Update time. You know how you finish a book and send it off and it gets accepted? And you throw a party and feel good and wait for feedback? And wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and … keep on waiting?
That was my and Melanie’s situation with the book we wrote together. Belongingness has been sitting on various desks at Scholastic for quite some time.
Well, the wait is over. Something has happened!
For one thing, we know when the book is coming out – next summer. And we know that they are taking it seriously, since we were invited to the opening of the sales conference to talk about the book. Just finished that zoom talk. There were lots of faces on my screen.
Melanie did great. I don’t know if I did. I may have put some of the sales force off, talking about cruising the streets in a white minivan to connect with kids. You know, as a joke. Ha ha. Maybe Melanie will be invited back. Maybe I won’t. Sigh.
Oh, one more thing. The book is not called Belonginess any more. It is now Autumn Bird And The Crow. Which is a cooler title. And less likely to be confused with books about self help and wellness.
Autumn Bird is the name of Melanie’s character. Autumn is cooler than my character, Cody. The crow is a reference to a drawing Cody makes. The crow is also cooler than he is.
The Scholastic marketing team knows what it is doing.