Submission Tracking: Success Is In The Details

When you are submitting your scrapbook creations, there are more details of your work to be concerned about long after your page is completed. Keeping track of information regarding supply lists, submissions and publications can be more time-consuming and frustrating than the original creation of the layout! But it is a necessary part of the submissions process
if we are going to be effective as a professional.

After much trial and a whole lot of error, I have come up with a system that works very well for my work process. While it may not work for everyone, I am sharing it here in the hopes that it may inspire other designers to create a system that will work for them.

The first part of my organization process is to identify calls for which I am interested in submitting work. I learn about page calls in several ways. I look at the sites of my favorite magazines directly. I hear about calls from the postings of other designers on my favorite message boards. And I check two websites that specialize in listing page calls and helping designers, Scrap-Source and Scrap Submit.

Once I have identified page calls of interest to me, I do two things with the information. First, I write the deadlines on my household calendar so that I can see them along with my family’s schedule when I am planning my week or month. Second, I keep a three-ring binder with calendar pages in it. After each month’s page, I print out and file the information relevant to the calls due that month. This means that later when I am ready for it I don’t have to go looking for the submission guidelines, contest rules, or other needed information.

When I am working on creating a layout, I keep track of my supplies as I work. I have a stack of blank 4×6 index cards on my scrap table. I jot on them with a pencil the supply information as I work, so I don’t have to try to remember later what supplies were used.

After the layout is complete and I have scanned it, I create a record sheet for it to be filed in a three-ring binder. On this double-sided sheet I place a thumbnail version of the scan to help me remember the layout it refers to, and it also records such information as the supply list, computer file names, where and when the layout has been submitted and posted online, and publication information for it. (I don’t reprint the sheet every time I have an update to it – I simply handwrite the information.) I have three sections of my main notebook for these sheets. One section contains layouts that have been submitted to active calls. One section contains layouts that I consider it possible to submit if the right call presents itself. When I am looking at new calls, it is easy to flip through this section of my binder and see if any of my existing work fits the call. I move layouts that have been accepted for publication to a third section. Once I deem a layout no longer suitable for submitting, I “retire” that record sheet to another binder.

In addition to tracking where each individual layout has been submitted, I like to have a list of what layouts I have submitted to “open” or “active” calls, meaning calls that selections have not been made for yet. For this purpose I created a table that lists the date of submission, the layout name, the call, publication and due date. I keep the list on my computer as well as printed out. I like to arrange it by due date so the oldest calls – for which selections will likely be made first – are at the top of the list. Also, this means I can see at a glance everything that I submitted to a particular call, because arranging by due date keeps everything for one call together even if it wasn’t submitted at the same time. When I hear selections have been made for a particular call, I cross those submissions off the list. When I make new submissions, I add them to the bottom. When the printed list gets messy, I edit it on the computer (reordering by due date where necessary) and print a clean copy. I keep this list right in the front of my submissions binder for quick reference and updating.

Good information management is a large part of success as a designer. It helps you make the most of your work professionally and saves you time on paperwork tasks that you can spend on actual designing! Spending time on creating a record keeping system that works for you is a good investment for any designer.

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