Sunday, April 20, 2008
A few months ago I read on a forum that Bead Trends Magazine, a publication I had never heard of, was accepting submissions for a future issue.
What the heck, I said to myself, why not go for it. So I started the process of submitting some photos.
Finding Bead Trends on the internet was a little difficult. Their first publication 
was not yet available on magazine stands, so even googling them didn't bring up much information. I finally found a link in someone's blog that led me to a site with information on how to submit.
The deadline for publication for a future issue was only 2 days away, so I quickly chose a few photos of my jewelry and and e-mailed them to the magazine. I was absolutely shocked when I got the following response from the editor 2 days later:
Thank you so much for submitting your creation to Bead Trends Idea Book Series! We appreciate your submission and would like to use your project(s) for our upcoming March/April 2008 issue. The creation(s) that we are interested in are:
* Early Morning Rain Earrings
* Golden Opalescence Necklace
* Raspberry Drops Earrings
Whoo hoo! I was so excited to get that form letter accepting me into their fold, that I literally could not sleep that entire night! I was going to be published! So what if I'd never seen that magazine before in my entire life. I was going to be in it!
(Note to self: try to keep the number of exclamation points in a single paragraph down to just one.)
As I said before, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep that night. But thing that crossed my mind was the quote
"I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member".
Hey, if Bead Trends accepted me, they must just accept anyone! But what the heck. Who was I to question them. I was going to be published!
The magazine requested that I mail the jewelry to them to
be professionally photographed. Each piece had to be sent individually by Priority or Express Mail and would be returned to me upon publication. They also wanted me to include step-by-step instructions on how to make the jewelry, a complete list of products used, and where I bought them.I had three days to do this to meet their deadline.
It took a while to put it all together. I wanted to make sure the instructions were clear. But the worst was providing sources/addresses for my supplies - I get my jewelry components at some pretty esoteric locations. (Street vendors in Athens, anyone?)
I sent them everything they asked for. Then came the wait.I kept looking for Bead Trends Magazine in all my local bookstores and craftstores. When-oh-when would the March/April issue be out? What would my jewelry look like?
Then one day, a HUGE box was delivered to my door. In it was my returned jewelry, along with six issues of Bead Trends Magazine, and a $60 gift certificate for Aunties Beads.
Oh, and I guess the box also contained the first enty in my personal resume as an established (yes- I know, I'm stretching this but let me bask in the moment) jewelry-maker.
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Seriously, congratulations on your beautiful work AND being published!
I can't believe you pulled that off in three days - good for you.
!!!!!!!!!!
p.s. the exclamation marks are completely justified!
I'll be bringing my magazines out to the relatives when we visit them in the summer. Thanks for the suggestion: I'LL AUTOGRAPH THEM.
LOL
I was afraid I wouldn't have everything done in time. 3 days was really tight, considering I work a full time job - and that my 12 yr-old wanted to help!