Waiting

Last post, I shared the collaboration process for Love Can Come in Many Ways. I left off after the twenty-eight months of collaboration, followed by Chronicle sending Love off to the press (early this year). The original publication date for Love was August 2020, but like so many book releases this year, Chronicle postponed it until October 20 (plan ahead for holiday shopping!)

So, what does an author do while their book is being printed, which takes a few months (usually about six, in my experience)? I’ve always referred to this period of time as waiting for the slow boat from China (literally, sometimes!). Well, I always do two things—work on the next book, and think about how to promote the upcoming book.

The segue into the next book came fairly easily for me after Love. I had already started working on a “sequel” or “companion” book, hoping Chronicle would be interested (I won’t go into the details here because I don’t like talking about works in progress). To my delight, my editor was interested in discussing future books. We exchanged some ideas, so I sent her a couple of manuscripts that she shared with our amazing illustrator, Suzy Ultman. I felt that—while there was no commitment from Chronicle on any projects—we were moving in a positive direction. Our discussions centered around how to bring more love, kindness, compassion and goodwill into young readers’ lives through books. All great things, in my opinion.

And then Covid-19 hit.

Covid is deadly serious and not something to make light of, as we all know. But in addition to the health crisis, one of its fall-outs has been the uncertainty and disruption to businesses everywhere, including the publishing industry. I won’t pretend to understand all the financial impacts and intricacies, but it has definitely slowed down the cogs and gears of the publishing business. At least, until we have more certainty about the future.

So, my editor kindly and compassionately informed me that our potential projects would have to wait a bit. I can’t imagine how hard it is/was for editors to tell their authors and illustrators about book release delays, projects being put on hold, etc. But I certainly understood. I just said to myself…

Be patient, grasshopper.

Give it some time.

Just take it one step at a time…

And really, with everything happening in our world right now, this is not the worst thing. Sometimes, life makes us stop, take a breath, rethink things; appreciate the good around us and within us. And boy, do I have a lot for which I’m thankful!

Back to writing, while I’m continuing to work on some other manuscripts, I’m also focusing on Love’s book promotion (the other thing I do while waiting for a book to come out). And book promotion during a pandemic has had its challenges! No book launch or in-store signings. But I’m trying other things—I‘ve expanded my social media presence, including revamping my Twitter account (I even opened an Instagram account, which I’m still trying to figure out!). I’m blogging again (obviously!) and in October and November, you’ll find some fun posts, interviews, and giveaways. I’m doing a joint virtual book launch is December and some other virtual events to celebrate the release of Love Can Come in Many Ways (more details to come on those events).

Because, you know, we should all be spreading the love a little!

Stay tuned!