Writing progress

Friday I spent the day BIC, working on market research. Trying to discover publishers who still are accepting submissions. Now to address the envelopes and get some of these stories out there.

Patricia Wrede keeps saying, "Publishers don't make house calls searching for manuscripts -- you gotta send them out."

Ooooo, check her blog. (click on her name above) On May 19th she said, "The first thing you need to know about getting published is that the process is best described as interminably long stretches of boredom and anxiety, punctuated by moments of panic and frantic activity. And this applies to the whole process, not just the submission part."

I find it so frustrating that you do all this market research to the best of your ability, only to have your manuscript returned or tossed because the publisher's submission requirements have changed. And they haven't updated the market sources to reflect it. (printed and online market sources are always behind with this.)

You follow the rules and obey the speed limits and submit what they say they want the way they want it, and it's still submission-fail. Is it any wonder that agents are complaining that they can't handle all the people who are trying to get an agent -- when publishers are closing doors, what can a writer do but try to find an agent?

And it took me two years to discover that agents never ever want to accept a writer with a picture book manuscript. Instant rejection. (mostly instant deletion and never telling the writers.) They'll represent writer/ illustrators, or writers of middle grade and up, but not picture book writers. Now I feel so dumb even to have tried getting an agent. (agents think picture book writers can submit things themselves, but publishers are closing their doors, soooo -- it's Catch 22.)

Well, now that I have several picture book ms. in the mail, it's back to working on my middle grade manuscript that perhaps an agent just 'might' consider.

On the home front -- upper grade chorus concert tonight. (the 10-year-old spent half the evening last night trying on outfits to see what still fit) And her piano concert is in two weeks. She knows two of her three pieces. The third piece has the right and left hand doing different things and she just hasn't figured it out, yet.
-WendieO