Manuscript submissions

As publisher for a very small press, I receive frequent submissions of manuscripts from hopeful authors. Some of them are very professional and indicate that the author has studied my publishing website and read my submissions guidelines. Some do just about everything wrong.

My advice to authors: After putting a lot of time and care into creating your manuscript, take time to learn the proper way to present your manuscript to the right agents or publishers. Research. Make sure you know to whom you are addressing your query and that it is someone with an interest in your genre, target audience, and writing style. If you do not, you are wasting not only your time and resources, but the time and resources of the people to whom you submit your work. They will not waste a lot of time, however, as a glance can tell them whether you were unprofessional, impolite, and/or ignorant of the publishing protocol. They don't have to read the entire submission to tell whether your writing is amateurish or that your work does not fit their needs.

I present workshops on manuscript submission that goes into greater detail and gives opportunity for practice in writing query letters, cover letters, and synopses. After receiving two submissions yesterday, I just want to point out a couple of the basics. First and most important, be sure you have a well written manuscript, synopsis and query. Secondly, don't waste your time sending to those who will obviously have no interest in your subject or genre. When you find a good fit, use professionalism. Address the agent or editor by name, spelled correctly. Give them what they ask for. Submit by the means they prefer.

As stated in my submission guidelines, I prefer queries by e-mail and I want a synopsis and the first chapter. Yet, I often receive entire unsolicited manuscripts via snail mail. Too often they come without a self-addressed stamped envelope. If you send anything by mail always include a SASE, a reply postcard, or both.

Like most editors or agents, I'm pleased to receive submissions of well-written queries introducing the type of books I publish, and I'm disappointed and/or irritated when I receive unprofessional queries. My name is not "To Whom It May Concern" and most likely what you are sending to that name will not concern me at all.

To scold or not to scold?

I once read in a Christian-published book on parenting that parents should NEVER scold their children or raise their voices in anger. I was surprised and confused by the admonition. I'd been scolded and whipped by my parents. My husband yelled at our kids, and I found myself doing the same—out of habit and frustration, perhaps, or because I believed it was what parents are supposed to do. 68 years of life have taught me why the advice from the parenting book is spot on. I've seen the results of scolding, effects that linger long into adulthood, if not throughout life. And I've seen effects of nurturing without scolding: well adapted children and young adults. Wow. The Golden Rule applies here, folks.

Every time a child is attacked with the sharp edge of an adult's rebuke, a piece of his or her self-esteem is whittled away. Soon the child has no self-confidence left. He doesn't trust himself or his elders and withdraws. He or she develops defensive strategies such as hiding, sneaking, stealing, and lying.

So what is the alternative to scolding? We can't just let them get away with bad behavior, can we? No, of course not, but take a look at what you are judging as "Bad." Make sure it is not the children. Kids will make mistakes, but that doesn't make them bad. It just means they're human—little human beings that are learning about life and about themselves as best they can with what they hear, see, and experience.

I like the advice that Kedric H. Cecil, Ph. D.* gives in his book, "Wisdom from the Streets." He says, and years of experience and observation back it up, "As parents we must use every opportunity to help our children feel good about themselves. In the middle of any interaction with them, we need to ask ourselves if our actions will enhance or detract from their self-esteem.

"The easiest way to accomplish that is to treat them the way we would like to be treated. Even though our parents may have done the best they could, if something did not feel right to us as children, it may not have been right, and we need to treat our children accordingly."

* Dr. Kedric H. Cecil specializes in working with at-risk children and their families, as well as those who have suffered physical and emotional abuse. He is adjunct professor in the Graduate Program in Counseling at Montana State University-Northern and is in private practice in Havre and Great Falls, Montana. See more about him and his book at www.wisdomfromthestreets.com