Ivan Taurisano, Associate Editor, Abrams

Ivan Taurisano was born in Rome, Italy, and moved to the United States almost ten years ago to pursue a children’s book publishing career. The guiding principle of his work is that a child whose life is changed by a book will always be a step closer to becoming an adult who will change the world. Ivan’s all-time favorite book is James and the Giant Peach, and his best friend is a chihuahua named Bilbo.

Ivan has a BA in English and Creative Writing, an MA in Children’s Literature, and an MFA in Writing for Children. He started his career at Sourcebooks as an Editorial Assistant, then moved on to become an Assistant Editor. His responsibilities included developing children’s board books, picture books, and graphic novels, as well as acquiring board books and picture books. Ivan has worked with many successful series and brands, including How to Catch, Little Heroes Big Hearts, Sesame Street, Disney, Tokidoki, and Pokémon.

Currently, Ivan lives in New York and works at Abrams as an Associate Editor on the Children’s Entertainment Publishing and Content Development team. In this role, he focuses novelty books, board books, graphic novels, and select MG and YA titles. He is especially interested in stories with a strong commercial hook, crave-able content, compelling characters, and series potential.

Board books and picture books: Ivan is interested in children’s board books and picture books that are kid-centric, interactive, character-driven, and have series potential. He enjoys titles with a strong hook, fun read-alouds, great rhymes, bold and playful imaginative stories, books that break the fourth wall and invite reader participation, as well as seasonal stories such as Christmas and Halloween.

MG: Ivan is interested in plot-driven, action-packed adventures with a strong commercial hook, compelling characters, magic, quests/competitions, and high stakes.

YA: Ivan prefers strong commercial hooks, well-plotted, character-driven, atmospheric stories, and series potential. He loves fantasy, magic, and quests/competitions. He likes unique, morally grey characters, memorable villains, and propulsive, cinematic writing.

Ivan is not the best fit for nonfiction, retellings, historical fiction, biographies, and novels in verse.

Work with Ivan

LIVE Meetings: Meet face-to-face, from home. Choose Zoom, Google Meet, or phone, and speak for the appointed time about your query, first page, and/or first ten pages (for longer meetings). Does not include written notes, but is a chance to have an honest discussion about your work, and to ask follow-up questions. International meetings welcomed.

WRITTEN Critiques: Get detailed, thoughtful notes on your work. Comes with large-scale edits (character, world, plot, tension, concept, conflict, and similar as needed) in an editorial letter and small-scale, line-by-line notes as needed (for longer critiques, an average of three per page). Work arrives in your inbox by the date on the calendar.

HYBRID is a live meeting at the appointment time, with written notes.