 9:00 I shift gears to email, responding to a submission or two and then answering any emails that came overnight or that I didn’t have a chance to respond to the day before.
After that most days are a mix of reviewing various materials, more email, and meetings—each week, we have a roster of regular meetings, including production meetings to go over book schedules and when materials are due, our weekly cover discussion meetings with design, acquisitions meeting, our team meeting, my weekly one-on-one meeting with my manager, and a pub planning/operations meeting. We also have biweekly marketing update meetings and jacket meeting where sales/marketing reviews the latest covers. In between, I try to get some work done! Depending on where we are in our seasonal schedules, that could take the form of drafting catalog or flap copy, writing launch presentations, reviewing sketches or in-progress jacket layouts, reviewing copy edits or proofread passes of novels, reviewing marketing materials, and generally facilitating the flow of information between the team here and our authors/agents. If I have a whole hour free I might even try to squeeze in a couple chapters of editing. I’m sure there’s also a ton I’m not thinking of!
Around 4:30 I stop to answer emails for an hour or so, and then I’ll usually close email so I can spend an hour or two focusing on editing before I shut down for the night.
PJ: What would you say are the biggest changes to publishing post pandemic?
KDR: In terms of the day-to-day job, two of the more significant changes have been publishers being more open to remote work, and also that we’ve gone from reviewing materials on paper to reviewing everything electronically. This includes the actual editing of texts—which my brain and eyes are still adjusting to, honestly!
In terms of the actual publishing landscape, there are so many ways in which things have changed—in some cases as a result of the pandemic and in others just due to the ways in which people’s reading and purchasing habits change over time. The call for shorter books is one change that came out of the pandemic—even though kids were reading more during the pandemic, they were also spending more time on screens, which has diminished attention spans. There’s also the changing middle-grade market, and the shift in Barnes & Noble’s middle-grade strategy. On the YA and adult side, there’s also been the rise of romance and romantasy—first due to the pandemic, and then to the stress of everything going on in the world, readers have been gravitating toward escapist fiction, particularly if it comes with a happily-ever-after.
PJ: Are publishers looking for shorter kidlit books? If so, are there certain aspects of the story that tend to be trimmed or cut out entirely?
KDR: We definitely seem to be hearing more often that kids are looking for shorter books—as are the teachers and librarians who put books into kids’ hands. Part of editing and revising has always been to look for ways to tell each story in the paciest and most satisfying way possible, without too many empty calories. And, honestly, I—like most editors I know—am a firm believer that every book should be just as long or short as that particular story calls for. So I don’t necessarily think publishers are looking to trim or cut specific parts of stories wholesale just to make them shorter. Rather, the call for shorter stories is something editors—and I’m sure agents too—are keeping in mind as they’re reviewing new projects, looking for manuscripts that fit that need.
PJ: If you could give one piece of advice to authors in the submission trenches what would it be?
KDR: Can I offer two? Most importantly, I think I’d say: Do your research! There are a lot of agents—and publishers/imprints—out there, so you want to make sure you’re targeting the ones that are the right fit for you and your book.
And I know this second bit of advice is easier said than done, but—try to be patient! Like editors, most agents are reading queries/submissions outside actual work hours—they’re trying to move as quickly as they can, but their reading time for queries/submissions is at a premium. So don’t despair if you don’t hear feedback right away! Just because an agent doesn’t offer lightning-quick doesn’t mean that your book won’t find its perfect home!
PJ: What draws you to a book?
KDR: I’m a sucker for voice! So a really bold, memorable voice will almost always draw me in.
PJ: What is your story catnip? Like if a book has this you are all in?
KDR: Dogs. Baked goods. Friendship breakups. Really snarky, banter-y enemies or rivals to lovers romances. A well-plotted mystery that keeps me guessing. Just to name a few things!
PJ: What drew you to being an editor for kidlit?
KDR: Like so many of us who grow up to work in books, I was a reader from a very young age—and it was the books I read and loved as a child that made me a reader for life. But it wasn’t until I was working in my local public library—shout out to the John C. Hart Memorial Library in Shrub Oak, NY!—in high school that I realized I wanted to work in children’s books. My first job was as a page, shelving books. None of the other pages wanted to shelve in the children’s room because the books were thinner, so there were more on each cart—and thus more work. So I volunteered, and soon found myself gravitating there every day—I would take a cart of picture books and shelve a few, then read one, shelve a few more, then read another. Which eventually led to me rereading some of the books I loved as a middle-grade reader as well. I can pretty much trace my career in children’s books directly back to those days at the library.
PJ: We worked on animal POV books together, what is it about animal POV that appeals to you?
KDR: As someone who spends a significant amount of time every day trying to figure out what my dog, Shirley, is trying to say to me (or, really, what she’s trying to order me to do!), there’s something really appealing about a world in which we’re privy to our furry loved ones’ thoughts and feelings. Animal POV can also be an effective lens through which to explore some big subjects in a way that’s accessible for younger readers—filtering a hard topic through an animal character’s POV can create a little bit of distance from the reader, making the subject a little easier to wrap one’s head around or even making it a little less scary.
PJ: What book(s) did you love as a child?
KDR: Oh gosh, so many! I’ve always been an avid reader, and growing up I devoured every book I could get my hands on. Unsurprisingly, I especially loved genre fiction—including the Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew mysteries, as well as fantasies like the Chronicles of Narnia, the Chronicles of Prydain, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I also adored classics like Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. I remember getting a Penguin Junior Classics edition of Jane Eyre in something like 4th grade and loving it, though when I read it again in high school I realized a good chunk of it had definitely gone over my head, haha.
ABOUT KRISTIN
Kristin Daly Rens is an executive editor with the Storytide imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books. Kristin first became interested in children’s publishing in high school, when she worked in her local library shelving—and often covertly reading!—books in the children’s room. Her first job in publishing was as an Editorial Assistant at Golden Books. In 2002 she joined HarperCollins, and for fifteen years was an editor with the Balzer + Bray imprint. Since 2024 she has been part of Harper’s newest imprint, Storytide, where she edits middle grade and teen fiction, as well as select picture books and nonfiction titles.
ABOUT PJ
She lives in Southern California with her husband and sons, a mischievous cat named Kaiju, and a rambunctious Boston Terriers named Rocky.
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