Don’t we all dream of it? Our verses, all collected in a nicely bound volume, on the shelves and catching the eyes of poetry fans everywhere…
Most of us have realized after a few years that, indeed, ‘professional poet’ is a synonym of ‘starving artist’. But you CAN see your poetry in print! Here…this way to the back door.
For over twenty years, I managed to sell (yes…SELL) my poetry at the rate of between one and three poems a year. That ended in ’96, as I failed to “grow with the times” and rhyme-and-meter poetry lost popularity…but it was a good run while it lasted, and here’s how I did it: topical periodicals.
The last poem I sold was to Sail Magazine (Feb. 1996...Sweet Lady Pacific) and I also managed to get them to pay for a short piece of prose called Confessions of a Forty Year-old New Kid. Prior to that, I’ve had work published in magazines on horsemanship and on ranching, on travel, on martial arts, parenting, pets…about any topic I found meant enough to ME to be worth a good poem!
The more often your name has appeared in print under a work you got paid for, the greater your credibility with every new submission…and credibility is bankable. I cashed mine in to get a novel published, and if that novel actually makes me that ‘household word’…hey, that collection of my own verses looks a lot more likely, huh?
Nearly every magazine in print will have (referenced in the table of contents, no less) ‘submission guidelines’. Just remember these simple rules, and you should do well:
1) Write what you know. Don’t rush out to try to sell a poem about sailing to a magazine for sailors if you don’t know a sheet from a halyard! Know the stuff…don’t even TRY to fake it!
2) Don’t flood the editor! Offer your very BEST stuff, and offer it according to their rules as stated in those submission guidelines. Don’t press…it’s not the editor’s job to tell you how to improve your work. They WILL usually respond helpfully to a single follow-up letter asking if the work was rejected simply because they don’t care for reader-poetry (Some magazines just don’t…I usually never submitted poems to a magazine unless I’d seen them publish poems.) or the submission didn't match the editor's criteria.
3) Keep the work on-target to the topic of the magazine. If you do work about the loveliness of nature, and can make it about specific locales, you’ve got a great market: nearly every state has an equivalent of Texas Trails or Arizona Highways…magazines geared to encourage tourism. If your prose or poetry can make someone want to see the Red Rocks of Sedona, the Redwoods of California, the ruins of Mesa Verde or the caverns of Carlsbad, those magazines are very likely to buy it.
That’s the back-door to publication, guys. It worked for me…got me a handy set of pub-credits that were very helpful when it finally came time to try for the big deal and see my novel in print. Don’t be scared.
By the way, Poets and Writers Magazine is PACKED with tips, and with “words needed” opportunities: it’s well worth a subscription!Best of Luck!
Don’t we all dream of it? Our verses, all collected in a nicely bound volume, on the shelves and catching the eyes of poetry fans everywhere…
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1 - 36 of 36
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great advice for new poets as well as older one .i for one am apublished poet but not to the point of making money at it i trly would love to do that
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Totally sensible and realistic advice; I hope readers appreciate this and follow it ... recognising that not everyone wants to read poetry about their 'angst', but rather about the things that affect them every day.
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fine.
You are right about this type of writing and it is the job og the editor for this. I think that this piece of work is just fine. I would rank this fine. -
very good
An excellent article. I have been interested in being published but not yet willing to spend the time and effort to accomplish it. Too many other things on the go.
Really enjoyed the read and nice to know that success can be had out there.
John -
This is an amazing approach... I'd never have thought of such... I must say you are most creative when it comes to poetry if you managed to come up with the back door. Thank you very much for taking the time to inform everyone here... Now I gotta go look at The Gooding Leader, our local newspaper... Now if you'll exscuse me... Oh, great column by the way
Wolf Goddess
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Hmm, definitely interesting. personally, I'm not at a point in my writing where I'd consider it good enough for publishing (duh), but this might be a good reference for the future. Nice of you to take the time to inform us all, thank you,
Amanda -
Thanks for the helpful information!
Elaina
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Appreciative!
I think it's amazingly sweet and generous of you to do this for all of us out there.. So thank you for that.
I just recently started looking up ways to "get published" I feel like I'm taking my small baby steps to feeling 100% comfortable with it before I start sending stuff out.
The thought is extremely exciting though... Thanks again for sharing this information...
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Really helpful information, what was the book you published? I like to try reading a magazine beforehand to see which words the editor likes to use.
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used to run around sending work everywhere, published in underground zines but then just lost interest. great advertisement i am lol.
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Nice article. A lot of us want to be published, but most don't know how to do it. Since I do it as a hobby, I never once bothered to sell work, but it might be something to look into when I'm older. Thanks.
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This is very good and solid information that we all can use. Most if not all of us would like to be published sooner or later. I fell for Poetry.com's sweet sounding words twice, but no never again. I woke up on my own though, I didn't know anyone to tell me differently about anthologies, and thought they were a good place to get my name in print and works published. That was before I found a decent place to post my poetry. I don't really consider myself a poet anyway; what I really like is writing short essay type stories. I write and submit them for contests and possible publication. I have also written one small book of essays about my life and some of the odd things that have happened to me over the years. I am now in the process of writing another book of fictional and non-fiction essays. Again, I want to say thanks for posting this information for everyone. If anyone here likes entering contests one place that I like is www.glimmertrain.com/
Damon D. Brewer
Edited on Apr 19, 8:59 p.m. because ''. -
I was expecting a little more pornography, and a lot less talking.
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Thanks for the info on Poets and Writers Magazine, I just put in for my subscription. Nice article, very informative and stuff people here will find useful
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Excellent
C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S
So nice of you to share. I just had one door close of a different kind and since everybody always says God opens another I thought, hey, why not the back door. LOL Thank You
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the songwriter's market is a real good book,and it is at the library for free.
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great advice
ya thanks for the tips man it help alt so ya keap up the helpful hints and later
-nick -
very useful
It is great job to the potential poets who think about this to try to print something and I apreciate this very much. Thank You for informations. anna -
Some very good pointers here. Any suggestions for an aspiring novelist?
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YEY!
This was very interesting and informative, thanx for posting it. I think I'm going to self-publish through www.lulu.com/, it's very cool, I just signed up for free. Weeee...
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BRAVO for the TRUTH
I've sent several poems to Poetry.Com, and geez i never thought of it that way, maybe i was blinded by the thought I really wanted my stuff published and in a book, never once have i bought the books, or stuff my poetry was in! and they tell us we retain the copyright. but now that i think about it, if thats the case, why dont we get to see any of the money our stuff was put into? or hell even given a free copy I've got most of the letters they've sent me saying my works been published.
Now i want it pulled off the internet and taken out of those books, mines and my sisters. i think thats sad, that ppl would take advantage of ppl who truly aspire to be great poets, and well known writers. pooh on them...
great column, thanks for the insight...Never again shall i write a piece to them! and to think i got some award from the editor in the mail that i didnt have to pay for. though it was a piece of paper! ah wellz good write, thanks for the tips and help
One Love, One Voice, One Pen
~+~Blessed Little One~+~ -
Of course that's what I meant....lol.... I re-worded it for ya. lol... Should have had someone edit my comment before I posted it.
Don -
"Note, have an editor assist you with your writing."
I know what you mean, Don...but for the sake of clarity on the page, let me rephrase you, okay?
Have a friend or colleague help you by editing your work, and DON'T expect this service of the editor of any magazine you submit to! They'll seldom select an author who adds to their workload.
This is what haikumonk said...just said different.
(right, Don?) -
You have a lot of wonderful points here. Good information. One of the main things is to be very knowledgeable about what you are writing and who you are writing for. Establish a really friendly relationship with the publisher. They are swamped with material. So, it's important to come off very friendly, concise in your presentation and professional. If you are turned down, (likely), send a quick thank you note for the consideration. It IS NOT anything personal. Everyone gets turned down... it is noraml or the magazines would be 300 pages thick!!! But keep trying.... about the time you can wallpaper your house with rejections, you will get published.
Note, have a friend edit and assist you with your writing. It helps you keep things clean....... and when the magazine's editor sees it, it will already be on its way to a refined, well structured piece.
Just some thoughts your Column brought up.
Thanks,
Don
Edited on Apr 18, 9:55 p.m. because ''. -
yay! this is much more specific than my english teacher's comments. thanks bunches
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awesome, helpful, and down to earth. great job!
trick -
thanks for all the interesting and enlightening information, dericlee. I've never had any big ambitions to be a published poet but of course it has crossed my mind a time or two, wishing I was that good. There's a lot of poets on here that are that good, though.
Your piece will be a big help, I'm sure, good ideas and advice.
lol...I'm one of those who can claim the fame of being told I was chosen to be published by poetry.com......I didn't fall for it the first time, or the second time or the time after that... then I learned what a scam they are...that was about the time Kevin came to my rescue with his email inviting me to come to allpoetry ...about two and a half years ago.
Thanks again and I'll certainly keep your wonderful info at hand... just in case, ya know
Dee
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appreciate the info...I am not really worrying about publishing for money right at the moment..but I am sure I could change that attitude quickly with the thought of real money..this article has been very informative
shasta -
This was such a good column!! Really user friendly and helpful. I've kinda taken this approach- almost commisioning myself to write a piece based on the content of the magazine and it works as well as writing pieces and sending them out in the hopes that they will get picked up, which they do but its always goo to have a starting point for references. No one wants to be the first to take a risk, huh?? It works with stories and articles too and theres nothing like that feeling of getting the illusive acceptance letter. This will really help the masses of writers here who deserve to be published but might be scared of it, not know how to do it or think they arent good enough or their works arent appropriate. I always tell my students, "someone, somewhere thinks its appropriate, theres a magazine for everything". Anyway, this was great. Thanks for sharing your advice and experience, lets hope to see more great AP writers in print. I always said the talent here was tremendous.
I'm off to take my fluey (and probably poorly spelling, sorry) butt to bed.
Nate. -
thanks for the tid bit on publishing our prose and rhymes.
may we all be found one day in a book on a shelf...
Tamara
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slave2gravity , you're quite right, of course...remember these three rules: don't submit your work to anyone who
1) asks for your money.
2) wants you to buy the book so they'll publish you in it, or
3) fails to guarantee that you retain the copyright to your work.
SEE the publication you're dealing with FIRST. ASSURE yourself that it is a reputable publication!
I'll tell you this out in the open, without waffling or mincing words: poetry.com and the International Library of Poetry are a SCAM...they're parasitic scavengers who live off of the hopes and dreams of poets.
Oh, yes...they'll publish your poetry, regardless of quality, and the only people who will ever see it are the other poets they sucker into buying the books. They don't even TRY to market these collections to anyone but the contributors...and they make in excess of fifty million dollars a year off of young (and older) poets who buy their books, their coffee mugs, their trips to super-collossal meetings with Florence Henderson.
You're better off with Reader's Digest...and they frankly discourage you from sending them your poetry.
Edited on Apr 18, 4:15 p.m. because 'my typo-gremlin got a little active again'. -
Thanks for this tutorial I had written a column on submitting short stories and novels ( storywrite.com/Column/563147 ), but had no idea what the proper ettiquette was to getting poems published!
Again, much thanks and all my best
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You have to be careful with some of these people that invite you to publish thier poems. Do your homework first. You'll be surprised to find that some of these online contests, (NOT this wonderful site) sites, mailers, etc could truly care less about your work and they will not even care about the content. They simply want to make thier own money of a compilation of poetry that they basically scammed out of people. You particulary have to be careful of anything saying 'We will put your poetry all overseas and make it avalible to the world!'.
Its not wrong to want to be published and thier are many many credible people/publishers to work with, but it is a creul world out there. I was lucky enough to find out the bad side to this through a friends experience a few years ago when I started asking him about making some of my work public. If its your dream to be published, all im simply saying is research, research, research. Be careful. -
You can get help as students from teachers even. I had a charcoal sketch that was displayed in many famous places
Art in any form is my favorite thing to do. Any form of expresion. Join in all contests and don't worry about those you loose, only the ones you win.
Edited on Apr 18, 3:12 p.m. because ''. -
Great column here. I had my first poem published when I was 17, and it was such a thrill! It was actually the first poem I submitted to a 'real' publisher (poetry.com doesn't count!) and I was so shocked when I got the paperwork saying it had been accepted, and yatta yatta. Since then I have sent my work into other publishing places, and with the help of Poet's Market, I've been able to learn how to create a manuscript, cover letter and pretty much everything else one needs to know on the publishing venture.
Thanks for sharing this.
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peace
Chris
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