WriteOnCon - Online Children’s Writers Conference

Guess what I am attending over the next 2 days? WriteOnCon!

I found it last year just as is ended and I was very disappointed. Well, this year I've made sure I'm there and I'm very excited.

WriteOnCon has all the events of a writer's conference done online and free! All the events are scheduled around working hours.

Hopefully a "ninja agent" finds the picture book manuscripts I posted and provides some helpful feedback. Maybe I will randomly be selected to receive feed back from Corey Rosen Schwartz and Tiffany Strelitz Haber on the stanza I submitted from my rhyming PB manuscript. Or perhaps I will submit a query for review. The events are not just for picture books but all kidlit including MG and YA.

To find out more information about WriteOnCon visit http://writeoncon.com/about/what-is-writeoncon/

Are you attending WriteOnCon and want to critique my work? Two of my picture book stories can be found are....

• ANNALEE FRILL - Quirky Annalee lives an upside-down in a right-side-up world
• ELEPHANT IN THE CUPBOARD - Save the peanut butter!

Can't wait to see you there!

3 Weeks

Today marks 3 weeks since I sent my status inquiry letter to the publisher. I haven't received a response yet and that's ok. I haven't been to the mailbox today though, so there could be a response today.
Follow me on twitter @auntieflamingo where I will tweet #WhatsInTheMailToday.

I didn't expect to have a response by now but I was hoping...dreaming.

The 1st week I didn't expect anything since the post office told me it would take a week for my letter to get to the publisher.

I wasn't really expecting anything the 2nd week since publishing houses are very busy and need time to respond to the mass of mail they get. However, the publisher's website states "Letters clearly marked Status Inquiry will be given immediate attention." - Which I did. I also assume it will take a week for their letter to get back to me in the SASE I provided in my letter (yes, I did include a SASE in my original submission as well) I guess I had a glimmer of hope for a response in week 2 since I'm also available by other means - like email.

Today is the end of week 3. I think expecting something today is a little....ok - overly optimistic. Publishers are very busy and I can understand and appreciate that it takes some time to responding to all the postal mail they receive.

I have been asked by several people - What are you going to do if you don't hear anything back? How long will you wait?

I still believe 'No News Is Good News.' I'm very please the manuscript I sent in January did not get rejected right away. This tells me my writing is getting better and, when scouting out the right home for my manuscripts, I'm not so far off the mark. I'm certain the publisher will get back to me when they're ready to get back to me. If I had a choice of receiving a rejection letter now or a possible acceptance 3-6 months from now, of course, I would choose the acceptance. I'm in love with the story I submitted and I feel the publisher I sent it to is a great fit. There is nothing more I would like to see then to have this story in print. I will re-evaluate the situation at a later day and figure out what to do from there. For now, I'll patiently wait for a reply, work on other manuscripts and keep dreaming.

18

18!

That's how many days I have to wait until I can mail a status query to a publisher regarding my children's book manuscript. Very Exciting! I'm happy about this, not only because it means I have not received a rejection letter yet, but I'm excite about the book and I feel it is a good fit for this particular publisher. I hope they feel the same.

I will periodically update you on my progress of the status query. If you have any tips or helpful links on writing a status query letter please let me know.