Behind-the-Scenes of Red Hen: A Conversation with Monica Fernandez
By Lizzy Young
Media Director Monica Fernandez is up next in our Behind-the-Scenes of Red Hen Blog Series!
Monica Fernandez graduated from the University of California, Irvine cum laude with a BA in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing, and from City University London with a MA in Creative Writing and Publishing. She has had several short fiction and creative nonfiction pieces published in The Chaffey Review, Rind Literary Magazine, Scribendi, The Left Coast Review, Creepy Gnome, and Pure Slush Magazine’s Envy anthology. She is Filipino-American, a proud Hufflepuff, and a film and theatre enthusiast.
Monica manages the media and publicity of all Red Hen’s books. She pioneers the Red Hen Reading Series in Pasadena, CA, arranges our participation in literary events across the country, promotes book news, reviews, and press publicity across our social media networks and contacts, connects authors with media and interview opportunities, and liaises with Foreign Rights and Film Rights agents for prospective sale of language and film rights.
Lizzy Young: What are your primary responsibilities at Red Hen?
Monica Fernandez: I’m in charge of the media coverage and publicity for Red Hen’s books and authors, so I’m responsible for sending out review copies and trying to land reviews and coverage for our books! I’m also in charge of events, so I curate, coordinate, promote, and run all of the events in the Red Hen event series, plus our appearances at book fairs and tradeshow festivals nationwide. I’m also the Foreign Rights Manager, so I work hand-in-hand with our Managing Editor, Kate Gale, to sell foreign language rights for our books and get our books translated and published in different languages and countries.
LY: As the media director, what would you say are some of the most important things you do when marketing a book?
MF: Me, personally? I think it’s important for me to be able to pinpoint the best and most interesting parts of each of our books so I can effectively pitch them or hand-sell them at events. There are a bunch of things I could say in terms of “getting review copies out on time” or “sending festival submissions for our authors” but I really feel like I’m excelling at my job when I am directly involved in getting someone else excited about one of our books. I didn’t realize being a Media Director is so close to being a salesperson, but it is! At least (and fortunately for me) I truly believe in and am genuinely excited about the books Red Hen publishes, and my role in getting them out into the world.
LY: You are also the foreign rights director. What other languages have Red Hen titles been published in and how does that process work?
MF: Red Hen books have been published in French, Italian, Turkish, and Chinese Simplified Characters so far, with a few other languages/territories in the works! Trying to sell foreign rights is a lot like trying to sell your book, as an author, to a publisher, except now it’s a publisher trying to sell a book to a publisher. Kate goes to several foreign rights fairs every year (London, Guadalajara, Frankfurt, sometimes Beijing, and now we’re trying out Sharjah (in the UAE) and Bologna) and I help set up meetings with our subrights agents and any attending publishers or scouts that might be interested in the work we’re publishing. Kate then meets with these people, learns more about their publishing style or what they or their clients might be looking for, and pitches a few Red Hen books to them. When she returns, she gives me a document full of notes and a booklet of business cards, and I follow up with everyone with the manuscripts of books that Kate wants each contact to see. The publisher (or agent, or scout) would then determine if it’s a good fit for their list (or their client’s list) and would make an offer to purchase the rights for them to publish the book in their proposed language within their territory. It’s a long process, and takes a while, but it’s so exciting when we get copies of the translated books, and give the news to the author that their book is now available in a different language!
LY: How do you balance all the responsibilities of your job? And keep track of the multiple publishing seasons you are working on at one time?
MF: I honestly don’t know how I do it; I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants all the time! Luckily, I have an amazing team, both in the staff and amongst my interns, that really help. I’ve been with Red Hen for five years so far and have learned so much, and primarily have really learned from the mistakes I made early on. I’m one of those people that feels like if I’m not ahead of schedule, then I’m behind, so I have learned to plan and work on many things well ahead of time so future-me will be less stressed. The different aspects of my job all have roughly similar timelines, as well: a lot of foreign rights books fairs, plus domestic consumer book fairs, plus industry tradeshows, all take place around the same times each year. Typically, I just take a look at what month it is, what is going on in the month(s) ahead, and what needs to be done to ensure those future months are the most successful they can be. It’s a lot to juggle and I’m no expert by any means, but it’s become an act that I’m learning to get better at every day.
LY: You are also in charge of film rights, how does a book become a movie? Have any Red Hen books become movies yet?
MF: I wish I knew how a book becomes a movie! Film rights are a new thing for me and for us at Red Hen so I’m definitely still learning (if anyone out there has tips or experience, please get in touch with me!) but it’s an exciting industry! Currently, we work with The Gotham Group and ICM Partners and send loglines of our most film-able books to our contacts there, and if any interest happens, we send a full manuscript for consideration. We haven’t gotten any Red Hen books turned into movies yet, BUT a short film featuring poet David Mason was shot featuring work and his journey writing his latest book Pacific Light, which is getting some film festival buzz and just won an Award of Merit for Best Documentary Short at the IndieFest Awards, and our author, Cai Emmons, recently diagnosed with ALS, is having a documentary shot about her journey since her diagnosis. A robust list of production company leads was also created (thank you, Lizzy, for your help with that!) and I’m excited to put my thinking cap on and start reaching out to these places in earnest.
LY: What are you currently reading?
MF: I’ve actually been trying to write more! I came into the publishing industry as a writer, but haven’t been doing much writing for a plethora of reasons. Now that NaNoWriMo is upon us, I’ve set a small goal of at least 500 words a day, which is certainly doable, and progress is progress! I don’t have much spare time these days, with work and weekend/evening events, but I’m making my way through the short story collection In the Country by Mia Alvar and am also working through some Filipino mythology books by Maximo D. Ramos as research. Red Hen will be taking a two-week winter break at the end of December and I look forward to binge-reading some upcoming Red Hen books in that time as well!
We hope that Monica’s conversation gives you a better peek into the many hats she wears at Red Hen. Questions for Monica? Drop them in the comments below!
