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--- Asking for a few suggestions! (http://www.gatchamania.net/threadid.php?threadid=4280)
Posted by gatchamarie on 08-05-2013 at 14:11:
Asking for a few suggestions!
I would like to take a bit of your time to kindly ask for some help and direction!
Many of you might know that I love poetry, and I also love writing it! I write in my own language, in Italian and in English, this last one maybe being the language which I should get more polished! I also have written a few poems throughout my life with which I either competed, or with which I have been given the opportunity to incorporate them in group anthologies, or to use my creativity during my past working period. Always apart from those which I wrote within this fandom and which I sometimes wrote for myself or my loved ones!
I also have a dream ... one which I've been nurturing since I was much younger ... that of writing my own anthology of poems and perhaps having it published! Though a bit farfetched, I surely wish to someday give it a try! I know that it can take a long time for a project like this to be finished, but if there's no beginning there'd be no end, so I might just try to start rolling up my sleeves even if it might end up only in doing it for fun or just to let my feelings and deepest thoughts flow, poetry being my favourite way to express myself! I'm in the right mood, right now!
So, whilst thanking you for having to bear with me whilst I was getting to the point, here's a couple of questions from a person who has never published anything alone, except for those poems which I've submitted following calls in the past and which were chosen:
If I do manage to some day come up with the right lot of poems, talking about amount and quality, what would have to be my first step to try and publish them in one book? I also hear people saying, especially in my country, that it's more expensive to publish a book than to make any kind of profit out of it ... is that true? If so, are there any international publishers, which any of you might know, who are trustworthy enough for me to show them my work for a possible publication without anything being taken away from me?
I thank you so much beforehand for any of your possible interventions! Even if my schedule is very tight, at the moment, I just so wish to, at least, start thinking about making my dream come true! I also wish to excuse myself if I don't answer immediately, or thank anyone or everyone altogether, to any feedback! I don't know whether I'd have much time to do so in these couple of days! Who might wish to email me is more than welcome!
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To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!
Posted by littlewolf on 08-05-2013 at 14:58:
NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS!!!!
They are what fuels and feed our hearts and souls, they are what keeps us going when RL knocks us about!
There will be people on this site that can help you about self-publishing and getting a publishing company to look at your work.
There is always writing or poetry magazines who have competitions.
You could post here, or writing and poetry sites asking for feed back and assistant or even post some of your work on facebook,a blog or other sites and ask people opinions.
[I]“Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone's hand is the beginning of a journey.
At other times, it is allowing another to take yours.â€
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration [/I]
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May the bad things get lost on the way to you door!
Posted by Transmute Jun on 08-05-2013 at 16:32:
Marie, if you have a fire inside of you to write poetry, then you should do so, regardless of whether or not you can be published! Write to soothe your soul and to explore your inner feelings.
That being said, publication is always a worthy goal, and if it motivates you, so much the better. I'm not exactly an expert in this area (since I work in educational publishing) but here's the little I know.
You can self-publish. Use a site like Lulu or Createspace (run by Amazon) to upload your own file and publish. This is relatively low cost, but you take on all of the promotion yourself. I know Becky has been very successful at getting her original fiction published in this manner.
You can also seek out a professional publisher to publish for you. I don't know too much about how that route works, except that I believe many publishers only accept submissions from agents. I'm hoping someone else will chime in with more information on this...
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Posted by ChrisW on 08-05-2013 at 20:28:
I'm well familiar with non-fiction publishing, and to a lesser extent fiction publishing, but poetry publishing is an entirely different niche. I'll start by agreeing with TJ that with anything, you should do it just for the joy of it regardless. 
Then worry about the details later.
Whether or not an agent is required depends on the publisher, the genre, etc. (Science Fiction and Fantasy writers typically need agents unless they're only sending short stories to magazines/web sites. Many non-fiction writers don't "need" agents. Publishers being what they are I use one anyway.) I have no idea of what's typical in poetry. Most publishers will have author guidelines somewhere on their web sites. You can find out what they expect by reading those, and you'll really stand out if you just show you can follow instructions. 
These days it really is easier and cheaper than ever before to self-publish, mostly because of print on demand, which means that if you do decide you want to put them into a book you aren't stuck only with the "sell it to a publisher" option. If you're not pre-printing 500 books then your start-up costs go way down. TJ mentioned some of the popular venues for that. The bigger venues will also help you funnel your work to Amazon, etc. I'd say the main thing is to really treat your work like a professional once you get down to the publishing process. Make sure it's as polished as possible, take the time to lay it out nicely or find someone who can help you, etc. Self-publishing means it's all up to you. A bit daunting but there's a lot of people who enjoy it so there's a lot of resources out there.
If you can, look around your area for writing conferences, poety writers' groups, etc. Often they'll have sessions about publishing and you can learn more about how it works in Italy.
That's what comes to mind at the moment. First you need to write it, polish it, etc. I do the same thing, though, my brain wants to jump to the "but when I'm done what will I do?" before I even get started!
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Posted by jublke on 10-05-2013 at 05:16:
Hi gatchamarie: I can help with this question! :-)
I have always written poetry, but didn't really find my niche until after my daughter was born and then I started writing haiku and short form poetry. I have since been published a number of times and even won a couple of poetry awards. I also want to publish a book of poems someday.
Personally, I want to wait until I have published a lot of pieces before I try to organize a collection. That was the advice I got on the Haiku Foundation Forum (great place to go & read if you like haiku). Poetry book publishers - the more literary ones - will take you more seriously if you have a number of poetry publications under your belt before you try to publish a whole collection.
(Now, that said, if you aren't trying to make a name for yourself as a poet in the literary world - I think lulu & createspace are a great idea.)
There are some unscrupulous poetry publishers out there, so be careful. Preditors & Editors has a listing of publishers to avoid, and a Google search for a publisher's name plus the word "fraud" or "scam" is always a good idea before you trust your words to somebody.
Poetry contests can be a good way to gain exposure for you & your work, but contest fees can be high. It's not uncommon for reputable poetry contests to charge 15 - 25 $US just to enter. So I usually enter the free contests. Sometimes, I find contests on Twitter by searching for the words "free poetry contest."
I used to use Duotrope's Digest to find potential markets for my poetry, but they recently started charging a fee for their services. I think they just go by Duotrope now. If they offer a free trial, you might look there for journals and magazines to publish your work. New Pages is a newer resource I've found for looking for poetry markets (http://www.newpages.com/classifieds/calls/).
Poets & Writers (http://www.pw.org/) is another great resource - the whole website has some great info. Poet's Market is a helpful guide to getting started with publishing poetry - I think it's updated in about April each year.
Don't expect much payment out of poetry - I won $50 once and that was the most I've ever made from a poem. It's been far more often that I've just had the fun of seeing my name in print.
I actually applied for a grant this year - I find out in June if I was selected. It was the first time I ever tried for a poetry grant.
But, back to the collection question - I was advised to write a ton of poems, cull them down to the cream of the crop, cull some more, and then look at what was left. Write each poem on a card and lay them out on the floor and move them around until a pattern emerges and you see a cohesive theme to tie the pieces together and make a collection.
It can take a lot of poems to make a whole collection. For haiku, I looked at a contest that wanted 60 to 100 poems! Of course, if you write longer poems, you won't need quite so many to make a book. The same publisher ran a chapbook contest that requested 8 to 20 haiku.
If there's a certain form of poetry you write - tanka, haiku, free verse, etc. - it can really help narrow down where you might try to publish.
I actually post a lot of my poems on Twitter and have even published a few in Twitter magazines (yes, there really are such things!). And then I throw them on a blog, which is another nice way to keep them all in one place (when I remember to update it!)
Do keep in mind that many publishers of poetry consider poems posted on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to be previously published - meaning they won't want to publish them unless they take reprints.
Hugs!! Hope this was helpful - keep us posted on your progress.
jublke
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"The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing." -- Blaise Pascal
Posted by gatchamarie on 10-05-2013 at 20:02:
First of all, I wish to heartily thank you all for your precious interventions and support! As you all well said, and as I always say also, poetry is written to express oneself like I do, most of the time for my own self, too! Speaking of me, it is one of my most efficient means to vent my feelings or memories, being written in direct speech or in an encrypted way ... either works!
I did take part in competitions .. have also had some of my poems, which were open for everyone, published as part of local magazines or international anthologies, and am already satisfied! What made me consider again to pursue my dream, or better who, was my young DD, who just a few days ago read one of my poems and told me how awesome it would be if her mother had her own book of poems, like the ones they have at school! It was as if she had managed to read right into my heart, where my dream has always resided! And, I so don't know how to say "no" to my kids, even though this dream would take ages to come true, if ever it could!
That's why I so appreciate your help! My language, that is Maltese, is only limited to our country, where the editorial world is a bit limited, even though these last years there has been a distinctive change to the better. Hence, writing in foreign languages could be an option even though it is much trickier for me. But, my few, previous attempts proved that nothing is impossible .. at least, there's no harm to give it a try!
LW ... I thank you so much for your enthusiastic support as regards to pursuing dreams! Reading your comment has already been a great push forward and was most heartwarming!
TJ ... I really appreciate your advice! I'll definitely check those sites you recommended out! And, as you said, having the wish to publish as a goal is already a great incentive to give it all!
CW ... I can't agree more with you regarding the polishing aspect! That's how I like to work also! I jot down ideas, sometimes even at random during the day when a particular thought hits my mind, then I join those ideas into something, and afterwards I go into the necessary details. In poetry, first you have to choose a style when writing a piece (sometimes I find that the style finds itself alone according to the subject!), so the polishing aspect is important, especially if a specific style is chosen, such as sonnets or ballads, etc, unless it's free verse, which IMHO this last one also needs a bit of thinking!
Julie ... your kind gesture to share your experience in this area is most helpful! As I still didn't have the chance or opportunity to venture far away from my safe area in the past, your detailed advice is just what I needed! Like you said, I'm not expecting to be fulfilled as regards to the financial aspect, but more with the thought that I would have left something in my name behind me! I won't deny that I have a lot of emotions ready to burst out, which continuously dance around my mind, so writing them down and immortalising them would already be what I deem most satisfactory! As I said, reaching the goal of having such a big collection of poems could take ages, but if you don't start you won't ever finish! I'm not aiming to make my dream come true immediately ... not even in the near future ... but, some day, perhaps even when I'd be a lot older, and even if it would end up unpublished! I'd leave my treasured collection behind! So, what I can tell you is that I'm starting with baby steps! Your encouragement and directions are making me more driven to thrive, though! I just hope I'd find the right amount of quiet moments!
Many hearty thanks again to all! *hugs* Words are not enough!
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To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!
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