The Great Publishing Send Off continues

It's now over two months since I sent out 15 submissions to companies who publish children's picture books, an area notorious for not looking at unsolicited submissions. What's surprised me so far is I've only had one rejection which clearly said my submission hadn't been looked at as they didn't consider unsoliciteds. Of the rest...

Three other rejections saying 'it's tough at the moment/not right for our list etc'. Two were from editorial assistants and could have been written to anyone, one was from the named editor I'd sent originally sent out to - but the letter could have been sent to anyone.

One phone call from an editor saying she was going to take one of the stories to an editorial meeting, but that was a month ago and I've not heard anything since. I don't know if this is good or bad - I suspect the latter, but am hoping for the former.

I'm doing this anonymously, with no indication of my background. In contrast, an author/illustrator friend with a strong list of titles under his belt, has recently sent out a new text. I've read it, and it's great - much, much, much better than mine - and in two weeks he's had the same number of responses as I have had, with reverse results: four love it, one says 'not for us'.

It's so different if you've got a track record. Or a brilliant text. If you haven't got the former, then you need the latter. Hey ho, back to editing...