Excitement in Authorland

Various developments in the world of books... (other than the banning of Power of Lucky, of course - sheesh - who would have imagined that a single word would cause so much trouble for a Newberry winner?). Closer to home, in the world of my books, received the draft of the Karen Brain biography back from the editor. Minor changes throughout - nothing serious, BUT - the question remains - how long with the final book be? IF Sono Nis decides to go with the shorter format (48 pages) it will be back to the cutting board for me... Final page length depends on print quotes (currently being procured). Meanwhile, I'm to insert all the photos and write all the captions so we can see exactly how the text-to-image ratio looks. Adding images and captions will give me more to cut later on...

The first draft of the vet book will be with the editor for a bit, which is fine - gives me a chance to get some research happening on the ranch title, finalize photos for the vet text.

Meanwhile, over at the racetrack, the marketing people and some buyers are having some issues with the title 'Behind the Scenes at the Racetrack.' The concern is that the title suggests our intention is to introduce small children to the world of parimutuel betting. In fact, the book is really about racehorses - where they come from, how they are trained, what their lives are like at the track, what happens to them after their careers are over. So, an eleventh hour (as far as I know, the book has already been sent to the printer) decision has been made to change the title of the book. Yikes! I can only imagine the trouble this is causing at head office, for the marketing people, for the bookstsores that have already ordered the book with the original title... The new title? Racehorse: Behind the Scenes. The vet book now becomes Horse Vet: Behind the Scenes. And so on. Which does put the emphasis back on the horse, which is a good thing. My goodness, it's all so stressful. But, it will all work out fine as long as lots of people buy the books! Hint. Hint. Know any horse lovers out there? You can't start planning for Christmas too soon!