My Son May be a Published Author Before Me!

 We were vacationing on Pensacola Beach when I opened this email! (Thank God for high speed internet hotels) Needless to say, we were all thrilled and surprised! Joey  next big goal is to audition for Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader! One thing I’ve learned with this son of mine, is that anything is possible!

Congratulations to the winners of Sylvan Dell Publishing’s 2007 Picture Book Writing Competition for Homeschooled Students 

• First place ($200): Joey Conroy and his Jumping Bugs.  Anthony’s manuscript will join other manuscripts received by Sylvan Dell Publishing that will be considered for publication in the upcoming seasons. 

Our editor Donna enjoyed reading all of the manuscripts. She was most surprised when she realized that the top three submissions were all in rhyme! She was very intrigued by this because a rhyme manuscript is generally the most difficult to make “work.” Some publishers don’t even consider rhyme submission.

Here’s a personal note from the publisher:

Dear Joey,

Congratulations! Sylvan Dell Publishing has chosen your manuscript Jumping Bugs as the winning submission of the 2007 Picture Book Writing Competition for Homeschooled Students. We received over 110 submissions in total. Our editor loved the creative way you introduced basic math skills in your manuscript.

Sylvan Dell Publishing receives about 30 manuscripts each day! Our editor carefully reads each submission and chooses the most promising manuscripts for a special “hold” folder. In this process, over 1,000 manuscripts are narrowed down to a group of less than 50 that will be considered for publication. Your Jumping Bugs will now join the other promising manuscripts in the hold folder to be seriously considered for publication. In addition, you have won the prize of $200.

We hope you are as excited as we are about the results. We are more than happy to answer any questions or address any concerns you or you parents may have. I look forward to hearing from you.

Congratulations, son! I hope to see your story in print!