Life of A Writer

Phew! (Wipes sweat from brow.) It has been a long day for me here in Southern Illinois. It's now 1:58 a.m. and I'm pooped. I have finally completed my to-do list that incurred while I was on vacation. In fact, I just finished the last item on that list: Responding to submissions sent to Coffee Break for Writers. I managed to reply to all of them. Some submissions and queries were sent before I went on vacation; some were sent during my vacation and more after. So, if you sent a submission or query to Coffee Break for Writers between the dates of May 5 to June 22, then you may want to check your e-mail; there could be good or bad news waiting for you. If it's bad news (a rejection), then there's an explanation as to why it was rejected. A few did not receive a reply, and the reason is because your submission didn't follow the writers' guidelines listed on our Web site. If the submissions don't follow our guidelines, we delete them without replying. It's amazing how many writers don't follow guidelines. As I've said many times in the past, read and follow guidelines for ANY publication before. We received submissions of reprints published too recently (see our "reprints" in our writers' guidelines), attachments that were not in PDF format, submissions under our minimum word count (the majority of those were way under), submissions that didn't follow the AP Style rules, and finally, we also received submissions that weren't written using the English language. Most of these came from writers in the UK. We gladly welcome submissions from everyone, however, if you're from another country, we clearly state in our guidelines that articles must be written in the English language. What we mean is in the UK they write the word check as "cheque." That is not what we want; we want it written as "check."

If you haven't subscribed to our free e-zine for writers yet, then I encourage you to do so today. We have some great articles coming up. Our free e-zine for writers even includes fun things related to writing (quizzes, crosswords, word searches, etc.). Some of our upcoming articles are grammar-related articles, a great article related to research and many more.

Well, I hate to leave good company, but I think I'm going to hit the sack and get some rest. Tomorrow's a new day, and with my to-do list done, I need my beauty sleep so I can write some more articles and work on the second edition of On the Net Resource Guide for Writers. Until next time, take care of yourself and God bless! Oh yes, I almost forgot… Happy Summer! Stay cool and drink lots of water if you're outdoors working.