A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How a Picture Book Became a Doll

This was originally published in the October 2021 edition of my almost-monthly newsletter.

Today I’m excited to share a behind-the-scenes look at how a picture book became a plush doll!

Starting with books.

When you look at books that have become dolls (or other merchandise), you’ll notice they generally are either part of a series or it’s a single title that’s had lots of readers and is continuing to grow in popularity.

It’s a very special kind of book that can grow in this space - book(s) with a recognizable, unique character that will translate well to fluff and fabric. And Charlene Chua’s design for Amy definitely fit that bill!

Bringing the plush.

I’d always loved the MerryMakers line, and had hoped that one day there would be a project of mine as either agent or author that would translate well for them!

When Charlene Chua and I started talking about possibilities for Amy, we envisioned this adorable stuffed cat with a velcro bao in their paw to go with Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao. Contractually, we retained the rights to license merchandise, but that was just to the illustrations. Before anything could happen, I’d also need to make sure the author had the rights and was on board.

I reached out to Kat Zhang’s agent (the wonderful Emmanuelle Morgen at Stonesong), and asked if they held the rights and if she was interested in exploring some possibilities for Amy. They were interested, and we were all looking forward to the publication of the second Amy Wu book - Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon - in December of 2020.

We reached out to MerryMakers shortly after the third Amy Wu - Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome - was sold and scheduled for the summer of 2022. In the meantime, the first book had already been featured in the New York Times and on Today.com's best list of gifts for 5 year-olds, and the second book was picked by Amazon as a Best Book for Ages 3 - 5 and selected for the Winter 2020-2021 Kid's Indie Next List.

Things were happening for Amy Wu!

And while we were in conversation with MerryMakers, more good news kept coming. Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon was selected as Jumpstart’s 2021 Read for the Record book, which meant a global read-aloud in October (on the 28th!) and a special edition of the book as well as ebooks in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Iconographic video rights for the first three books were sold to Dreamscape. And another educational company was interested in a product made just for schools.

MerryMakers came back to us and said they wanted to make an Amy Wu doll with a reversible shirt based on Patchwork Dragon - and needless to say, we were thrilled!

Making the 2D into 3D.

So Amy Wu the doll was happening!

After Emmanuelle and I negotiated the contract with MerryMakers, the MerryMakers design team got to work on the prototype. We saw versions with different hair (the felt hair is so nice!), different color mouths and the team did a lot of work working with the author and illustrator to make sure the eyes and hairstyle were just like Amy’s in the book.

It was super exciting every time I received an update email with pictures of a new version of the doll, and it was amazing to watch Charlene, Kat and the whole design team fine tune the look of the final doll so that what we can hold in our hands now is very recognizable as Amy.

They’re here!

Once the final design was approved by the author and illustrator, the doll went into production! Despite the challenges of shipping, they arrived in the Fall as planned.

I actually couldn’t wait for my complimentary agent copy to arrive, and the doll you see in the picture above was ordered directly from MerryMakers!

The MerryMakers team will also continue to reach out to bookstores and retailers across the country, so perhaps you’ll find Amy in a store near you!

What’s next?

I certainly hope that Amy Wu will be around for a long time to come (and perhaps we’ll see Amy’s cat next… but that’s just wishful thinking on my part!) I think my favorite Amy Wu book is actually the third book that’s forthcoming - Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome. (I love learning languages, but I most definitely empathize with Amy in feeling nervous and self-conscious when trying to speak any language other than my primary!)

I hope you found this both interesting and helpful! It’s not every book that goes through this process, but it’s always fun to see what’s possible!