If you'd like to improve your chances of having your submission accepted to the Fresh Designs Crochet book series, the number one way to get that to happen is...submit a design proposal. I'll be posting more tips for submitting over the next several days.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS INFO: The call for submissions post over at Cooperative Press is a pretty long read, isn't it? I did that on purpose. Along with using a form for submission, that long read is a filter for me. All the information you need is there, so if you skip over something - like the request to ask questions/add comments to the Cooperative Press call for submissions blog post, so we can keep it all in one place - and have asked a question on Ravelry and are tapping your fingers waiting for me to answer, well...you might be waiting for a while.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS INFO: The call for submissions post over at Cooperative Press is a pretty long read, isn't it? I did that on purpose. Along with using a form for submission, that long read is a filter for me. All the information you need is there, so if you skip over something - like the request to ask questions/add comments to the Cooperative Press call for submissions blog post, so we can keep it all in one place - and have asked a question on Ravelry and are tapping your fingers waiting for me to answer, well...you might be waiting for a while.
- Keep a copy of the information you've put into the form; once you hit submit, you won't be able to see it anymore.
- Confirmation that your submission has been received will be emailed to you by me. If there is anything missing or not working (like a broken link), I will mention that in the email so that it can be corrected. Please allow up to 5 working days for the confirmation email.
- If you've never used Flickr Guest Pass before and would like to, I recommend trying it out a couple of times before you use the Cooperative Press online submission form. I've put together a tutorial with screenshots so that you can see where to click and what your screen should look like.
- This Pixie Purls post (Photography for Knitters: Photographing Yarn) by Brandy Fortune and these It's a Stitch Up blog posts by Suzie Blackman (Photographing Your Work Part 1 and Part 2) can be very helpful for photographing swatches.
- What I am looking for are design proposals - sketches, swatches, and written descriptions. The sketches don’t need to be fine works of art – I just want to know the general shape and dimensions of the piece. Swatches are especially helpful for lace and very textured stitch patterns. Finished projects/patterns can be submitted, but I generally prefer design proposals that have more potential for being modified.
- For the yarn amount, when specifying a brand, please estimate the number of skeins or hanks needed. If you are not specifying a brand, estimated yardage is fine.
- For garments, estimate the amount of yarn you will need to make the sample in at least the middle of the size range you can offer, and include that information in the comments section of the form.
- The Fresh Designs format is one design per designer per book. If you’ve got several ideas for, say, Fresh Designs Crochet: Hats, I’d like to see them all. Giving me more to choose from is a good thing, and there's enough overlap between the books so that a submission to Mittens & Gloves could wind up in Designs for Men or in Kids.
If you have questions about the submission form/submission process, please use the comment form for the Cooperative Press Fresh Designs Crochet call for submissions. If you've got questions you don't want to ask in public, you can email me at mk [at] cooperativepress [dot] com.