It has been three months since I heard from the Czech Publishers. So, they are probably not interested. It’s time to move on. Here is a list of the future publishers:

David Fickling Books.
Onstage Publishing
Roaring Book Press
Dutton Books
Dial Books for Young Readers
Farrar, Straus, Giroux
Milkweed Editions
Albert Whitman & Company
Usborne Publishing
Piccadilly Press
Atheneum books for Children.

All of these publishers accept Middle Grade Children’s fiction especially action, adventure/fantasy. My goal is to write to each and confirm their submission guidelines and if they accept manuscripts from first time authors. I hope in the coming months to find a publisher for the Ghosts’ Messenger.

If you know any other possible publishers, let me know.

The First
From May 5-19th David Fickling Books accepted all children’s manuscripts for their Master of the Ink pot competition. In September, there will be five submissions chosen and an overall winner for possible publication. I spent three days, studying their submission guidelines and reformatting my chapters to meet their requirements. Did I indent paragraphs properly? Was my spacing between paragraphs appropriate? Also, I learned how to put contact information on a header or footer of each page. I am happy to announce that the font size and type were easy to figure out.

Doing that last rewrite, I examined other niggling issues. Was I submitting in doc format? Had I met all the requirements? Had I avoided all the formatting errors? Which means nothing to me, but I can imagine an editor who reviews hundreds, even thousands of manuscripts, and any little mistake leaps off the page.

In the end, on May 17th, I sent a synopsis and my first three chapters. Fingers crossed.

Now, which publisher is next?