Verse in Highlights High Five Magazine, Submission to Publication Journey

Tah Dah! A Tree, verse by me, Diana Ting Delosh with art by Marta Alvarez is published in the April 2023 issue of Highlights High Five magazine on Page 4.

The submission to publication journey for these 4 short lines began last spring, when I saw a call for submissions by Highlights for their Magazines in the May 2022 issue of Children's Book Insider. I actually almost didn't submit, A Tree, because it is sooo short and simple. But I did submit it along with 2 others in mid-May. About a month later, the editors passed on the 2 that I thought had a better shot. But no word about A Tree. I waited, wondering if it had been overlooked. Waited a bit more. Then on August 31, while I was on vacation, I got an email from Highlights saying that they are delighted to accept, "A Tree" for publication. 

WOO HOO!

Then more waiting. Finally on December 12, I receive a PDF  to check for typos on my verse and to let me know that it's scheduled for the April 2023 issue.  All in all it took about 10 months from submission to publication.

YAY!

Note: Highlights use Submittable.com for all their submissions. You can do multiple submissions BUT each submission must  be sent individually. What's nice for us, doing the submitting is that: Submittable sends a confirmation letter for each of your submissions and you can check on your submission status yourself. Submittable also sends you an email to let you know when the editor has reviewed and  passed on your submission, title. You don't have any direct contact with Highlights until they accept your work.

You can find me at:

Website: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Check out my illustrations on products at:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

 

The Pewter Plate Award!

Yay -The Pewter Plate Award! - © 2009 Diana Ting Delosh, Marker

I'm happy to announce that my poem, Bubble Trouble- July 2008, just won the Pewter Plate Award from Highlights High Five for Puzzle Poem of the Year! YAY! What a lovely surprise.

We had been alerted to look for a gift from R in the mail. Needless to say when the above package arrived we just assumed it was the gift. B thinks it's chocolate when we open the outer package and reveal the inner white box. Surprise, surprise it's the Pewter Plate Award from Highlights High Five magazine! I think it's better than chocolate. B on the otherhand probably prefers a nice yummy box of assorted dark chocolates.

Mice by another name?

I recently received a call from my Highlights/High Five editor concerning my poem, Pip & Squeak. It had just come to their attention that there is a picture book by the same title and it also features mice. HORRORS! Needless to say we needed to come up with a new title and names for the 2 characters in our poem. Here I thought I had been so-o-o clever with the title. Pip and Squeak was a play on the word pipsqueak. What fun. Note - I did think of them as mice when it was first drafted eons ago, but when I submitted it to High Five last summer - I left it to the editors to decide: mice, kids, squirrels, geckos, whatever. They came up with mice. Probably because the names Pip and Squeak screams - Mice. So now the renaming begins. I call and suggest Skip and Scamp along with a few others. Skip and Scamp is chosen but then discarded. I think of more names. Skip and Scout, Rose and Bud, Bud and Twiggy, Stick and Twig, Skip and Clover, Skip and Flora. I'm also Googling to see what turns up and low and behold Bud and Twiggy is a famous couple! After a few more rounds of names, a decision is made: Skip and Scout. Just in time for it to get back in the production line to be published in the August 2009 issue of High Five magazine.

Needless to say from now on I'll do a search before I sub...but than again who knows what happens before it actually gets published!

Pip & Squeak!

Down the Hill
© Diana Ting Delosh
1 of 6 original sketches for Pip & Squeak. (not submitted to High Five)

Highlights/High5 magazine just accepted my pre-school verse Pip & Squeak for publication. YAY!

I had originally submitted Pip & Squeak with sketches to Babybug magazine. Recently decided it was time to have it make the rounds again... this time without suggested art to High Five.

Bubble Trouble: From Idea to Publication.

I'm so happy to announce the publication of my poem, Bubble Trouble, in Highlights/High Five magazine, July 2008, pg 12 & 13 illustrated by Holli Conger. Yay!

If you're interested in the submission process - Read on. Bubble Trouble from idea to published poem took 4 submissions and 7 years. Note: there is more to my life between 2001 and 2008 than this 6 line poem but that's all I'm blogging about here.

I first thought up Bubble Trouble in 2001, scribbled down the rough draft and posted it on a corner of my drawing board. All the better to keep an eye on it while I worked on illustrations /graphic design assignments, other ideals, life, etc. Every now and then I'd tweak a word or line until it took pretty much the same form as it is today -a 6 line poem. I also thought it would make a cute rebus and created a double spread layout.

Submitted my BT poem & suggested sketch layout along with sample illustration and SASE to Ladybug magazine fall of 2001. Why Ladybug? Because they were publishing my In the Garden, illustration and counting activity. And I thought it was perfect for their readers aged 2 - 6. Waited - way past the 4 months they said it took to review & return submissions before finally sending a query. It is the spring of 2002 when I get a reply that they don't keep records of unsolicited subs but I may resubmit. I do. More months pass - finally my SASE comes back at the end of 2002- REJECTED! Albeit a personal rejection. They have a surplus of bubble submissions!

After some sulking, I revamp art for a single spread and submit to Highlights Magazine 2003. They do use rebuses but I still think it's a longshot. More months of waiting - but it does come back - form letter rejection. Well I did think it was a long shot.

BT submitted to Turtle magazine July 2003 and is rejected that December. I sulk, indulge in massive quantities of chocolate, file it away.

2006/2007 - I read in my newsletters: Children's Book Insider and Children's Writer that HighLights will be coming out with a new publication. High Five magazine will be aimed at 2 - 6 year olds. I make a note to myself to submit art samples and maybe create a proposal. One day it dawns on me that I have a perfect project for them in my files. BT is: reviewed, tweaked and submitted July 2007. September 4,2007, my sketches are returned but they are interested in publishing my poem. I'm a bit surprised as I always thought that my art sold my writing but I accept. A month later, the editors send me edited copy to review and a publication date of July 2008!