Hello, and happy twentieth day of the month! March goes fast.
Today I signed a contract for a new picture book (with a lovely publisher who ticks all four boxes.) It’ll be a long time before anyone can read it, 2025 at the earliest, and there’s no illustrator yet, just a few possible names. I didn’t post a social media photo of me signing a contract with my lucky pen because it’s been forever since I signed like that (and I don’t have a lucky pen). Every agreement lately has been electronic, via DocuSign. I don’t know if all those smiling online authors are just pretending with blank pages in front of them or if their publishers still genuinely send big, fat paper documents in the mail. Real or imagined, I understand why they do it — it’s a moment of celebration.
The funny thing with new books is you never quite know when to celebrate, especially without the excitement of a package in the post (and I’ve mentioned before how it’s sometimes hard to enjoy a new publication). Of course, your first book is different, everything is exciting but after that … I don’t know.
When work is accepted, I’m happy but also sort of relieved, Thank goodness those marketing people at Acquisitions didn’t hate it. Good. We got it through. It’s a nice feeling but without a contract, it doesn’t seem quite real. What if it falls through? By the time