1. AllThingsMagical

    AllThingsMagical Member

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    Publishing Poetry - any thoughts?

    Discussion in 'The Craft of Writing Poetry' started by AllThingsMagical, Sep 18, 2011.

    I've been writing poetry for a few years now - on and off between working on novels - and was thinking about trying to get some of it published. I've looked into this a bit but and not too sure about the best way to do this so was wondering if there was anyone who has published poems that could help me.

    The way I understand it is that there a three main ways to publish poems but they all seem to have drawbacks to me:

    1 -
    Try and publish a book of poems. Apparently this is only really an option for well established writers and so as a newbie it's unlikely that anyone would give me the time of day.

    2 -
    Self publish. As I understand it I would need to pay something upfront for this and being a student who can barely find money for food this may be difficult. Although I guess I could publish online but as the Internet is so vast and I am somewhat inept with computers it seems to me this would be somewhat pointless as I doubt anyone would be able to find them to read them.

    3 -
    Publish in a literally magazine. This one seems like the most viable option but to be honest I feel as if even if I did manage to get something in one of them by the time the next magazine was out it would be forgotten. I don't mean that I'm expecting to get a great deal out of my writing in terms of material profits but when I've worked hard on something and I'm really proud of it then it would upset me to know that it was published once and then sort of like it never existed. I may be wrong but I was thinking once something has been published once then you can't keep re-publishing it in various different places - I looked at a few poetry contests for magazines and they would only take unseen entries.

    As you can probably tell I'm a little confused so any thoughts and advice would be really helpful.
     
  2. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I'd say that about sums it up. If you doubt it, browse your local bookstore for poetry books. Then look at their bargain cart outside.

    You'll probably find a wider selection in the bargain cart. Poetry books don't sell well at all.
     
  3. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    yup!... that's pretty much it...

    to get paid by a publisher for a collection of your poetry, you'd have to first become well-known... or be someone famous to begin with... and the only way to become well-known as a poet is to have your work published in the best magazines and literary journals and be hailed by the critics as the next walt whitman or maya angelou...

    to self-publish your own book is easy these days and can even be done without paying anything up front, but getting anyone to buy it, or for you to make any money at it, is another thing altogether...

    sorry, but them's the facts of a poet's life, honeybun... and there's no 'magical' way to get around it...

    love and consoling hugs, maia [a full time poet]
     
  4. AllThingsMagical

    AllThingsMagical Member

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    I was kind of hoping I had missed something but I guess I'll just have to think about which out of options 2 and 3 appeals to me the most. Thanks for the input though - Cogito you made me laugh and mammamaia it's nice to know there's someone that understands.
     

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