Is there a formula for success?

What do you do when “A new twist on something familiar” starts to feel overly simplistic?

Enter editor Ivan Taurisano, editor at Abrams, who works from the opposite direction of most editors: he can think of a concept that’s marketable, then put together the team to make it happen.

We discuss:

***Collaborating with Licensing Partners: Ivan works closely with major brands like Disney, Netflix, and others to create books that resonate with current market trends.

***Data-Driven Decision Making: Unlike traditional editors who wait for manuscripts, Ivan actively seeks out market trends and creates content that meets those demands.

***Monitoring Bestseller Lists: Checking Amazon and New York Times bestseller lists to identify common themes and outliers.

***Examining BISAC Codes: Understanding how books are categorized to spot market trends.

***Creating Engaging and Humorous Content: Books should be fun and engaging for children, encouraging a love of reading.

***Finding the Sweet Spot: Balancing humor and content that resonates with children while being appropriate for parents.

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.

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Schedule a meeting with Ivan here: manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-member…ivan-taurisano

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