Getting Down to Business

I am inherently lazy. Particularly when it comes to things I'm not very good at and lack experience with, such as the submissions process.

Everybody knows there is a way to submit one's work that yields better results. Do lots of research about different publishers. Find those hard to reach editorial assistants whose names aren't emblazoned all over the house's contact information. There's a lot of internet surfing involved. A lot of library visits. A lot of publisher catalog downloading blah blah blah.

It's kind of fun, digging for those little golden nuggets. But I wish I enjoyed it more so I would hurry up and get it done already. There has been some progress--I did some preliminary research on fifteen publishers and found about half of the names I need. I have all the various submission guidelines in place. I went through an online Excel spreadsheet tutorial so I could learn how to make "Lori's Fancy Online Submission Tracking Chart," complete with color coding and neato rejection font. I called my whole family into the room to look at my spreadsheet, because I've decided to celebrate every blessed step of this process that very closely resembles the homework I loathed in gradeschool.

In the meantime, it's been very easy to digress to creative work. My other picture book ms is evolving shrinking and expanding and generally trying to make itself "spreadsheet worthy." If you're like me, and having a hard time getting yourself to write, try forcing yourself to do some data entry. It won't be long before you're crying for your word processor. Or at least a pen.

Then I realized somthing. I really really love my spreadsheet. I do! Maybe there is hope for this lazy one yet.