Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Barry Cunningham of Chicken House Books Visits the Book Clubs

If it wasn’t for Barry Cunningham, Harry Potter might still be languishing in his cupboard under the stairs… -J. K. Rowling

Barry Cunningham, publisher and editor at Chicken House Books, visited with the Young Critics' Club and Young Young Critics' Club on Friday, October 20th, 2006. You may not recognize Barry's name, but you will definitely know the authors he works with. He discovered and published J.K. Rowling in the U.K. before she was published in the U.S. For his publishing company, Chicken House Books, he has put out books by Cornelia Funke, Kevin Brooks, and Stuart Hill, among others. Mr. Cunningham talked about J.K Rowling and the Harry Potter books, Cornelia Funke and the trials and tribulations of translating a book into English, the difficulties of adapting books into movies, and the personalities of the writers that he works with. Barry also brought lots of galleys of upcoming books from Chicken House, which he talked about, and which were then raffled off to lucky YCC members!

Click here to see a video clip [in .WMV format, playable with Windows Media Player] of Mr. Cunningham talking about how J.K. Rowling had the entire Harry Potter saga planned out before she started writing. More video clips and photos here!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Barry Cunninghams visit was very informative. He seemed to like brown a lot and cared a lot about the books he was publishing.

Anonymous said...

I also liked how Barry Cunningham didn't just publish any book that was submitted to him. He said that he only published a book about once every six months. He is selective.

Anonymous said...

He really got me started into writing and i now have a story thats still only one fifth of his minimum. I can't believe how much authors have to write just to even think about publishing or submitting a manuscript. He was really awesome and he picks only the best of the best.