Keeping Track - Editorial

It's official! This year's editorial Track Leader is...Todd Hafer, Senior Editorial Director for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Missouri. As well as running the publishing division of the greeting card behemoth, Todd is a veteran author with more than two dozen titles to his credit (Todd and his brother Jedd have tag-teamed on numerous juvenile-fiction titles, check out their website).
Although this was the last Track Leader spot we had to fill, Todd has wasted no time at all in putting together some incredible material (like any good author/editor) for this year's track. While he hasn't filled all of the presenter slots yet, as of our phone call yesterday, he has contacted most of his prospects and is hopeful that he will meet with good success.

To give you a sneak peek at what Todd has planned, here is the lineup he sent to me - subject to change of course:

1. Authors roundtable/panel discussion: What we wish editors knew about authors. My plan is to build a small panel of one newer author, one fairly established author, and one "grizzled veteran."

2. Acquiring/editing books for readers beyond the church. This could be expanded to include (or focus on) the "emergent church."

3(a) or 3(b) -- Working with literary agents [or] An agent's view of today's publishing world.

4. The basics: Do they still matter? In today's text-message and email-saturated culture, does anyone still care about grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.? Do they still matter? Can you craft a good book without them?

5. Creating books for non-readers. One of the present and future challenges for the publishing industry is that fewer people are identifying themselves as print-media readers. (Hence the severe decline in newspaper
sales/revenue.) Can today's editors acquire and craft books that will capture the attention of non-readers? What new formats might be the key to bridging this gap?