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!

__________________
To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!

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...

__________________

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

__________________
"The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing." -- Blaise Pascal