Submitting a Children's Story: Stage 1

Time Spent: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

The first things I'll submit will be two children's stories I've written in the past couple of semesters. I'll be sending them to real live publishing houses. I've mentioned before that Bloomsbury USA is at the top of my list. Simon and Schuster is a very close second (they've published Shel Silverstein, and he's possibly one of my favorite poets/authors/illustrators - I also just learned yesterday that some of his work is with S&S, so good for me on learning something new!).

I mentioned only a few weeks ago that I downloaded the Children's Book Council member list and went through it, marking those houses that accepted unsolicited MSs and which ones wanted queries first, then going to each of the web sites. Well, today I downloaded the February List from the CBC and did it all again to make sure nothing had changed, making even closer notes of each houses' specific requirements.

And so here's the exciting news: I think I've finally learned enough about submissions procedures for children's books that I'm ready to submit both of them. I'll send one story to five house, and the other to the other five houses. Today, in an effort to get ready, I addressed 9 x 12 envelopes - big enough for a MS to fit in !!!!!!!! That was exciting. It's really happening. Maybe nothing will ever come of these submissions, but you know what? Maybe something WILL come of them. This is REAL, people, this is really happening. This is what every published author has had to go through, and I'm in awe that I'm actually doing it.

I honestly don't know what I learned today, but I'm damn excited to be applying what I've been learning!!!!!