We live in wondrous and perilous times surrounded by all of our amazing gadgets and technologies.
The world is at our fingertips. We can entertain ourselves 24/7. If we so choose, we never even have to leave home to work or order dinner or stay connected with friends and family. We all know about the double-edged sword that is social media and the internet … needed and necessary and more addictive than cocaine, all while our posture and attention spans deteriorate rapidly … don’t get me started!
But who am I to complain about it anyway, since I am, after all, posting these blogs on the internet so that you can log on and read them … on the internet!
(Just promise me that you’ll sit up straight and take regular breaks – a walk outside in the sunshine! And turn off all screens at bedtime!! Read a book instead … you’ll sleep better and possibly keep the last of those brains cells alive and functioning a while longer.)
So no, I won’t complain …
Instead, I’m going to tell all you “surprised” writers out there how incredibly fortunate you are to be living in these times with all this wondrous technology.
Just producing the manuscript is a joy … I bet you’re on a laptop in a coffee shop or in the park, or maybe even the beach! When you get it all written, save it electronically on that laptop and it’s ready to be sent off to some lucky editor …
How will you find them? No worries!
At your very fingertips you can find out:
- who and where are the publishing houses
- what genres they publish
- if they are currently accepting submissions
- their submission guidelines
- the correct editor and department to address
Then attach your electronically saved manuscript to your email and hit Send!
If it was a children’s picture book, here’s a brief article to help you set it up for submitting. But it’s no big deal at all to set up any manuscript to send to any publisher these days … no more bulky envelopes, no more postage, no more extra envelopes and postage for them to return it all. Not even any more paper, unless you’re like me and like to have a hard copy.
I’d like to say it’s faster, too, and it definitely gets there faster … minutes as opposed to days. But once it’s at the editors office, the waiting begins. Almost all editors do respond promptly. The dreaded “wait” is mostly our perception … that’s a piece of our soul we just sent out into the cold, cruel world!
Just be patient … you’ll hear back from them soon …
Perhaps you’ll get a wonderful response like the writer I told you about in the March 8th blog . Congratulations!
Perhaps it will get turned down … don’t fret … just find another publisher and send it off again … and maybe get busy writing another, which will make all that waiting more bearable!
Thanks