I finally got a piece of poetry published!! It was actually a piece that I workshopped a bit here and then submitted so thank you for the community and the comments. The thing is, I didn't get it published in the way that I thought I would. This may seem a little weak sauce but it was actually published through a city writing competition. Once a year my city has a writing competition for adults and children and I figured "what the heck! I'll submit something I've been working on." To my surprise I won 3rd place in poetry (short story didn't even get an honorable mention but oh well). I got a whopping $10 in prize money (better than a stick in the eye :) )and, more importantly, they are going to publish the winning selections in a collections book and stock it at the local library. How about that for an interesting bonus?! I know I know - small potatoes and all that but I think the local opportunities and other small online writing competitions may get overlooked for that very reason - we think they're below our talent. But something when you're sitting at nothing is still something, right? A good place to start and strengthen existing skills. Not a lot of prestige perhaps but I lived one of my goals of getting a poem published.

zerobytes,

Hey, don't belittle your accomplishment. Winning, getting published and paid...sure it's not enough for a down payment on a house or anything. So what? Just like submitting to a magazine/ezine or anthology, legitimate competitions generally mean stiff competition.

And you once the poem is published, you can seek additional markets for it as a competition winner for reprint.

Terry

Well all I have to say is congratulations zerobytes. It's great to hear that your poem did so well.

"Published" is a big milestone by any reasonable measure. Congratulations!

Zero,

Don't cash that check...frame it! It's value as a source of encouragement and inspiration is priceless!

Congratulations!

.....NaCl

Yes, congrats. Now use that publication status to your advantage... next time you submit a work you can claim you are an "award winning poet."

Congrats .... even if they are a bit belated.