May | 2015 | COW PASTURE CHRONICLES

Photo courtesy of google and time.com

“Look at that family, the parents look as if they’d rather be anywhere than sitting across from each other and the kids have their faces stuck in a phone or tablet.”

Millie’s shoulders sagged as she realized one of her husband’s favorite soapbox topics had highjacked the evening.

“I’m mean, dinner used to be for family conversations; what the hell, people don’t talk anymore?”

Millie glanced at the family across from them, “Seems to me, the kids have taken all the table conversation they can stand,” she said, catching bits of the couple’s angry exchange.

“Our society is going to hell,” she heard him say, before tuning him out and reaching for her iPhone, “Can’t say I blame them.”

Written in Response to: http://lilliemcferrin.com/five-sentence-fiction-diversions/ This week’s word: DIVERSIONS

Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. A five sentence story based on the prompt word.

Want to participate? Check it out at Lillie McFerrin Writes and as always, I’d love to hear from you. Talk to me, tell me your story.

Now, that you’re thinking about submitting your work, you need an easy method for tracking all those submissions.

Why keep track?

Turn around time can vary from a few days to nearly a year. The average response time is more like 2-3 months.
You need a record of who, where and what you submitted to avoid sending the same query to the same publication/editor.
Keeps track of documents and word counts. We all have more than one version and/or word count and being able to identify the appropriate document is helpful as market guidelines may differ.
And, builds your own statistics regarding response times, acceptance rates, or those offering feedback and critiques.

Resources to Keep Track:

You can find many resources online, some easier to use than others:

Duotrope Digest – A huge searchable database, and due to the large membership, statistics are readily available. Information is entered manually. The cost – $5/month.
The Writer’s Database: A free, online database which functions similar in fashion to Duotrope. Requires manual entries in a smaller database.
Use folders on your computer. Arrange by time, publication, or title. Good labeling is the key to organizing your files.
Or, use a spreadsheet, as I do and NOW, you can too.

Below is my FREE gift to you:

Photo courtesy of google and thomaspichon.com

My Free Gift to You

An easy and quick submission tracker at your fingertips. Header columns include: Title, Category/genre, Submission Date, Status, Publisher, Website, Reply/Comments and Document links. You can change them to suit your needs. Click the link or image to download your copy today.

Submission Tracker Log Sheet1

Click image to download

How to Create Documents Links for Your Tracker:

By creating a link to the actual document, you are able to see the version submitted with a click. To create the hyperlink follow these steps:

In Word, open the document.
Select Insert, Hyperlink.
Select Document, then select File.
Locate your file in the Finder, select and the link is automatically entered.
Open File Properties and enter the link in the Summary Section under Hyperlink Base.

I hope you will enjoy this gift and find it helpful in keeping track of your submissions. I’d love to hear from each of you and what you think about the tracker.

Happy writing and success on your submissions.