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How would you go about to get your work published?

17 replies

tammybear · 25/02/2005 14:22

Probably other threads about this, but I'm at work so don't really have time to go through it all. Was just wondering, as I do write a fair amount of poems (just written two at work so thats what sparked on my curiosity) xxx

OP posts:
Miaou · 25/02/2005 14:49

Hi Tammy, you need this book - it gives you all the information you need, plus a lot of advice. It's my bible (for when I pluck up the courage to send something off!)

tammybear · 25/02/2005 15:03

thanks miaou, will definetly buy it

OP posts:
CountessDracula · 25/02/2005 15:17

can we see them?

CountessDracula · 25/02/2005 15:18

(sorry am v nosey)

tammybear · 25/02/2005 15:34

lol, the ones i just wrote are a bit depressing and im very bored at work, everyone has seemed to have gone home!

OP posts:
Miaou · 25/02/2005 17:44

I was going to ask the same thing, CD!

roisin · 25/02/2005 18:01

What are you writing Miaou?

Miaou · 25/02/2005 18:31

I wrote a kid's poem that I thought could get turned into a book - posted it on the site somewhere...hang on a sec...

Miaou · 25/02/2005 18:32

It's on this thread

roisin · 25/02/2005 23:09

Love it

Niddlynono · 25/02/2005 23:55

Miaou - get you. Fab poem. You've got a real talent.

Miaou · 26/02/2005 09:04

thanks guys! Tammybear - are you going to share any of yours with us?

roisin · 26/02/2005 09:30

Miaou - I just printed it out and read it together with ds2 (nearly 6) - two verses each. He loved it, even without pictures, he was completely rapt!

(Then he asked what the poet was called and I said "Miaou", so now he thinks I'm completely bonkers!)

tammybear · 26/02/2005 10:46

ooo i love that miaou, was really good. ill post one tonight when ive got a minute, just warn you, usually my stuffs quite depressing lol

OP posts:
expatkat · 27/02/2005 14:45

Tammy, I'm dithering here. . .I feel like I should respond to your question because I work in the poetry publishing world (I'm a part-time editor at a London based literary magazine) plus I'm a "poet" myself, with a collection to be published in the US next year and, hopefully, distributed to some UK bookshops. But in another way I feel like I shouldn't respond to your query because I'm kinda jaded about the whole poetry publishing thing, and maybe you need someone more positive. Basically the distinguished magazines that publish poetry (London Review of Books, TLS, Poetry Review, Arete, The New Yorker, PN Review, Poetry London, Poetry Wales et al) accept no more than 1-2% of the submissions they receive. If a submission happens to contain "roses are red, violets are blue" type verse, or the kind of stuff that circulates the internet, they will literally throw it away upon reading the first two lines because (a) these mags are understaffed and (b) what they're looking for is work that reflects a familiarity with old and contemporary English-language poetry, and probably foreign poetry in translation, too. If what you write is more low-key, there is still probably a market for it, no doubt contained in the useful book that Miaou suggested, which lists practically all the periodicals that publish poetry.

If you've written a lot of poems and want to publish a book, then unfortunately you need to publish a lot of individual poems first, at least half of the poems contained in your collection. If you pursue this path, you have to expect (a) absolutely no money. Even when my work appeared in Poetry, the American mag where T.S. Eliot first published "Prufrock," I got something like $40 which was a mockery to the weeks I spent writing and revising that poem (b) absolutely no respect--no one cares if you've written or published a poem, and (c) loads of loads of rejection letters of which I, personally, have collected enough to build a replica of Mt Everest.

I'm know you've had a hard time of things, tammybear, so please forgive this less-than-sunny but HONEST explanation of the poetry world. I think there's more joy to be found in the writing and reading of poetry, than in the publishing. What I'd suggest is that you read loads of poetry, if you don't already, andif it's possible to get away from the kids one night a week, saytake a class, or join a local writing group, just to get some feedback on the poems you're writing. I don't mean to sound patronizing, promise. . .it's the same advice I give myself

whymummy · 11/05/2005 09:54

that was really good miaou,i will read it to my children tonight,i could illustrate it for you if you like

Clarinet60 · 23/05/2005 13:46

I've only just read your poem mieow, and I think it's really good. Have you sent it out anywhere yet? ('cos I think you should.)

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