EMILY SAW A DOOR + Interview with author Mel Rosenberg + a Giveaway!

Happy New Year, Picture Book Builder People!

It’s my first post of the year and I’m SO excited to share with you an absolutely beautiful book: EMILY SAW A DOOR, by Mel Rosenberg, illustrated by Orit Magia, and published in North America by Random House Studio (It was previously published in Israel, which we’ll get to in a moment!)

I’m so thrilled to have Mel here to chat with us about the making and publication of this book! You are in for a TREAT!

RGL: Welcome, Mel! What an absolutely GORGEOUS book, entertaining and full of subtle humor, but also with a poignant message about belonging and a not-quite-as-subtle social commentary about people’s resistance to accepting and including those who are different from themselves. So, tell me, what is the back story behind this story? Why did you feel like this was a tale you needed to tell?

MR: Thank you so much! If it’s a gorgeous book, then we need to thank the incredible illustrator, Orit Magia. The moment I glimpsed (with trepidation, I admit) at her sketches of Emily, I was ecstatic. And the doors! My goodness. I am so lucky. 

I think that the back story behind any story is the life palette of the storyteller. The specific ‘prompt’ that led me to write the first draft was a sign at amerry-go-round on the Tel Aviv beach excluding kids who were less than 80 cm. tall. But I’ve been dealing with inclusion and rejection since kindergarten. Haven’t most of us? And yes, it was a manuscript that somehow I ‘needed’ to write. Although it went through dozens of revisions, I had a feeling about it from the start. 

RGL: I understand that EMILY SAW A DOOR was first published in Israel, in Hebrew, and did really well there (Not surprised AT ALL!)

MR: Yes, the book was first published by Tal-May in Israel (a small but splendid publisher) and did very well, won national awards, and was selected by Sifriat Pijama (the Israeli arm of PJ Library). As a result over 50,000 books in Hebrew are being distributed this month to children in second grade. 

RGL: That’s so wonderful! So, tell us, how did the book end up being acquired in the US? 

MR: As you know, I have a video/podcast channel with the New Books Network (you have been a recent guest!), and one of my interviewees was the fabulous agent Liza Fleissig. We had quite an animated conversation, lasting over an hour (probably my longest). As a matter of courtesy, Liza agreed to take a look at the pdf of “Emily Saw a Door” in English. I am quite certain that she was just being nice. But to my great and utter joy, Liza and her partner Ginger Harris loved both the story and the artwork. They promptly sold the book (with the original illustrations) to Annie Kelley at Random House Studio. So now I have a book deal with a wonderful editor and publisher, and wonderful representation. Ironically enough, Emily now only opened her own door – she opened mine too!

RGL: I love that story so much! When you decided to submit EMILY to the North American market, did you do the translation from Hebrew to English yourself? Did you change or were you asked to change anything else (either before or after acquisition) in the text (phrasing? plot points?) or in the illustrations in order to appeal to the new audience? If so, how did you feel about those changes?

MR: One of the many lessons I learned from attending my first SCBWI conference in New York, ten years ago, was to go back to writing my stories in my mother tongue – English (I grew up in Ottawa, Canada). So, Emily was originally written in English and translated into Hebrew.  Prior to its original publication in Hebrew, the story did go through a lot of revisions. For example, one of the requests by the wonderful editor at Tal-May (Yotam Shwimmer) was to trim the text down to less than 350 words. Yikes! But he was absolutely right. So when I prepared the pdf in English, I had to go back, shorten the text, and make a few changes to align the story with the artwork. I think that all this ping pong between languages helped improve the manuscript!!! 

Annie and the team at PRH left the text and illustrations pretty much intact. They did make the book bigger (I like it!) and changed the original orange cover to a very bold blue (I love it). 

RGL: The illustrations by Orit Magia are absolutely STUNNING. I adore the use of white space throughout. Did you have any say in the illustrator choice and/or how much input did you have into the illustrations over all? Did you have a lot of illustration notes? 

MR: I had little say or input in the illustration process, and that was a wise decision. Yotam loves white space. Together with the visionary publisher of Tal-May, Meira Firon, they have built a popular series of picture books/early readers, and all the books in the series employ lots of white space. I think they saw the potential of ‘”Emily Saw a Door” fitting into the series. And Orit Magia was their perfect choice to illustrate it. Why should I get involved in something I know so little about? 

So, yes, Orit Magia’s illustrations are ‘absolutely stunning.” And remarkable. I am so lucky. I will just add that the double spread in which Emily draws her world was Orit’s idea, not mine. And it’s my favorite spread in the book!

I’m not a believer in illustration notes, except when you really need them. If I remember correctly, there was only one note in the manuscript about the silent spread where Emily sees the chalk drawings on the ground and come up with the idea to draw her own door. Illustration notes interfere (I think) with the process by which the illustrator takes emotional ownership over the story, and makes it his/her/their own, jointly, and independent of the author. 

RGL: What do you hope readers walk away thinking or feeling after reading EMILY? 

MR: For me, it’s a story of resilience in the face of rejections and disappointments. Emily triumphs in the end creating her own door, her own vision. 

But what I hope or not turns out to be less important in the end. As Harold Underdown (my wonderful mentor of the past five years) has taught me, it’s more about the reader response. What do the readers actually make of the story? How do they interpret the doors and Emily’s journey? I know from some of the reviews that learned people can have a completely different ‘take’ on what I intended. Or thought I intended.  Although I was initially taken aback (how could they think that door ‘x’ means ‘y’), I see it now as a blessing. 

RGL: And now, my favorite question to ask my guests: What is one question no one has yet to ask you about the making of this book that you would love to answer? (And what’s the answer?!)

MR: What does luck have to do with it? 

A lot. For example,  I met Yotam Shwimmer by happenstance. The manuscript happened to fit into his vision for their ongoing series. That was luck. I happened to see the sign at the sea. And so on. On the other hand, I am a bit of a luck burglar. For example, I did ‘pester’ Yotam to meet me for coffee and have a look at my manuscript. I did prevail upon Liza to have a look at the pdf. And I do read the small print on signs. 

The chance of having a picture book traditionally published is much less than one in a hundred. Probably less than one in a thousand. It’s not enough to “be prepared when luck strikes.” Sometimes you have to jiggle luck a  bit. Or as my friend Jeff Pulver likes to say, “If you don’t ask, the answer is no.” 

After all, Emily did knock. Again and again. 

RGL: Indeed!! Thank you again for sharing all this amazing backstory with us, Mel!

And yes, dear readers, Mel is generously offering to do a giveaway of either a copy of EMILY SAW A DOOR or a 30-min Ask Me Anything Zoom session! Post a comment on this post to enter. The winner will be announced on my next post, 3/10!

An the winner of last month’s giveaway, a copy of Tricia Torrible’s TORRIBLE PUNS, is….

***DEB BUSCHMAN!!!***

Congrats, Deb! Please email me at RebeccaWrites4Kids@gmail.com to claim your prize!

Mel’s Bio: 

Mel Rosenberg dreamed of becoming a traditionally-published author in his twenties, but he didn’t think he was good enough (he wasnt), and went through life pursuing careers in science, education, innovation and music. Finally, after, fifty years, his debut book in North America, “Emily Saw a Door,” illustrated by Orit Magia, is being published in North America by Penguin Random House. Mel’s book can be pre-ordered here!