Today, please welcome
Clara. She shares her path to publication for
Annie's Special Day with a small publisher. You'll have to read to the end to know what kind of dance she did. I wrote about the book
here.
My Publishing Story
By Clara Bowman-Jahn
After I wrote “Annie’s Special Day” I started sending off
query letters that my writing group had critiqued to a list of publishers my
mentor friend, Bobbi Carducci had given me. There was a list for snail mail and
a list for email.
I started
sending off letters to both of them simultaneously. I got many rejections and
few agents were polite enough to say anything on the SASE form letter they sent
back to me.
Then I happened to look at my query letter. I saw blatant errors!
Typos! Sentence structure! I couldn’t imagine how I had sent such a letter out
on such an important errand! How did that happen? I couldn’t imagine how. I was
crushed. It’s one of those things you have one chance at.
Then I learned about the Muse online writer’s conference. On
the website I saw where authors could pitch their book to a publisher or agent
and maybe get a manuscript looked at. However by the time I saw this there were
no openings on the publishers who specialized in picture books. Then, the last
day, Saturday, two publishers I hadn’t seen before opened up at 10 a.m. with a
pitch session.
One was eTreasurespublishers. There really was no time for me to
any research before 10 a.m. So I put in my request and waited till the time for me
to go into the pitching session.
Martha, the publisher of eTreasures was very friendly and
easy to talk to (or should I say type to) LOL. She laughed with me when I
misspelled her name. That kind of broke the ice right then and there. Martha
liked that the kids themselves would be able to read the book because I had
written it in easy to read text. She asked for the manuscript right away and
from the web site under submissions I saw were she would reply in two to three
weeks.
After three weeks I contacted them asking about the status of the book
and she said she had filed the contract in her filing cabinet but had not sent
out to me. LOL. So I got the contract! Did my Scooby dance, looked it over and
sent it back. And that’s the end of my publishing story.
But when you get a small press the story doesn’t end there.
You need to have the illustrator, the book cover, the text embedded and the
book formatted. That’s all up to you. Fortunately my husband was up to learning
all this with the help of a printer friend, Sue Walls. And my story about how I
Found my illustrator is famous. I’ll tell you all about it on another post.
Clara Bowman-Jahn worked as a registered nurse for thirty
two years finally trading that job for her true love, writing. Clara’s
short stories have been published
in the anthology of the “Campaigner’s Challenges 2011” Book.
When Clara is not writing, she does volunteer work for a local elementary school and
her church. She also likes taking long walks with her husband, blogging, and
reading books. She is a member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and
Illustrators, Pennwriters, Bethesda Writer’s Center and Round Hill Writer’s Group.
She lives in rural Loudoun County, Virginia with her brilliant husband, a
senior dog and two cats. And
she is the proud mother of two
wonderful grown sons and a grandmother to a delightful grandson.
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