SUBMISSIONS: 2 X 2

I'm attemtping to find agents/publishers for one of my students who is a writer of outstanding stories for children. We are presently working on the publication of a picture book usig one of her delightful Teddy bear poems. Not unlike writers of any other genre, this is not an easy task.

It is difficult to keep up with the markets and agents. We are working with an up-to-date children's marketing book. However, to make sure that the guidelines still pertain, I have been going to the online sites. Out of the first five chosen to be a fit for her work, not a one was right on. They were all picked because they didn't require agents; now they all do. They were chosen because they accepted picture books; now they no longer want them.

The publishing world has changed in another respect also. It was once a given that if you sent out queries, example chapters, synopsis or outline to more than one source, you stated this in the cover letter I didn't follow this rule then. Most of the guidelines now tell you, publishers/agents will not accept simultaneous submissions.

Let me get this right. I have written a book, revised, rewritten, spent hours and days, maybe months or years, on my manuscript. I want it to be published so that my work can be seen by interested readers. Your guidelines tell me you want me to send you my hard-earned work exclusively and wait for: "Responds in 6 months. Responds in 6-12 months. Response time varies." As a writer and teacher of creative writing, I find that not only unfair but unreasonable.

I recommend writers ignore those demands. You have your agents or publishers list. You've got a killer query letter, a dynamite outline or synopsis and a manuscript that is as ready as you can make it. You are ready to test the waters of the acceptance world. You should definitely send query letters to all the agents/publishers on your list--at once. Ignore the advice to not send multiple submissions. Agents often take even longer than publishers, as much as up to one year to reply. Do you want to wait that long for rejection or acceptance? I certainly don't--and won't. At my age, I could be dead before I receive an answer.

If you have an agent you really want to represent you, say so in your query letter. Put a time limit on her exclusive look at your manuscript, say two weeks, a month at most. If interested, she might ask for more time. Give it to her. But watch that deadline and contact her if you haven't heard within a week of the deadline you have agreed on. If you hear nothing, get that list out and send queries to everyone on it.

The great thing about sending multiple submissions out is that if you get more than one agent/publisher interested, you can use this as leverage to prod all the others to read your material. It's not necessary to tell the agents/publishers in the query that this is a multiple submission; in fact, I don't ever mention this. But if an agent shows interest and asks if it has been submitted to another, be sure to tell the truth.

I have the search for new agents/markets for my student on my to-do list for this week. While I'm doing this for her, I'll keep my eye out for agents/publishers for "Aunt Lutie's Blue Moon Cafe" and "Pink Poodle Pie (and Other Tales of How Women Get Even"); maybe I won't have to wait another year for a rejection.

I hope you will do the same for your manuscripts waiting to be read by millions.