Back in January, I told you about a set of four science songs books I was assigned to write.
I turned the books in and have been waiting and waiting and waiting to hear about revisions. Because trying to include tons of content as well as match the meter of a traditional song was a real challenge–a fun one, but still a challenge. I knew that if I needed to revise, I might just have to rewrite entire songs, because it wouldn’t be easy to changes individual words and lines.
So I was so relieved to find out, just before I went out of town last week (more on that tomorrow), that all four manuscripts had moved ahead to design and I wouldn’t need to revise any of them.
This made me do a happy dance.
Now, I know some minor changes were made, and I’m just hoping and praying that when I see galleys, the meter is still intact. Editing metered verse is incredibly tough. My editor on the series, Jill Kalz, is an extremely talented writer herself, so I feel pretty confident. But since poetry is my first love, I feel much more strongly and more particular about changes to my words in these books than I do for most of my nonfiction books. I just don’t want anything out there with my name on it to have clunky meter or bad rhyme. I know the publishers must present a certain amount of information in each book, and that information will take precedence over the meter/rhyme. So while I’m happy not to have to redo any songs, I’m also still a bit anxious until I actually see the edited manuscripts. Fingers crossed (and please cross any available digits you have, as well)! I guess if I were really unhappy with them, I could use a pseudonym. But I don’t want to do that.
Oh, and one other bit of exciting news. The books will come with CDs. How cool! They’ll be recording in August, and I can’t wait to hear my science songs performed.
Check out the Nonfiction Monday roundup at Anastasia Suen’s Picture Book of the Day blog.