Published!

Last week I found two magazines I love waiting for me in my mailbox. We were just about to head out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday so I packed them up and brought them along. Later that day I was sitting next to the fire with my sweetie husband and it was one of those really idyllic times when you just feel like life is good. The magazines are Art Quilting Studio and Sew Somerset and I am thrilled to have my work in them. This is the first time I've been published in Art Quilting. It was one of the first art magazines I ever purchased and a total dream come true to have my work in it. Actually I purchased them both for the first time when we were about to make a big road trip out to Montana to see my brother and his wife. I splurged and it felt so good to have those two mags to read. I remember Ruth Rae was in both of those issues and I went absolutely gaga over her work. Flipping through the two issues that just came my husband saw an article she wrote in the Sew Somerset and said, "look you and Ruth Rae are in the same issue!" How cute that he even knew who she was. Totally gives away what a fan girl I am. But you have to admit I have great taste :)

 
This makes the fifth and sixth magazines I've been published in this year. I am so so grateful to both Stampington and Cloth Paper Scissors/Interweave for being so very supportive of my work. We make big goals and little goals each year and my goal for 2011 was to get published as much as I could. I made a decision at the beginning of the year that I would submit something for each magazine deadline I could. I chose magazines that I thought would fit my work, or that I have a past experience with and did the best I could to remember and meet their deadlines. Easier said then done I found. :)

I wish I could remember who said it, but someone said that getting published was more about quantity then anything else. The more article proposals you send out the more likely you are to be published. Yes, the chance of getting rejected is higher as well, but the successes more than make up for the rejections when the ratio is 3:1 or greater. I still have a lot of art out there that I haven't heard about, and had a few things rejected this year, but I feel really really good about how many successes I've had. So now that I've seen how important having one really major goal for a year is, I'm wondering what should I make my 2012 goal. How about you? What's your goal for the next year?

I'm a big believer that if  you even whisper it to yourself, saying it out loud makes you more committed to achieving it. So say it to yourself, or share it here, it doesn't matter. Just do it!