Whitney Leopard

ABOUT

Executive Editor at RH Graphic, the graphic novel imprint of Random House Children’s Books. Whitney can be found throughout the traveling to conventions, festivals, and visiting schools to talk about graphic novels. Since launching RH Graphic in 2020, she has had the joy and pleasure of working on a variety of graphic novels from Trung Le Nguyen’s The Magic Fish, K. O’Neill’s The Moth Keeper, as well as the New York Times best-selling adaptation series Sweet Valley Twins. With the launch of Ink Pop in 2025, Whitney has included a wider range of global comics from manga like I Wanna Be Your Girl, manhwa like My Life as an Internet Novel, and bringing webtoons to print for the first time.

Before joining her family at PRH, Whitney was managing the KaBOOM! imprint at BOOM! Studios where she edited kids comics. She was known for her work on original graphic novels like Bolivar (an NPR Best Book of 2018) and Hex Vet: Witches in Training, comics series like Lumberjanes (a New York Times bestseller and Eisner Award-winner), and best-selling licensed comics like Adventure Time, Over the Garden Wall, and Steven Universe.

You can stay up to date with Whitney on her website here.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR: 

I am only looking for graphic novels that are targeted towards kids and YA readers. Our motto is ‘A graphic novel on every bookshelf.’ and this means this means that we are looking for graphic novels on any and every genre. From non-fiction to the most fantastical sci-fi, we are interested as long as it is for kids or YA. And now with the launch of Ink Pop, we are actively looking for global comics that we can bring into the US, and webtoons that we can bring into print.

Our age categories are:

YOUNG READER: Ages 5-8, this targets readers that have graduated from the picture book space but still focuses on smaller stories. Typically 80-120 pages. Examples would be books like: Pizza and Taco, Crabapple Trouble, and Donut feed the Squirrels. 

CHAPTER BOOK: Ages 7-10, this targets readers that are starting to read on their own. Typically 100-160 pages. Examples would be books like the graphic novel adaptations of The Magic Tree House series and the Junie B. Jones series.

MIDDLE GRADE: Ages 8-12, this is the true middle grade category that can focus on any genre. Typically 200+ pages: Examples would be books like: Stepping Stones, Halfway to Somewhere, Witches of Brooklyn, and Katie the Catsitter. 

YOUNG ADULT: Ages 12+, this would focus on teen and young adult stories that span any genre. Typically 250+ pages. Examples would be books like: The Magic Fish, Heartstopper, and Greater Secrets.

Submission Guidelines

What do I look for in a submission:

• Title, page count, and genre
• A brief elevator pitch and plot description (3 paragraphs max)
• Your bio
• Full outline for the story
• 5-15 sample pages of the final comic
• Extras include character designs or any additional world building information. This should not be the priority of the pitch, but should be treated as extra development work to help us fall in love the story.

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