At the end of 2018, I came across a Facebook post from Angela Engel, my former colleague at Chronicle Books, at just the right moment.
I had stepped away from publishing to move back to my hometown and start a family. I was lucky to have those years with my boys. I went to baby groups. I sat on the floor a lot. I folded tiny laundry. I read picture books aloud in silly voices. But time felt like molasses, and I missed work. I missed colleagues. I missed publishing.
Angela’s post didn’t say much. It led to a brand-new website with a red lightbulb logo at the top for something called The Collective Book Studio. At the bottom it read, “powered by smart women.”
I like smart women, I thought. I would like to add some smart women to my child-filled days. So I called her.
The rest is history, as they say. Though at the time, The Collective Book Studio was not much more than a website and an idea in Angela’s head. But I was open, and I was in.
Angela hustled, which she is very, very good at. I got to work on all the small things that needed doing, which I’m good at. She networked and thought big. I googled things like “how to purchase ISBNs” and “how to file for copyright.” When she secured our first distributor meeting and set up a deal, I learned everything I could about metadata, tipsheets, and the quiet machinery that happens behind the scenes.
We found brave authors who were willing to take a chance on a young publisher. We found colleagues who loved books and were willing to try something new. We made mistakes. We tried to fix them. We made more books. Brick by brick. Book by book.
From the beginning, we knew we wanted to create beautiful, visual, giftable books for adults and children. What we did not know was how quickly our children’s list would grow.
Our very first list in the fall of 2020 was tiny, just three adult nonfiction titles. Then, in the spring of 2021, we dipped our toes into children’s publishing with a couple of books. Then a few more. Then more submissions. Then word started to spread, and authors reached out because they had heard about us. Because a friend had worked with us. Because they had seen one of our books in a bookstore and it spoke to them.
Then we started winning awards. Our children’s titles began filling larger portions of our list. They found readers. They found classrooms. They found homes. Children’s publishing is its own world, and we wanted our little books to thrive in it. To be read aloud at bedtime, carried in backpacks, loved hard, held in sticky hands, bent and taped and read again.
It started to become clear that our children’s books deserved their own home, one built just for them. And so Tiny Torch Books was conceived.
We chose the name carefully. The team brainstormed. We wanted to nod to the lightbulb in the original TCBS logo, but give our children’s list its own identity. We played with little lights and lanterns and all things that glowed. And we landed on a torch. A tiny one.
A torch is something you carry for what you believe in. It is small, but it lights the way. It feels playful and purposeful at the same time.
After a few logo attempts that felt a bit too Olympic, we landed on a sweet little flashlight, or torch across the pond. A small light that will glow on the spines of our books going forward. A sturdy little signal, because imprints are signals. They speak to parents, librarians, educators, and booksellers and tell them what to expect. They build trust over time. They say, if you liked this one, you might like the next one, too.
As our children’s list expanded, we knew it needed dedicated leadership, and we knew just the person. Rebekah Lovato Piatte, our new Children’s Editorial Director, has worked with us for the past couple of years as one of our trusted developmental editors. She understands what it takes to shape a good story and what children lean toward.
And our Design Director, Rachel Lopez Metzger, will continue doing what she does best, creating books that are as beautiful on the outside as they are thoughtful on the inside.
The first Tiny Torch titles will appear on our Summer 2026 list, including The Paper Princess, a deluxe reissue of the beloved Elisa Kleven classic, and Little Bee and the Bloom by debut author Carly Kremer. They will be followed by several more Tiny Torch books on our Fall 2026 list, including T is for Traffic Cone, written and illustrated by Sarah Feingold, and Luna and the Lost Cove, written and illustrated by Aria Joy Prichard.
When Angela first imagined The Collective Book Studio, she wanted to build something thoughtful and lasting for her daughters. And I was game to build along with her. To make beautiful things. To work hard. To collaborate with creative people.
Neither of us could have predicted what this would become or how it would grow. Tiny Torch Books feels like the natural next step. A small light we are proud to carry forward.
