Frances Gilbert
Frances Gilbert
VP, Editor-in-Chief, Doubleday Books for Young Readers, Random House Children’s Books
FRANCES GILBERT started her career in children’s books when she was still a child, working in the children’s department of her town library throughout high school. After graduating from university with an M.A. in English, Frances’s first job in publishing was as a Book Club Editor at Scholastic Canada in Toronto. She moved to New York in 2000 to set up a children’s editorial division at Sterling Publishing, where she stayed till 2012. Frances then moved to Random House Children’s Books, where she is VP, Editor-in-Chief of Doubleday Books for Young Readers. Titles she has acquired and edited include the New York Times bestseller The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine by Mark Twain, Philip Stead, and Erin Stead; I Don’t Want to Be a Frog by Dev Petty and Mike Boldt; the Happy Hair series by Mechal Renee Roe; Bunny’s Book Club by Annie Silvestro and Tatjana Mai-Wyss; and Wordy Birdy by Tammi Sauer and Dave Mottram.
In addition to editing children’s books, Frances also writes them: She is the author of the picture books Can You Hug a Forest?, Go, Girls, Go!, Too Much Slime!, and I Will Always Be Your Bunny and the Step Into Reading titles I Love Pink!, I Love My Tutu!, I Love My Grandma!, I Love Cake!, and I Love My Teacher!
You can follow Frances on Twitter at @GoGirlsGoBooks, where she posts about children’s writing and editing.
“Having access to editors, agents, art directors and other publishing professionals who spend all their working days thinking about children's books is an invaluable opportunity to learn current and relevant information about the genre.”