Week One on the Submission Trail

      This has been an interesting week and I'm just getting started. I actually went to a library this week with my two littlest kids (4 and 2). The girls loved it and I brought the Andrea Brown Literary Agency Bookshelf list. It was so nice to have a purpose when looking up books to check out. Although, I must say that a small town library doesn't have everything one would want. I may need to travel to the big city to look at some of the books that seem more along the lines of the story I'm currently wanting to publish. But, it had quite a few titles and is giving me a good feel for the stories that they are looking for.
     This week I'm going to begin filling in my spreadsheet to help me keep a basic idea of all of the stories I'm reading. When I took Rick Walton's Picture Book Course a few years ago he taught us to pick ten recently published (within the past seven years) stories a week and write down the story summary (on the inside/back of the cover), what we liked, and what didn't work for us. It was a great exercise. I feel like I'm back in class mode again and it's really fun. Plus I get to read all of these fun books with my girls and they LOVE it! I'm also tracking the agency, Publishing house, and what books are similar to ones I've already written and how.
    Another thing that I've done this week is: SUBMITTED! At the beginning on June is the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference in Utah. They're offering a $500 Fellowship Grant and submissions for the grant were due today. I submitted at 11:00pm last night and realized this morning that I'd forgotten to submit my Author Bio, so I promptly remedied that error. It's a good thing I submitted early! I have done my best on every segment of the submission and even if I don't get the grant I feel like I've already won in my heart. I submitted something for the first time in four years and it was a strong submission! It's amazing what a specific focus will do for productivity. Wish me luck! I'll keep you informed.
     What are you doing for submissions? Have you started the trail with me? I'd love to have some partners to work to alongside!