i was super excited to have my work and myself featured in the amazing new Quilted book from Uppercase Publishing. I'd spoken Janine (the editor) a few years ago about featuring my quilts and not heard anything for a while so when she got back in touch asking if I'd like to be featured I was thrilled.
The book is beautiful and full of tons of inspiring quilters and their stories.
Bailey was also relieved when the pic i'd sent of the two of us didn't make the cut, I still can't understand why a 16 year old lad doesn't want to be in a book on quilting? I think I'd have jumped at the chance when I was that age.
Being in the book also provided me the first opportunity to sign my autograph! I handled the situation terribly and as British-ly as anyone who knows me would expect. But i was thrilled to be asked and had a really good chat as a result.
If you are looking to get into print or get your work featured then I think it's pretty straight forward - it just requires some pro-activity and tenacity in identifying your publication/podcast/radio or TV show of choice and sending a targeted email. I'm not suggesting every application will be a success but i do know that if you don't ask then you definitely won't get your work featured, these editors are busy people and whilst they are desperate for content they don't have time to find you and whatever you're doing. You have to make their job as easy as you can for them, i.e. send something interesting and spell checked, send good images and hit deadlines.
None of this is rocket science and i think the worst answer you can get is 'no thanks' but that's not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes it's timing, sometimes your work might not be right. This isn't the end of the world, just an opportunity to review what you sent and perhaps find a different opportunity or send something different. Don't give up.
Easy to write that having had some success getting into a few things but I've had twice or three times as many rejection letters, so don't worry if you aren't successful. Try again.
I've added a link to the image above so you can learn more about the book on the Uppercase web site.