I don't know what other people use, but I thought I'd share my query tracking tool. You can use the Open Office or the Excel version. I prefer the Open Office myself.
Page one has your overall list of stories. (I left the publishers for the stories I currently have out making the rounds, but don't feel attached to them. I just thought it might save someone a bit of effort)
You create separate sheets to track the history of the individual stories. The spread sheet keeps track of how long each story has been out, and where it's been. The "Next" line, on the individual story sheet, is where you put the name of the next publisher you'll send the story to if it's rejected. It's important to keep that line filled in, so you can turn a story around right away if it comes back in.
Ask me if you have any questions. Let me know if you have any suggestions for the Open Office version. I've moved away from Excel.
I decided to put my current list up, just as an example of how to fill things in. (Sorry, OpenOffice only)
[This message has been edited by MaryRobinette (edited May 07, 2005).]
Posted by Rahl22 (Member # 1411) on :
There's also a free utility out there, for those of you that like to be ultra-anal about these things.
Mary, you can export a .csv, can't you? Then, anyone can import your spreadsheet into their own program. I'd love to see it if you're able to make a .csv (comma separated values) file.
Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
Thanks for the links to Spacejock, and Writer's Database. They're certainly a lot slicker than mine. The thing they don't have, which I think is really important, is a place to put where you're going to send the story next. So, I'll keep using my spreadsheets, but I love the publisher database that Spacejock has so I might try to build that.
HSO, there are a lot of formulas and multiple sheets. I'm not sure it will be helpful, but here's the .csv of the first sheet.
Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
I've built my own little database to track research on markets, and my stories, and connect the two. Mostly I built it as a procrastination mechanism, but it's turned out to be pretty useful for me!
