NEW YORK--It doesn’t take long to realize that Steve Geck is perfectly suited for the children’s book business.
All you need is to hear him sing the praises of a Margaret Peterson Haddix novel. Or the Caldecott-winning Click, Clack, Moo. Heck, how ‘bout a really good maze book? Geck likes those too.
The 44-year-old Minnesota native came to Simon & Schuster last year after two decades in book selling, including several years as the director of children’s books for Barnes and Noble. He now oversees four editors and shapes a list of 85 books annually for the S&S’s trade-oriented Books for Young Readers imprint.
Unpretentious and easy-going, able to recite entire picture book texts from memory, Geck graciously sat down for an hour-plus interview in his office at Simon & Schuster’s New York headquarters to talk about his career in children’s books.
Odanaka: How did you become interested in children’s books?
Geck: My mother was an elementary school librarian and my siblings and I would be dropped off after school at the library--Longfellow Library, which was built like Longfellow’s home. I would go there every day. It had a fireplace and porches on the side and a big, grand staircase with a chandelier. I mean it was just amazing. I grew up loving books and was surrounded by them. When all of us were in college, my parents decided to open a children’s bookstore in St. Cloud, Minnesota, called The Tree House. I actually started working for them part-time and that’s how I got into book selling. [Geck later sold books at Odeogaard’s and the Red Balloon in St. Paul].
Odanaka: What brought you to New York?
Geck: I answered an ad for an assistant manager [at Eeyore’s children’s bookstore]. I took a chance and I’ve been here ever since.
Odanaka: You went on to become the head of acquisitions for Children’s Book of the Month Club. What was that like?
Geck: I think we acquired about 100 new titles a year, maybe a little bit more. So it meant that over the course of a year we presented 100 new books as well as constantly repeating the backlist… There were three of us and between us we would choose the books and create the catalog and manage the inventory… It was about finding the best books.
Odanaka: Sort of sums up your job now, right?
Geck: Yeah. You had a P&L [profit and loss statement], you had to run your numbers, you knew what you had to earn out, had to know the number of units you had to sell…
Odanaka: So it’s not just sitting here reading books?
Geck: [laughing] Oh god, I wish I could read a book at work some day.
Odanaka: You were with Barnes and Noble before you came to Simon & Schuster?
Geck: Yes, for two and a half years. I really liked [B&N]. It was a lot of fun because it was also during the time of [the initial] Harry Potter [craze]. I thought it was a great book and was really excited to make things happen with it. But Simon & Schuster approached me, and at this point I had kind of done it all in the world of book selling [laughs]. It was a really intriguing opportunity. My joke is that for years I’ve been giving my opinion on all these books, so it was time to put my money where my mouth was.
Odanaka: Is it unusual for someone with a sales background to end up in a position as high as yours?
Geck: Well, when I went to work for Children’s Book of the Month Club, I was, at the time, the only person who had worked in a bookstore—most people were from publishing [with] editorial or sales/marketing [backgrounds]. I only realized after I got there that it was unusual, but actually it made a lot of sense. They needed someone who knew a whole cross-section of what was being published. And that’s why I’m at Simon & Schuster, from what I understand.
Odanaka: OK. Give me an example of the “perfect” children’s book.
Geck: Well…I’ll tell you one I think is perfect: Click, Clack, Moo. I loved that book because parents love to read that book out loud. They think it is so funny. And the art is so, so brilliant. [And] children love the art, they love the story, they love the refrain of “Click, clack, moo…click, clack, moo!” It’s hysterical, the kids just giggle! That is a perfect one, I think.
Odanaka: Why did you choose the children’s book world over adults’?
Geck: Well, one part is that I just fell into working in children’s books and never stopped. But the other part is because I love them so much. I love it all. I mean, I love great board books. I admire a clever pop-up. I like a good maze book [laughs]. I just respect a book that gets a kid excited, that stimulates him, that satisfies him, that entertains him.
And I like watching a happy child and a happy parent. I’ve always enjoyed that…You feel you’re contributing something, I think, working with children’s books. It matters.
