Making Time to Write Mondays,  Writer Resources

Picture Book Status Updates

January 6, 2014 /

I’ve been involved with Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 Picture Book Challenge for 2 years. In that time, I’ve written, revised, revised, revised, and revised. However, I realized recently that I have a ton of different picture books, all at different stages, and I really needed to get a handle on what I have and what I need to work on, and honestly, what I need to put away for awhile. I’m getting ready to participate in ReviMo, and I wanted to prioritize what I am going to work on.

I created this Picture Book Status Form and spent some time going through my picture books and evaluating their “status” on my to-do list.

Click on the image to download the PDF of this form.
Click on the image to download the PDF of this form.

In each section, I make various notes.

TITLE: Write the title or working title of the manuscript.

IN DEVELOPMENT: If I’m still working on the idea or working on a draft, like ideas I got for PiBoIdMo, I just put a check mark in this box.

IN REVISION: If I received notes from a critique partner or revision suggestions from an editor or agent, I make notes to myself here and who made the suggestion (especially if it’s an editor or agent who wants a rewrite).

PUT IN A DRAWER FOR NOW: There are some books I’ve tried to make work and I just can’t figure out how. So if I’m putting them in a drawer, I either check off this box or I write down a date to let it emerge from the drawer. If in 3-4 months, when I pull it out, I still think it’s non-workable, I may put it back in the drawer. However, sometimes 3-4 month wait time might jiggle something loose. I actually make a note to myself on my Google calendar (under my writing calendar) about when I need to pull it back out.

SUBMISSION READY: These are the manuscripts I hope to send out in the next few months. I put a checkmark in this box or write down a name of an editor or agent I’d like to send it to.

Download the PDF of the Picture Book Status Form

Download the Google Docs version of this form to make changes yourself 

 

 

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