Meticulous Development
1. Topic development
We get suggestions for topics from our groups of test readers, from letters sent by other students, and from teachers. Sometimes authors suggest a topic based on a recent news article or a personal interest. Topics are vetted by our test groups to see if there is a general level of student interest.
2. Writing the novels
HIP asks authors to develop an outline for a proposed title that breaks the story into approximately ten chapters. Our editors offer suggestions, and then the writing begins. We recommend that authors attempt to write simply and clearly, using a first-person voice, with realistic dialogue. Worrying about readability is too stifling during the creative process. The focus at this point is creation of an exciting and engaging story.
3. Substantive editing and student testing
Like any books, HIP novels receive a substantive edit. This provides suggestions to the author to further develop characters, or improve the story, or enhance the appeal of the book. At the same time, the book is sent out for review by groups of students who comment on the books in their development stage.
4. Readability control
When the book has been through a second or third draft, and met with a favorable response from students, we begin readability editing. The first stage uses the Flesch-Kincaid formula applied to every 100 words of text. The goal is to stabilize the technical reading difficulty to within plus/minus one grade level. Then we use a more sophisticated computer program to re-analyze the text, chapter by chapter. This program provides us with data for the Fry, Spache and Flesch readability levels. Finally, we use another program separate out all the words in the story. We compare that list (usually 1000-1200 words) with our proprietary HIP 800 word list (words commonly known by students reading at a grade-three level, with some additional slang expressions). Any words not on that list (usually 200-300) are examined in the novel. Are they important to the story? Are they decodable? Is the meaning clear from context? Do they need to be listed in the teacher’s guide?
5. Final editing and review
At this stage, the illustrations are drawn (and sometimes redrawn), the cover is created (and sometimes this leads to changes in the title or the book itself) and our copyeditor begins work on the text. Work begins on the teacher’s guide. At last, our designer creates a first proof of the novel. The HIP editorial staff goes through that first proof to look for any end-of-line hyphens (not allowed in HIP novels) or any “loose lines” where the typesetting program has inserted too much white space. We rewrite to eliminate these visual problems. The second proof is sent to an external proofer to catch any items we’ve missed in-house. Then a third proof goes off for printing. A year or two after the process began, a new HIP novel is ready for classrooms and libraries.
