Rejection Slips: We All Get Them!

Rejection slips are a fact of any writer's life and, whether you've realized it yet or not, writing crochet instructions is a form of technical writing.

Don't let rejection slips get you down. Also, don't let them discourage you from submitting again or define how you feel about yourself as a designer. Instead, use them as a tool to help you improve your work. When a project is returned to you with a rejection slip, take a critical look at it and do your best to evaluate it through the editor's eyes. If you see room for improvement, make corrections and resubmit the project to another editor. If I you feel that if is fine as is, send it on to another editor without changes.

Ideally, you will get a feel for what your editors want from you and, you’ll get better at taking that critical look at your designs before you send them out for the first submission. As you get better at working with the editors and they learn what they can expect from you, you will place your designs with more regularity.

As a former crochet editor of several nationally distributed crochet magazines, I can assure you that editors reject projects for many reasons that have nothing at all to do with the merits of your project. Why? There are several reasons. Editors usually work with themes. If you do your homework to find out what the editor's needs are for a book or an issue of a magazine, you've got a better chance of having your work accepted. There are also times when an editor may have already purchased a design that is similar to the one you just submitted so they have no need for another design of the same type. And sometimes, no matter how much an editor likes a project and wants to purchase it, there just isn’t room to get it into the publication.

To improve your chances for placement:

1. Consult the editorial calendar for a publication, and submit what the editor asks for. Follow the submission process exactly. If there is something about the process you do not understand, ask.

2. Be considerate of the people you are submitting to. Make sure your designs are neat, clean and free of contaminants (pet hair, cigarette smoke, etc.) Keep in mind that some of the people who will handle your work may be allergic to some or all of these things. (I know someone who is, and she suffers a great deal when people ignore this simple request.)

3. ALWAYS include a check for return postage when mailing a submission. If you don’t, your submission may not be returned to you.

Want to Help Launch a New Craft Forum?

Some friends have launched a new craft forum at Funcraftics. They asked me to moderate some of the forums, including crochet and knit, and of course I said yes! So come on over and check it out, and help us get some discussions going. We look forward to seeing you there!

Home Again

I’m finally home again. What started out to be a one-week visit turned into two. I had a great time re-connecting with family and friends, and was able to squeeze in a fair amount of work, as well.

That’s one thing I really appreciate about being a designer—the ability to do my job from anywhere. I was working on a project for a publisher when I left home, so I took it with me to finish it up. A few days after I arrived in Illinois, I received a cell phone call from a different publisher offering me another job. I accepted, and she overnighted the materials I would need to finish it. I’m about halfway through that project, and will spend a few days finishing it up while I settle back into my daily routine. I can’t tell you what the projects are, of course, but I’ll announce all of my newly published designs here once they are in print.

I was also able to get some work done on the free pattern I mentioned in the last entry, but I’m sure you’ll understand that the projects for the publishers take top priority. Keep checking—I’ll try to get the free pattern up soon!