Regular readers (hello? are you really there?) may recall a posting about the demise of my book (and planned series) "BOY". You can read about it BY CLICKING HERE if you missed it.
In brief, the original publisher of book one cancelled their contract and effectively ruined any possibility of a series.
I had so many lovely comments urging me to try to revive the book. After some thinking I decided to stare into the gaping jaws of disappointment once more and try to salvage something from this sorry little tale. And so, through a circuitous route, I secured all necessary rights in the book (which was "fortunately" out of print), and I approached Orchard Books. Would they want a "second hand rose"?
The crucial problem was the obtaining of discs of scanned artwork. Although I had most of the original art, I didn't have it ALL. Besides, rescanning is an expense that in this situation can make or break a book.
My principle concern, however, was that the book had been tarnished by it's poor showing first time around (even though I blamed the publisher for that!).
The good news was that a Korean co-edition publisher wanted to reprint. This deal was effectively the carrot on a stick.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, The Chicken House redeemed their reputation by giving me discs of all the scans ... and Orchard books said YES! The contract is signed and (re)publication is pencilled in for next summer. I'm so happy to have found a happy ending for my BOY. And I hope this time it does well enough to justify a sequel...
Time will tell, but for now, I'm really pleased that this book is joining Katie and Ella Bella at Orchard. Keep your fingers crossed!
Finally...it's an odd day to be writing this as the real "BOY" - my son - is now a great big 11 year old who starts his secondary school tomorrow. All the more reason, then, to celebrate this book which captures (I hope) a tiny fragment of his adorable and funny self when just a little scrap of a thing...
