Teresa Nordheim - Children's writer and illustrator

At the end of each year I like to look back at my goals and my tracking to see where I am at in my writing career.  This year I knocked out some milestones but I also found myself swamped at work and not writing of submitting nearly as much as I had hoped. Without reviewing my blog from last year at this time, I can already tell you that I didn’t meet my goals.  One of my goals was to submit at least 15 times per month and as you can clearly see, I only subbed 23 times for the entire year!  I’m very disappointed.  On a good not, I got my first paycheck from Highlights Magazine and FACES Magazine.  Two great doors which have opened. I also published a couple of articles in Appleseed again this year.  As far as book sales, I did some awesome promotions this year for Bite of Washington and the sales showed my work paid off.  I sold 80 books this year!  Not bad for a self-published book.

Agent Submissions: 12

Agent Rejections: 8

Agent Requests: 1

Self-Published Books Sold: 80

Publisher Submissions: 11

Publisher Rejections: 12

Publisher Requests / Articles Sold: 5

Promotions: 60

I’m pleased to announce I will have an article in FACES Magazine coming out next year.  I was able to write an article on how good humor goes bad when it’s translated between countries and cultures.  It was by far one of the hardest articles I have even written, but exactly what I enjoy doing. I love making non-fiction entertaining to young people.  Education is power and if you can make education fun, then you are creating a powerful world!

I was excited to see my new three page spread in Appleseeds October 2011. Of course, the entire magazine is on ghosts and I love a good ghost story. Photos coming soon.

At the end of each year, I look back to see how many of my writing goals have been met and look to next year for new goals. In 2010, I met a couple of my goals, and fell short with some. The good news first. Three of my published articles were reprinted with other magazines or state tests. Two published clips allowed me to reach goal number one. Break into the Cobblestone & Cricket market. DONE!

It’s A-Mazing!:Appleseeds Magazine Sept/Oct 2010

The Body Farm: Appleseeds Magazine May/June 2010

Selling one article to Highlights Magazine accomplished another goal. Which was of course, to sell to the top magazine market for children. DONE!

Sydney Martin Rocks! (Gallant Kids Section)

Once magazines have been successfully conquered, more to selling books. I sold 4 self-published books in 2010. Also, Justin, the super awesome manager at Borders Books in Tacoma got a Borders number for my books. So they can now be ordered into all Borders stores. Justin ordered ten books and I will be going into sign them this week! Thank you Justin! Bite of Washington is now listed on Barnes and Noble’s website and can be ordered through them. Between you and I, I think that is what inspired Justin. It’s all good.

Now for the flip side. I haven’t had as much time to write this year and therefore didn’t reach my set goals for published articles or submissions. With 24 publisher submissions, I received 4 rejects and 3 requests. My contract expired with my agent, so it was time to start those queries again as well. 22 agent queries and 11 rejects. This means I have two weeks to fill my goal of selling 12 articles this year. A Christmas miracle would be nice. On another down note, my schedule has not allowed me to work with my crit group as much as I would like. Thankfully the gals haven’t booted me to the curb.

So, what are my 2011 writing goals?

1. Finish creating my writing office space (almost complete thanks to my husband).

2. Sell at least 12 articles.

3. Sell at least 10 self-published books.

4. Be more active in my crit group.

5. Enter at least two writing contests.

6. Continue to build my network.

7. Do at least one school presentation.

8. Sell to Highlights, again!

9. Sell to Cobblestone again!

10. Complete all of my ongoing writing projects.