Are you a Saver? by Morgan Mandel

At one of my Chicago-North RWA meetings a few years ago, Simone Elkeles, a member who had just received a great contract for her YA novels, shocked me and others present by throwing away all of her rejections and submissions. She'd achieved her goal and didn't need them cluttering her landscape.

That was a horrifying moment for someone like me. I save all sorts of things, many of which I should throw away, but I don't have a chance to really go through them. Often the kitchen table gets loaded down with mail before I finally sort it out.

When there's a blogpost or an email about a particular subject I'd like to learn more about, I print it out and save it. Besides grocery lists, I also make little notes to myself about blogs I want to put up, authors I'll be hosting on my blog and all sorts of other things I want to remember, but I'm afraid I won't. I have a post-it stuck on my monitor right now to remind me I have a tax form for the State of Illinois that needs to be completed very soon.

I've got more than a few drawers in my filing cabinet devoted to attempts and successes at publication, including every query letter, proposal, partial, or full manuscript I've ever sent out to a publisher or agent. I keep newspaper articles about my book signings, posters about them, along with promotional weapons of various types, such as postcards, bookmarks, brochures, business cards, holders for them, book signing gimmicks, and more. I also keep folders containing all the newspaper articles published when I freelanced for the Daily Herald newspaper.

What about you? What do you save, either writing related or other? Pleaese share.

Thanks,
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/
http://www.morganmandel.com/