Tracking Submissions

It is very important for you to keep track of submissions. It also gives you something to do, after you send your manuscript to a publisher.

There are tracking programs that allow you to keep track of submissions, but you can also do the same thing in several ways.

Things to put on your submission record:

Publisher, Editor, Type of submission, Date Sent, Date Returned, and Comments.

Choose a system or make up your own.

• Purchase a pack of index cards and the box that goes along with them. Organize your cards by Publisher alphabetically, or organize them by month and then publisher. That way, at a glance you can tell how long a submission has been gone. For example, if you use colored index cards, a certain color could represent a certain month.

• If you are good at working with spreadsheets, make one for your submissions. You can keep it on your computer and print it out for reference. If you want, print out your spreadsheet and keep it in a notebook. That way, you will have room to add any notes or answers that you get from publishers

• Perhaps you would rather purchase a notebook and draw and label your own system. Just remember: It is important to keep up with your submissions.

While you wait and wait and wait, it is important to stay busy. Why not keep working. This will keep you in practice and help to make you a better writer. If you can, place yourself on a schedule. Make time to write, even if you just doodle or do a creative writing exercise.

Something weird happened today. I sat down to work on a story idea that I want to use for a children's book and I wrote one line and all of a sudden, BAM, I started writing something else and created a fun idea for another children's book. While the juices were flowing, I wrote page after page of text. Of course, I will go back and prune the work, but I have a great start. It just came out of nowhere.

I amazed myself and enjoyed that moment. It was kind of like speaking to children and you have that "magic moment." You know what I am talking about. Every eye is on you and every emotion is at your control. Every child is sitting there waiting, listening, and waiting to see what is next. Your audience is totally under your spell. It is amazing!

There is nothing better than what we do. It is amazing. It is fun. It is a blast. It is incredible. KEEP WRITING!!!