I have sold my first book.\u00a0 Scholastic plans to publish it in the Fall of 2010.\u00a0 I’m still walking around as though I’ve stumbled into some alternate reality, where everything looks the same, but at the same time kind of doesn’t.<\/p>\n
So, a little background on the deal.<\/p>\n
Back in January, I posted about signing with my agent<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Since that post, he and I have been working on revisions to my book, trimming and tightening the manuscript.\u00a0 I’ve heard of some writers agonizing over that part of the process, but it was a great experience for me.\u00a0 My agent had wonderful suggestions and insights, and I’d been away from active writing on the story long enough that I had some perspective on it.\u00a0 It made it easy to say, “Oh, yeah.\u00a0 That needs to go.”\u00a0 BALEETED!<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n So come March, we felt like the book was ready to venture out into the wide, wide world to look for a home.\u00a0 My agent started pitching it on March 2nd, and we had interest from several publishers right away.\u00a0 He sent the book to Scholastic on the 4th, and received an encouraging email from them a few days later.\u00a0 And then the weekend came.\u00a0 During this time I was an obsessive wreck, checking my email every chance I could, jumping every time the phone rang, the whole while telling myself that we probably wouldn’t hear anything for at least a couple of weeks, likely more.\u00a0 But on Monday, my agent emailed me to say that Scholastic intended to make a pre-emptive bid some time that week, and then he called me on Tuesday the 10th with their offer.<\/p>\n That’s when everything changed, really.\u00a0 That phone call was the moment.<\/p>\n