So I'm not a book publishing spy on a mission for some secret book publishing justice league of whomevers. My reporting on these last several weeks of transition will die down soon enough. I just find the move from twelve years in adult Christian publishing to mainstream children's book publishing pretty monumental. The only place I've left after years and years of being there was home. Oh and when I moved away from the town I grew up in to come to Florida for the job I held for twelve years then left for this new thing at Scholastic. Yeah, pretty monumental for a tiny person like me.
What may seem like everyday, noneventful occurrences not worth talking about are quite the opposite for me. Ask my husband William. Most of the time, I fly through my days amazed, like, "What the heck is happening right now?" I am thrilled with life most of the time, with both the ups and the downs.
An exciting, varied life is what I like, and my first thirty days at Scholastic have been just that, not because the time went by without any challenges, but because I felt equipped to handle whatever popped up with confidence and grace. Work with Christians for twelve years and, I promise, you too will be ready for anything. ;)
Joining a new team is not easy. Getting quickly acclimated to group dynamics and nonverbal cues of new people you have to develop a solid working relationship with is not easy. But not one day has gone by where I haven't said, "Today was a good day." And oh yes the honeymoon is over. It ended last week. I could probably tell you the day and what caused me to make that marked statement. But that is when it started to get authentically good. Some people get scared and maybe even embarrassed when the real deal begins to show through the cracks after sharing close space with others for a little while, but to me that is when it just starts to get good. That is when we can really see what we're working with and how we can leverage our strengths and overcome our weaknesses to make sustainably great things happen together.
My little team of ten, within the mammoth Scholastic Inc., is filled with some amazingly bright, brilliant, creative, and really hard-working people. Intuitive, open, careful, and kind, they've let me mess up, forget what they just told me, and ask one more time, "Who does this go to next? Oh, yeah... Thanks." I have had one-on-ones with each of them, hearing their professional histories and experiences so that I can have a context for who they are, what motivates them, and what they'd like to see in the areas they are responsible for. This was probably the richest part of the last four weeks, more than any training or orientation session. Knowing the people you work with and what makes them tick is more valuable than knowing how a form gets routed for approval. You can always just ask that. I am grateful my boss had a vision for coordinating that for me prior to my arrival.
With all my gathering of information to add to my EQ arsenal, I still had to knock out a boatload of work. Here's what I've been up to these last thirty days: an official in-house editorial brief (book proposal) template designed and incorporated into the project approval process (first of its kind there); title approval process developed and implemented (also first of its kind); one super-cute, heart-warming fiction picture book storyline developed; three books edited (two are top-secret projects--shh); six original fun, wacky, enchanting nonfiction books conceptualized; seven amazing writers contracted; eight new writers added to the freelancer pool; 50 meetings attended or facilitated; an innumerable amount of printer proofs and school supply carton approvals signed-off on; FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!!!
(Did I mention that I am also in week nine of grad school, reading 50-100 pages and writing two essays and six responses to other students essays each week, plus freelance editing and writing to pay my tuition? Yeah, so if I ever thought my brain had a small capacity for cognitive, intellectual, creative, and literary exercise, I have been proven wrong in these last four weeks. Who does this? Who starts grad school and then a short time later starts a new job?! Who?! Apparently, I do.)
But wait, there's more!
There some pretty cool projects outside of my normal workflow that I have been tasked to oversee in the next few months. My favorite one is my kid-expert focus group: a group of eight- to twelve-year-olds will come into the office to "test" our products and "assess" our content and tell us what they like and don't like. I'm calling it "Kids in Service," since it will be held on one of the teacher workdays scheduled on the school system's calendar. It used to be called "teachers in service." Anyhow, I cannot wait for that. Mommy babies will be part of that focus group. There's a few more marketing- and sales-related projects and initiatives I will share in as they unfold. They'll be too cool to keep to myself.
I could also write for days how they've spoiled me--and really all of us--with movie prescreens, cool merch, great benefits, a super personalized and creative workspace, lots of professional development opportunities, lots of silliness and laughter when coming up with book and product ideas for the babies (some on the team have gotten a little misty-eyed as they shared with their passion for making book kids love)--but that would just make you hate me, so I won't talk about any of that.
This is an exciting and exhausting time for me. I can't wait to see what comes of all of it. I hope too that you are giving all your energy toward living the full life God has destined you to live. I hope that you are invigorated by what you contribute to whatever space you are assigned. That is the stuff of life. At some turns it may be challenging or exhausting, but it's all good (Romans 8:28), and the rewards will outlive you.
So I've gone on and on about me. What has your month been like? High points? Low points? Lessons learned?