More Chicken Soup

Awhile back, I wrote about receiving notice that one of my submissions to Chicken Soup for the Soul books had made it to the finals. The editor said that the book would be released in December and final stories selected and writers notified in November. The book's title is Shaping The New You.

So, I was surprised to receive a letter with my story attached, saying it had made it into the book and asking me to check any edits they had done, sign the contract and return. March seems a whole lot more reasonable, since putting a book together for publication is not done in less than a month. When I checked the story, I was pleased to see that they had not changed a word.

This will be my tenth Chicken Soup for the Soul book. An even dozen would be nice, so I'm working on a new story for the grandmother book.

Check out the website http://www.chickensoup.com/ to see what books are still in the works. It might trigger a story idea for you. Be sure to read the guidelines carefully. Any story that doesn't fit within those guidelines will be eliminated immediately. When I received the first notice from the editor saying my story had made it to the finals, she mentioned that only 5% of the stories submitted had made it that far. I'm willing to bet that many of those that didn't make it were good stories but the writers did not follow the guidelines.