Reposted by Cheryl B. Klein
shirley jackson you tell em
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
Cheryl B. Klein
@cherylklein.bsky.social
3.6K followers 153 following 2.6K posts
I notice things for a living. Editorial director, Workman Kids; author of THE MAGIC WORDS: WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS and five picture books, most recently IT’S HARD TO BE A BABY; 7yo mom; Virgo/goofball. Opinions my own.
![Screencap from “Novvel.co Produces Graphic Novel Adaptations with AI Assistance” by Ed Nawotka for Publishers Weekly, accessed 9/23/2026. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/101260-novvel-co-pioneers-producing-graphic-novels-with-ai-assistance.html
We came together around the question of how to make reading exciting again in a world of declining attention spans. We spent a lot of time talking to teachers and parents, and looked at literacy data, which shows the biggest drop in reading tends to happen right around the grade level when kids are also getting their first phones, typically middle school.
We landed on the hypothesis that a graphic novel is the ideal format to bring people back to reading, not just reluctant readers.
[Question] Why isn't there more graphic-novel content already, if the format works so well?
[Answer] Production is expensive and slow. The average production cost of a graphic novel runs somewhere between $20,000 and $50,000, and it typically takes 12 to 18 months. Most small publishers and authors don't have that kind of capital to spend on a bet, and even large publishers that do have it have to be very selective about what they commit it to.
[Question] Walk me through what the platform actually does.
[Answer] You put in a manuscript. The system spends time studying the story, including the thesis, the background, the protagonist, and the emotional beats that pay off for a reader, and produces a storyboard that gets you to roughly 60-70% of a finished product.
Then an editor, the author, and an illustrator go in and shape that further, because a purely Al-generated output tends to lack soul and be generic. This is not a self-driving car. It's more like handing a Ferrari to someone who already knows how to drive.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jeti53ozn4dfqx3qvlkfjdty/bafkreidvt4ewqzmm6wfn6tmhi4aukprss7hhrfzqf53n22vif6vy4aa7p4)
