Resources for Writers

» Jennifer Jensen - How do you organize your writing projects?

My paperwork organization is horrible--I have great ideas, but if it's not in easy reach, it doesn't happen. So my desk is stacked and stacked over again!

However, I created submission-tracking tables on the computer which work really well. I name my files so they group: "story", "story ltr", etc. For each story, I create one named "story sub list" where I have a table that lists all publishers who might be interested, what rights they buy, their length requirements (for magazines), their payment rates, and whether or not they accept simultaneous submissions. When a publisher sends a story back, I know who to send it to next.

I also created a "Submission Tracking" file, a table for ALL my stories. It has the following columns: date sent, date replied, title, publisher, postage, rights, response time (expected) and response/contract amount. It lets me see at a glance when to expect an answer, where I've already sent a story, and if one has been home for a while and needs to be sent out again.

I haven't tried any writer's software that includes submission tracking ($$$, you know), but this works well for me.