I am so excited to have sent out my first set of queries and manuscript submissions for my first children’s book, Iris the Colorful Spider in the past few weeks! If the query package process is foreshadowing the road I’m on it is going to be a bumpy one!
I spent several weeks researching publishing houses, manuscript submission guidelines, how to write query/cover letters and more! I also spent a big chunk of time on getting to know the books each publisher produces and whether or not it seemed like my manuscript would be a good match for them. Once I had completed all of these things I was ready to take a day to put together my packages and send them off.
And then the hitch…
First my printer decided to put big black inky lines all over the pages of my manuscript. There was not way I could send that out. It looked completely unprofessional. My hubby and I lost several hours to cleaning and checking the printer after which the printer died all together! Ugh!Then I decided to send my copies to be printed at Kinkos. I lost several more hours due to technical difficulties. Finally, I picked up my finished copies from Kinkos only to find that half of my order was missing. Double ugh! The next morning I visited my Mother-in-Law and she allowed me to use her printer to print up those missing copies. I was finally able to send my packges off by Monday morning.
If anything I think this served as a reminder to me ~ this is not an easy breezy process. I may succeed but it’s highly possible I may fail this first time around. I am going to learn a lot and hopefully grow and learn from my experiences. I will keep you all updated on the progress of my submissions. It should be approximately 2 months or so before I hear anything. Some publishers will not contact you at all unless they want to accept your manuscript. Wish me luck!