Submitting Work. . .Be Careful. . .

I have been submitting a book proposal to two different publishers. A proposal is time-consuming and ultimately it can be a tremendous amount of work only to be told, "Sorry, no thanks. . ."

Here are some proposal guidelines I have been working from:

Stenhouse

ASCD

Now, my embarrassing story: I have published eight books and co-authored two additional books. I am no stranger to proposals. However, I recently received a confirmation of a book proposal submission. . .and as I glanced down at my cover letter copied beneath the confirmation, I noticed my cover letter started, "I submitting. . ."—Yes, the "am" is missing!

So I responded, thanking the publisher for confirming my submission and then apologizing profusely for the copyedit mistake. The publisher responded again, and was kind, but we must try diligently to send in clean submissions. But we all make mistakes. . .