Publishing is like....

Well, last month I was bemoaning the delay on my cover art for A Curse of Ash and Iron.  The week after that post, I got the call that Strange Chemistry, the imprint that was going to publish the book, was being cut. 

My contract was canceled, effective immediately, and my rights were returned to me.

No book. Just like that. It happens.  Things like this always seem to happen to ME, though. I mean, I thought back over my career, and I'm like a walking cliche of every publishing nightmare that can happen. I've had editors who left in the middle of a book. I've had series canceled mid-series because the publisher decided to no longer publish that kind of book (though I was able to find a new publisher for the rest of the books, which was good). I've had my troubles with agents. And now I've had a book orphaned by the publisher closing. And you know what?

I'm okay. I mean, I was upset at first. Really, really upset. Mostly because I had spent some money in order to promote the book last Spring. But that's okay-- I had fun doing it, and it wasn't that much. I had also booked a trip to the MidWest to sign ARCs at a convention, two weeks after the publisher closed. Which ended up being really fun, and a nice vacation for my family too. We made the best of it. I had a ball at that convention, promoted other books, and hopefully made some new fans in a new place. And I got some new ideas for video blogs. I had begun to plan the launch party, but fortunately hadn't solidified those yet.

It could have ended up much worse, in the end. I have a completely edited manuscript that is just waiting for a new publisher. While I was promoting it pre-publication, the book got some following on Goodreads. When the publisher made the announcement, there was an outpouring of support for the authors and their books. When a new publisher comes along, I'll make sure those people know that the book is still alive.

It is what it is, as they say.

Meanwhile, I also had an extremely awesome time at the annual NJ SCBWI conference. I gave two workshops on query letters, which I hope were helpful. I met some new friends, hung out with old ones. I sat in on an excellent workshop by children's author Katie Davis (who is the BOMB) about how to EXPLODE my writing career with video. I already love using video, but it was a great workshop on how I could be using it in different ways, with some cool new resources for me to try. I came home and started playing around with Movie Maker, and I'm going to spend some of my summer playing with these new toys. I even made a new book trailer for A Curse of Ash and Iron to use when we re-sell the book.

And my agent already has it out on submission again, so no worries.

I am making movies and video blogging a lot more. I'm also working on a Welcome video for my website. I even have my own YouTube channel: Christine Norris's YouTube Channel, which I've had for awhile but was only using it as a space to put videos before they went on my blog. Now I need to make a video to get subscribers. I'm having a blast, and working on more books, and in general...Moving On!

Publishing is a weird business, and sometimes you've just got to go with the flow.