The day's half over and I'm just beginning . . .

The kids are off to school the animals have been fed, I've got a box of Cheddar Jack Cheez-It and a glass of ice water. I'm ready to get to work . . . but thought I'd post first.

What's the plan for today? Revision? Rewriting? On to a new project?

No, my friends.

Today is National Researching Publishers Day (NRPD)!

What? You've never heard of NRPD (pronounced nerped)? Why it's the day when writers unite in setting aside their beloved manuscripts and researching publishers. It's on the calendar!

Well, okay, it's on MY calendar . . . but it SHOULD be on yours, too.

Researching publishers is rather like being Santa Claus. You make a list and check it twice (at least) to find out who's naughty or nice. Nice publishers get a query. Naughty publishers get crossed off the list.

How do I differentiate between the naughty and nice?

Nice publishers:
Open to submissions
Accept new authors
Accept unagent-ed submissions
publish books in my genre
recently published books I enjoyed reading
offer reasonable contract terms
heard good things about from others

Naughty publishers:
Not open to submissions
Accept only agent-ed submissions
Don't publish books (or very few) in my genre
Didn't care much for their recently published books
Unreasonable contract terms
On the predators list

So I'm off to pour over market listings, guidelines, catalogs, and websites. Once I've narrowed it down, I'll make lists of books to read from the "nice" publishers.

NRPD, here I come!