Write a How-To Book – Tracking Your Submissions
Posted in Writing And Speaking on 10/12/2010 05:39 pm byGlen Ford asked:
If you decide to become a freelance writer of how-to books, at some point you are going to need to track submissions. This is especially true if you decide to go the traditional publishing route when you write how-to books.
There are several reasons you need to go through this step. First off, if someone keeps turning you down, you may want to avoid that person for the short term. Equally, if someone doesn’t reply, you may want to limit the amount of time you allow them.
There are several different ways to track submissions of your how-to books and articles. You can for example, write the information on an index card and then file the card by follow up date. You can write the information on a ledger type book. But in this day and age, there really is no excuse not to put the information on a computer.
You could buy a program to track submissions. Or you could create your own using a database program such as MS Access or OpenOffice Base (available from OpenOffice.org). But a spreadsheet tool such as MS Excel or OpenOffice Calc will also do the job quite satisfactorily.
So what information will you need to track? If you use a spreadsheet, you need the following columns:
1. The Title or Identifier of the piece. You can use the title of the piece. However, I tend to prefer using the file name. Why? Because I may reuse titles I like or some very simple titles. This is especially true when I write several versions of an article at different lengths. I can’t however, reuse the file name. So I make the file name unique by using a combination of date written, number that day and the topic or title.
2. The type of piece. Is this an article, a video and skin, an audio and skin or a how-to book? I use a very simple letter code of A for article, V for video, M for mpg, W for webinar, and B for book. I then add a code for the subject or niche. When I wrote fiction, long ago, I also used a two character code but used different codes for fiction and non-fiction. However, that was before video, webinar and audio were practical formats. So now I would probably use a three character code with one character for fiction or non-fiction. Since I no longer write fiction I’m happy with just two letters.
3. Company name. Most magazine publishers publish multiple magazines. Similarly, most book publishers have different imprints. Although each magazine is usually managed independently some organizations share editors etc. across the board.
4. Magazine or Imprint. If I have submitted to a particular imprint or magazine I enter the name here. That gives me the best of both worlds. I can combine submissions across the whole publisher or just look at my results with a particular magazine.
5. Individual Submitted To. You are submitting to a single named editor aren’t you? If not you need to.
6. Mailing Address.
7. Email Address.
8. Phone number. This allows me to contact the editor easily and saves me having to keep a separate contact management system.
9. Sent to flag. Now sometimes, you know the individual. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you’ll email the manuscript and sometimes you’ll send it by email. This flag allows you to specify how you sent the manuscript and to whom.
10. Date sent. It always helps to know when you initially connected with the company.
11. Follow up date. It also helps to know when you should be following up with them.
12. Response date. It’s always nice when they actually respond to you.
13. Response. Did you sell? Did you get turned down? Is there another submission record (meaning you were told to change some things)? I use the words sold, no, and revise to indicate the response.
Of course, your needs may be slightly different. Don’t be afraid to add fields like expiry date or open/closed. Make the list your own. Use the sort feature within Excel or Calc to look for specific entries.
Denise
If you decide to become a freelance writer of how-to books, at some point you are going to need to track submissions. This is especially true if you decide to go the traditional publishing route when you write how-to books.
There are several reasons you need to go through this step. First off, if someone keeps turning you down, you may want to avoid that person for the short term. Equally, if someone doesn’t reply, you may want to limit the amount of time you allow them.
There are several different ways to track submissions of your how-to books and articles. You can for example, write the information on an index card and then file the card by follow up date. You can write the information on a ledger type book. But in this day and age, there really is no excuse not to put the information on a computer.
You could buy a program to track submissions. Or you could create your own using a database program such as MS Access or OpenOffice Base (available from OpenOffice.org). But a spreadsheet tool such as MS Excel or OpenOffice Calc will also do the job quite satisfactorily.
So what information will you need to track? If you use a spreadsheet, you need the following columns:
1. The Title or Identifier of the piece. You can use the title of the piece. However, I tend to prefer using the file name. Why? Because I may reuse titles I like or some very simple titles. This is especially true when I write several versions of an article at different lengths. I can’t however, reuse the file name. So I make the file name unique by using a combination of date written, number that day and the topic or title.
2. The type of piece. Is this an article, a video and skin, an audio and skin or a how-to book? I use a very simple letter code of A for article, V for video, M for mpg, W for webinar, and B for book. I then add a code for the subject or niche. When I wrote fiction, long ago, I also used a two character code but used different codes for fiction and non-fiction. However, that was before video, webinar and audio were practical formats. So now I would probably use a three character code with one character for fiction or non-fiction. Since I no longer write fiction I’m happy with just two letters.
3. Company name. Most magazine publishers publish multiple magazines. Similarly, most book publishers have different imprints. Although each magazine is usually managed independently some organizations share editors etc. across the board.
4. Magazine or Imprint. If I have submitted to a particular imprint or magazine I enter the name here. That gives me the best of both worlds. I can combine submissions across the whole publisher or just look at my results with a particular magazine.
5. Individual Submitted To. You are submitting to a single named editor aren’t you? If not you need to.
6. Mailing Address.
7. Email Address.
8. Phone number. This allows me to contact the editor easily and saves me having to keep a separate contact management system.
9. Sent to flag. Now sometimes, you know the individual. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you’ll email the manuscript and sometimes you’ll send it by email. This flag allows you to specify how you sent the manuscript and to whom.
10. Date sent. It always helps to know when you initially connected with the company.
11. Follow up date. It also helps to know when you should be following up with them.
12. Response date. It’s always nice when they actually respond to you.
13. Response. Did you sell? Did you get turned down? Is there another submission record (meaning you were told to change some things)? I use the words sold, no, and revise to indicate the response.
Of course, your needs may be slightly different. Don’t be afraid to add fields like expiry date or open/closed. Make the list your own. Use the sort feature within Excel or Calc to look for specific entries.
Denise
