Seeing the first illustrations and the cover of your new books is exciting and daunting.
I've got two books in production at the moment - one chapter book for 8-10 year olds, which is for the trade market, and 'Dear Miss Winfrey' which is for 11-13 year olds and is aimed at the schools market.
I lived with the chapter book for months and months - it's the fantasy novel previously called 'The Fabulous Phibeas Finn.'
Marketing decided the title was too uncumbersome, so we were forced to think up a new one. We settled on 'Will and Joe and the Great Pirate Rescue'. The cover is fabulous. You can see it at on my website.
The book aimed at the schools market is very different. 'Dear Miss Winfrey' is the story of a very poor rural child in South Africa who is desperate to go to the Oprah Winfrey Academy for girls. She hides in a car that is going to Johannesburg, but is involved in a terrible car crash. In hospital she writes letters to Oprah, and these form the narrative of the book.
It is incredibly sad and has a wonderful ending, and I cried so hard when I wrote it I couldn't see the screen. I wrote it very fast - it just poured out, and was finished and off to the publisher a month from starting.
Seeing your story translated from your head into book form is always exciting and daunting. But the illustrations can take some getting used to. Someone else has drawn pictures of characters and a scene you imagined, and it can be hard to let go and trust that they will do a good job.
