Submissions

This week, I’ll talk about submissions.

• Are You Still Submitting Before Revising?
• Are You Still NOT Submitting?
• Are You Still Submitting Blind?li>
• Are You Still Singly Submitting?
• Are You Still Not Tracking Submissions?

Manuscript Tracking Software

There are many ways to do this, including Excel or other spreadsheets. But I’m still using SAMM, written by KC (Kevin) Cummings and distributed FREE.

Valuable Features

• Market’s Part of the Database
  It has a database for markets: when I hear of an editor moving, I immediately update the database. There’s also a column for comments/notes, so I add any additional information. Once, I needed an editor to speak at a conference on the topic of humor. I searched the Notes section and found a great editor. It’s easy to keep updated.
• Submissions Part of the Database
  The feature I appreciate most here is the ability to include an Alert. So, I usually set an Alert for three months after the submission to remind me to “Check Status.”

The SAMM program may be old: but it’s not outdated. It’s been flexible enough to grow with me. This is a Windows program, but there’s a link to a similar Mac program.

Get ready for my soapbox about submitting!

Submissions

This week, I’ll talk about submissions.

• Are You Still Submitting Before Revising?
• Are You Still NOT Submitting?
• Are You Still Submitting Blind?li>
• Are You Still Singly Submitting?
• Are You Still Not Tracking Submissions?

Submitting a Manuscript is the Saleswoman’s Hat

Think about this scenario: You are a saleswoman for an auto company that specializes in classic Jaguars (which I love–if anyone wants to give me one!). The boss says you gotta sell this Jaguat XJS Hypersport v12 Turbo How do you go about it?

Strategy 1:
You open the telephone book. Without looking you randomly point to a name. You look at the street address. Without calling the person, without finding out if they LIKE the Jag, or even need a new car–or even if they still live there–you send the Jag over to their house.

Then you wait. And wait. And wait. Wondering all the while, if the person will get back to you and purchase the Jag.

Well–as a saleswoman, you’re fired!

Strategy 2:
You attend a meeting of Jag enthusiasts, bringing with you a picture of the Jag, along with specs. You get leads on three people who might be interested. You do your research and find out that one of them has a long history of buying Jags, the other, will only buy red cars, and the third loves classics in general, and in fact, is in need of something black right now. You take the Jag over to #1 and #3 for a spin drive. And they get in a bidding war.

Well, as a saleswoman, you just got hired as a literary agent!

Single Submissions?

Likewise, the saleswoman would be a Fool to only send it to a single person, who she’s never met! The best sales come when you know your audience and you’ve targeted the submissions. I NEVER singly submit, UNLESS it’s to an editor I’ve worked with before (good time to singly submit!). Instead, I sift through what I know about editors, publisher, publishing companies.

Look at the Children’s Book Council, the Purple Crayon, the SCBWI marketing info, Children’s Writer, online searches of specific names, etc.

In other words, approach the issue of submission with a reasonable attitude about business and sales. Over the years, I’ve read business books about sales such as The Good Girl’s Guide to Negotiation: How to Get What you Want at the Bargaining Table . It’s a general book, talking about buying a car and other negotiations. But the author also did the ghost writing for The Beardstown Ladie’s Common-sense Investment Guide and did it for a pittance; and learned a lesson in negotiating book contracts! That’s the only story in the book specifically about books, but the whole attitude she talks about it helpful.

Get some negotiation skills somewhere and learn anything you can about sales–there are tons of business books to get you started.

Are you still submitting blind, to people you know nothing about and have never met? Why?

Submissions

This week, I’ll talk about submissions.

• Are You Still Submitting Before Revising?
• Are You Still NOT Submitting?
• Are You Still Submitting Blind?li>
• Are You Still Singly Submitting?
• Are You Still Not Tracking Submissions?

Know Your Audience

You should always know your audience. This is a personal business and editors buy manuscripts based on personal preference. That makes sense. If you don’t like reading mysteries, why would you commit to the long process of editing a mystery?

Here’s a snippet from an interview with Arthur Levine, the American editor of Harry Potter, on Harold Underdown’s Purple Crayon website:

OLSWANGER: How does a new writer best approach you?

LEVINE: By first showing that they are approaching me because of me, and not because of my title. A writer should approach me because of other books they know I have edited, or because they have a piece they think is particularly going to appeal to me. I am an individual. I think that’s true of every editor I know, but yet it’s funny, writers forget that. They are used to the idea that this person sits in judgment and therefore they forget that it’s just another human being who has likes and dislikes. Spend the effort to find out what that human being’s history is.

OLSWANGER: You mean, by looking at the books she’s edited?

LEVINE: Yes. Most human beings don’t have a published record of their tastes and interests, the way editors do. It’s much easier in some ways to get to know the taste and style of an editor than it is to find out about a person you might want to date!

Read the full interview.

How to Get to Know Editors

One of the best ways to find out more about editors, their likes/dislikes, etc. is to attend a conference, especially if you can do a manuscript critique with them. My picturebook, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman sold to a Harcourt editor who critiqued it at our local conference. She asked for a revision and eight months later, offered a contract.

A second way to find out what editors want is to do an online search. Often, you can find an editor’s blog, authors who mention their editors by name in an interview, or some other mention. Members of the SCBWI can use their publication (for members only) entitled, “Edited By.” (last updated August, 2006).

A last popular way to find out what editors want is to NOT find out. That is, you find an agent who knows editors and their preferences. Of course, that means you must find out what the agents like before you submit to them! (The SCBWI listing of Agents was updated, April, 2007.)

However you do it–you should know something about the editor before you submit. Otherwise, it will come straight back.

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Do you write for yourself or for publication?

Submissions

This week, I’ll talk about submissions.

• Are You Still Submitting Before Revising?
• Are You Still NOT Submitting?
• Are You Still Submitting Blind?li>
• Are You Still Singly Submitting?
• Are You Still Not Tracking Submissions?

Are you Still NOT Submitting?

When a friend recently started writing, we talked about why he might want to write. Maybe he could write a family history for his grandmother. Or, write sports news articles. Perhaps, write a novel.

There are many reasons to write and publication is only one of them. Emily Dickinson said that publishing is the “auctioning of the mind.” Think about that one! If it’s true and our stories sell for little advance, and then sell even worse in the stores, does it mean that our mind is worthless? It is the terror that publication success might indeed say something about our worth as humans.

Wrong.

Publication is a business. Do you want to write so that your words will help someone make money? Then you must fit into their categories, meet the needs of their audience, please that persnickety editor, and the even choosier teen you merely glances at boring titles.

There’s nothing wrong with writing for your grandmother or your grandchild. But if you want someone to pay you for your writing, if you want someone to buy your books and recommend them so that precious word-of-mouth gets going, then you have to write with a different mind set.

Once you’ve got the mind set right, you’ve written the appropriate story, you’ve revised that story, then you must send it out.

Manuscripts Sitting in a Drawer Will Not Sell

Sorry. No editor is going to come over to your office and flip through your files.

I was talking to someone about their fear of submission. In the end, it comes down to this for me: I fear rejection, but what I fear the most is that twenty years from now, I’ll look back and regret not taking the chance. In an old Doonesbury cartoon, Milo faces a future self and is disappoint with who he will become. The Future Milo says, “We feared the risks needed to excel in life and now live a life of mediocrity.”

Take the risks needed to excel as a published author. Submit. Today

Before you sent off that manuscript to an editor, did you revise? Why not?

Submissions

This week, I’ll talk about submissions.

• Are You Still Submitting Before Revising?
• Are You Still NOT Submitting?
• Are You Still Submitting Blind?li>
• Are You Still Singly Submitting?
• Are You Still Not Tracking Submissions?

Are you Still Submitting Before Revising?

You finish a manuscript and in the heat of the moment, you think it’s brilliant. You stuff it in an envelope and send it off. A week later you re-read it and start, well, just tinkering a bit, not much. A week later, the story has changed drastically.

Even happen to you?

I’ll confess. My weakness is sending a manuscript off in the heat of the moment. What does NOT work for me is the advice to put something away in a drawer for three months. Are you kidding? Why would I want to ignore a great story for that long? I can not do this.

Here’s what I do instead:

• Critique group or partners: The most important check is various critique groups or partners. I always send my picturebooks through several people to see if they have any reservations, suggested changes, etc.
• Schedule Marketing Days: I try to schedule days to market, and not make submissions except on those days. This is great, because it forces me to wait. But I can tell myself that I’m waiting because marketing days have their own mind set, which is different from the creative writing days. How often I market depends on the season, but usually twice a month, I sit down and read newsletters, read the SCBWI boards, Verla Kay’s boards, the Purple Crayon, etc and update my database. More on how I research markets in the “Are You Still Submitting Blind” posting later this week. I’ll link to all these places in that posting.
• Listen to that small still voice: OK. I have read enough children’s literature that I know when something isn’t working. Too often, I’ve ignored that. “The editor will want revisions anyway; I’ll address that when I revise for them.” Uh, no. You won’t get that chance to revise for them, if you don’t make changes now. I’ve learned to listen to any hesitations about my story. Those niggling questions mean the story isn’t ready to send out. Listen to your own advice!
• Send it out: When I send out a mss, I do it with this attitude: This is the best manuscript I can write at this time and I can’t think of another thing to do on it and neither can my critique friends. I’ll cheerfully send it and take whatever happens.

Organizations

• Children’s Book Council
  The CBC sponsors Children’s Book Week and Children’s Poetry Week. They have an online listing of member publishers and how to contact them.
• Society of Children’s Bookwriters and Illustrators
  The SCBWI is the professional organization for those writing and illustrating for kids. Look for the link to regional chapters to see what is happening in your area.

Publications

• Children’s Writers and Illustrator’s Market –current year
  This annual market guide lists publishers, names of editors, contact information, needs, etc. for book and magazine publishers. The book is published in late fall, so be sure to get the updated version.
• Literary Marketplace–current year.
  The LMP is a telephone directory of all phases of publishing. This expensive book is often available as a reference book at libraries, or through interlibrary loan.
• Horn Book Magazine
  The Horn Book Magazine offers articles about children’s literature, including full-text of acceptance speeches for major awards such as the Newbery and Caldecott. Articles cover a wide variety of topics and reviews of major new books is a good way to keep up to date on this rapidly changing field.

Classes

• Online classes
  Anastasia Suen
  Children’s book author, Anastasia Suen has several online classes and I’ve heard good thing about them.
• Summer workshops
  Check Shaw Guides for summer workshops in your area.

Interesting Websites

• The Purple Crayon, maintained by Harold Underdown, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books. His website has great up to date information on the industry including a page which keeps track of which editors are moving where.
• Children’s Book Publishing News by Nathaniel Meyer
• Publisher’s Marketplace has a free Daily Lunch email that keeps you up-to-date on publishing news. For a fee, you can receive the Deluxe Lunch, which includes more articles and more in-depth coverage.

Libraries

Library Cards are Gold!

• Picturebooks. If you want to write picturebooks, read 100 picturebooks that have been published within the last 5 years. Really. 100. Or 200. I try to take a month and do this once a year, at least. You need to know what current books are like.
• Novels, Easy Readers, Nonfiction. If you want to write a novel or easy reader or non-fiction, try to read as many as you can. Try to read at least the award winning books from last year. Current books–not classics–will tell you a lot about today’s market.
• This website provides links to many of the award winning children’s book lists

There are many more resources available–this is just a starting point.

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You’ve revised. You’ve submitted. Still no sales. Now what?

Consider your marketing

1. Target your submissions better. What? You only submitted to one editor? Today–not tomorrow–send the mss to at least three more editors. Study the market and target at least ten more. When the mss comes back from one, send it out the next day to the next one on your list.
2. Study the market. Maybe your stories are just off target for the market! Go to the bookstore and buy ten books to read that are similar to what you write. Make sure the copyright on the books is within the last two years; you want up-to-date examples of what is selling. Are there books that especially appeal? Who published them? Can you find out who edited them?
3. Study your rejection slips. Have all your rejections been form rejections? Did you get any personal responses at all? Any letters that said, I can’t buy it in this shape, but should you consider doing this or that, I’ll look again?

   If you received ANY encouragement or feedback, consider revising and resubmitting. If you’re not sure that the letter was an encouragement to resubmit, then ask. Either call or email the editor and ask point blank, “If I do this revision, would you like to see it again?” If the answer is yes, then you’re off for another round of revisions.

   If all your rejections were form rejections, you’ll have to decide: submit to ten more places, or revise.

4. Look for an agent. Are you just bad at marketing? Maybe it’s time to consider submitting to an agent.

Consider your story

5. Cool it off. Put it in a file drawer. Maybe the story needs a cooling off period, so you can return with a fresh eye. Or maybe you just need to live and learn for a season before returning to it. Putting something aside for a while isn’t failure. You learned from revising this mss and just need to move on.
6. Cannibalize. Are there really great parts of this novel that would fit into the current WIP? If you do this, recognize that the first novel was just a great first draft for the one you’re working on now.
7. Reread your story. You’re a little bit older and wiser than when you finished it. Does it still hold up, or do you notice things to revise? Are there places that please you immensely? Can you imagine your audience reading and enjoying the story? Write a review of the book. From that review, what do you think you should do next?
8. Cry your heart out. Read Art and Fear and cry. Then buck up and write something new that will Wow the editors.
9. Revise. Revise that manuscript. Again.
10. Revise Again. If all else fails, eat mints. Or chocolates. Your choice. THEN, revise again. Until it’s right.

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In the 1970’s there was an abundance of problem novels and the editorial backlash from them is still around. At the various retreats, I’ve talked with several people who are writing a type of problem novel. They don’t sell.

From my discussions, it seems that editors wrongly assume that the market is glutted with stories about alcoholic parents, kids who are alcoholic themselves, kids being physically abused, kids being abandoned physically or emotionally, and etc, and etc. When authors do a search for titles, though, there are few titles for middle grade and only a few more for young adult.

So, it hasn’t made sense that editors reject these stories out of hand. For example, some estimate that there are about 13 million kids living in a home with an alcoholic care-giver! Wow! That’s immense. As a profession we often talk about the importance of kids seeing themselves in the pages of a book. Yet, for these 13 million kids, there is no book.

But someone recently made a lot of sense on this issue. They said that middle grade kids don’t really want to confront the issue head-on; instead, there needs to be a story that interests the kids and as a side issue, the problem is included. For example, they pointed to Gennifer Choldenko’s Newbery Honor book, Al Capone Does My Shirts, where the main character’s sister is autistic.

It has more to do with the nature of the middle school audience than it does with editorial resistance to a certain topic. Interesting. Certainly, Choldenko’s book is full of humor and other interesting events and doesn’t make the autism the main point of the story. Maybe, that is a better way to approach problems that kids encounter. It still seems difficult at times, because some life problems seem to overwhelm anything else that might be going on. But at least I’m looking at this with differeent eyes now.

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I’ve been playing with titles of a book this week and trying to find something that works. Of course, titles are marketing tools, designed to catch an audience’s imagination and get them to pick up the book and look inside.

I thought carefully about the audience, then started making lists. The first list was boring and inappropriate. So, just as a way to think of more, I looked up the 100 most famous movie quotes (just Google it) and used it as a jumping off point to write another long list. For some odd reason, a series of words caught my attention and I began to look for adjectives that begin with a hard “k” sound. Another list. Lots of list of possible titles, many of which I knew were bad, but maybe they’d have a spark in them.

Finally, I sent the lists to a couple friends and had them tell me their favorite three. Amazingly, only one title came out that everyone liked, and I added a subtitle from another title.

The process of finding a title is sometimes easy, sometimes hard. When it doesn’t come easily, I don’t leave it up to marketing! I make lists and get feedback and search for the one that fits the content best. I know my content better than the marketing people and would prefer to do this myself. As a friend advised, I’ll live with the title for a couple weeks and see if it sticks.

How do you find/create titles for your books?

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How can you be original in your work?

It’s a question I’ve been exploring all year as I worked on picture book ideas especially. Last year, many of my pb rejections said, “This is well written, but it just doesn’t stand out in a crowded market.”

Of course, that made me mad! And when I get mad, I think hard and try to do something about it. Enter, Friday Ideas. The idea was to create as many original, different picturebook ideas as possible. I’m not totally consistent in doing it, but most weeks I’ve created 5-10 new picture book ideas. Out of those, I’ve written eight picturebooks and I’m working on two more. Let’s say 30 ideas/week, 120/month. Out of that, one finds its way to the top and gets written. Yes, I’m submitting those and so far, I’ve not gotten that dreaded comment about no originality. I get other comments, now, but not that one.

How to be original? One answer is to generate lots of ideas and let the cream rise.

But I’m sure there are other answers. I’m working on an article about this topic. If you’ve done something specific to jumpstart your push for originality, please email me or leave a comment. I’d like to talk to you about your strategies.