Dear O'Abby: How do I publish poetry?

 Dear O'Abby,

I've been writing poetry for a number of years now, and I have enough poems I consider good now that I feel  like I'm ready to put them together into a collection.  I've been researching agents, but I haven't had much like finding any that represent poetry.  Is there a different process for publishing poetry than there is for novels and non-fiction books?

Yours truly,

Confused Poetess

Dear Confused Poetess,

Agents very rarely represent poets, and if they do, they're usually big name poets who have won major awards, or they're novelists who just happen to write poetry on the side.  So the process for getting your poems published is going to be quite different.

The first thing I'd suggest is submitting your poems to literary journals and other publications.  This is where poetry gets seen and read and where you can build an audience for your work.  You can also share your poems on social media or on a blog, but just be aware that this can, in some cases, be considered publication,  and some journals won't accept previously published work.

You can also enter competitions which is another way to get your work in front of people.  Some contests offer publication as the ultimate prize, either for individual poems as part of an anthology, or the publication of a collection.

Self-publishing is a good option for poets too, especially if you have local bookstores that carry poetry books.  Make sure you invest in a good cover and you may be able to get your local bookstores to carry the book.  Alternatively, there are some small presses that specialise in poetry and have good distribution across known poetry markets.

I hope that helps!

X  O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: Do I need an agent to get my poetry published?

 Dear O'Abby,

I've written hundreds, if not thousands, of poems over the last ten years.  I've had some published by literary journals and poetry magazines, but I would really like to publish a collection of poems loosely grouped by theme.  I've done some research, but I can't seem to find any agents who represent poetry collections.  Does this mean I don't need an agent to publish a book of poetry?

All the best,

Poetess

Dear Poetess,

You don't need an agent to publish a book of poetry. There are small presses that are dedicated to poetry and don't require agents.  You can also self-publish your poetry.  Many poets do this very successfully, selling more copies at live poetry readings than they do through more traditional bookselling channels.

There are agents who represent poets, but you may need to search for them.  Poetry collections do not tend to sell huge numbers of copies or generate large advances so an agent representing poetry works for less money, making representing poets less attractive.  If you publish a book of poetry yourself or with a small press, and it's successful, you are far more likely to be able to get an agent than if you are pitching your very first book.

That said, poetry is growing in popularity and some agents are beginning to take notice of this.  Novels in verse are also becoming more prevalent and there are some agents actively looking for more of this type of book.  So things might be slowly changing.

If you have plans to write something else, a novel or a memoir or even a non-fiction book, then you need an agent.  And if you pick the right one, they might choose to also represent your poetry.  But they also might not.  As I mentioned above, most poetry doesn't sell enough to be worth an agent's efforts so unless you have other work that might be of higher value, or you are the Poet Laureate, finding an agent for your poetry will be challenging.

So keep publishing in journals and look around at what other avenues are available to you. Self publishing is a very viable option, especially if you are a poet who does a lot of live readings.  People like to buy books from the person they just saw on stage.  I know the majority of poetry on my bookshelves comes from having bought them directly from the poet.

I hope that is helpful.  Best of luck with your poetry!

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby, How do I publish my poetry?

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm a poet and I have a whole bunch of completed poems, some which have been published in magazines and literary journals, and a lot that haven't.  I'd like to publish a collection of poetry, but I can't seem to find any agents who seem to represent poets.

Can you help?

All the best,

Bemused.

Hi Bemused,

I think the reason you can't find an agent who represents poetry is because in general, agents don't represent poetry.  Not unless it's in the form of a novel-in-verse.

Most poets approach poetry publishers directly with their work as they tend to be small presses and often quite specialised.  I suggest visiting your local bookstore or library and browsing the poetry section.  If you find a book of poetry that feels similar to yours or covers similar subject matter, look at the publisher information and you can then look them up and find out if they are accepting submissions, and how to submit to them.

I found this list of poetry publishers, but I don't know much about them, so do your research before you submit.

You mention that you have had poems published before, so if you do end up getting a publishing deal for the collection, you will need to check your contracts to make sure you have the right to offer re-print rights to your publisher.  Most contracts for journals etc I've seen allow this to happen, but may require a note saying "first published in X" and sometimes a date and/or issue number.

You will need to make sure of your rights even if you decide to self-publish a collection of your poetry, which is an equally valid option.

Or you could just continue to submit your work to magazines and journals as you have clearly been doing quite successfully.  Having work in these publications often raises your profile as a poet because people who don't habitually read poetry might stumble across your work, read and enjoy it even if they have never set foot in the poetry section of a bookstore.

You can also do all these things.  Being a poet allows you a lot of flexibility in the ways you make your work available, even if poetry tends to be a fairly niche market.

Hopefully this helps!

All the best for your ongoing publishing journey, whichever direction you choose to go in.

X O'Abby

 

'Twas the Night before Deadline

‘Twas the night before deadline, and deep in the den
The keyboard was clacking – that and a pen.
The writer typed frantically, fueled by caffeine
To revise those not-quite-right words on the screen.

The weeks had flown by in a revision haze
Just like the minutes, the hours, and the days.
Now the clock was a-ticking, and midnight drew near,
And she prayed for a miracle fix to appear.

She slumped in her chair with her hands on her head.
“I’ll not finish in time – this revision, it’s dead!
My CPs and betas all loved the first draft –
Perhaps I should go back,” she tiredly laughed.

But then from the speakers arose a light bing
And the writer, she paused – what did that sound bring?
A text or a tweet or a DM from Slack?
An email, an IM – or did she just crack?

She browsed through her tabs for the source of the sound
And there, in her email, the origin was found!
A chat box from one of her good writer friends
Had popped up with words he always knew when to send:

“Hey buddy, I know you’ve got deadline tonight.
I know you can do it! I know you will fight
For the words and the plot and the characters too,
And send it all off – then have a cookie or two.”

He signed it with a thumbs-up, and that little hand
Gave the writer the boost to revise as she’d planned!
Her fingers, they flew from the keyboard to mouse,
Typing, deleting, and then through the house

Rang a great shout of joy as she typed the last word,
Saved it, uploaded, and the file transferred.
“I’ve finished! I’ve finished!” she cheered in the night,
Her face all aglow from the screen’s bluish light.

She grinned to herself as with satisfied tread,
Her work backed up twice, she went up to bed
The writer at last slept with nary a fret,
The deadline defeated with her best work yet.

The Beauty of Rhythm and Repetition

My favorite authors all use rhythm and repetition to draw me into their stories' realities. A great example was found this morning while I read Charlotte's Web with my five-year-old:

"The next day was rainy and dark. Rain fell on the roof of the barn and dripped steadily from the eaves. Rain fell in the barnyard and ran in crooked courses down into the lane where thistles and pigweed grew. Rain spattered against Mrs. Zuckerman's kitchen windows and came gushing out of the downspouts. Rain fell on the backs of the sheep as they grazed in the meadow. When the sheep tired of standing in the rain, they walked slowly up the lane and into the fold.
Rain upset Wilbur's plans." (p 25)

The poetry of this prose impressed me. As a freelance copy editor, I am often pointing out frequently used words to prevent overuse. It's worth exploring the cases in which repetition is warranted and even beautiful.

1. In dialogue, when someone is experiencing an overwhelming emotion. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."

Source

2. When you want to evoke a certain emotion. "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'"

Repetition of words in The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

3. When the mood or content requires rhythm. "We danced until the sun sank. We danced like strangers, holding new love in aching arms. We danced like we hadn't danced in over a decade, a decade of wasted wandering, when we danced with true strangers, and felt nothing. We danced until nothing else mattered but the tangible beating of two hearts, until neither of us remembered the last, empty decade at all."

The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano

 

Read more about writing with rhythm from author Jami Gold.

Cover Reveal! Michelle McLean's So You Have to Write a Poem!

I am very pleased to finally show off the cover of my upcoming non-fiction release, So You Have to Write a Poem: A Guide for the Non-Poetic :) This book has been a very long time coming (as it was once part of my essay guidebook, Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers). So I am very, very excited that it will finally be out in the world on Oct 6th! So....here it is :)

At some point, every student must not only learn about different poetic forms, but try their hand at penning a few. It can be daunting, even for those who enjoy poetry.

Following the same plain language, straight forward vein of Ms. McLean’s Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers, So You Have to Write a Poem gives novices an easy-to-read guide with simple step-by-step processes and fun examples while giving more advanced poets a technical guide to the rules behind all their favorite poetic forms.

This volume includes nine forms of poetry, along with overviews on poetry basics like meter and rhyme scheme, detailed, easy-to-understand instructions and “cheat sheets” that outline the rules for each form of poetry, and a section with a detailed explanation of how to analyze a poem.

(The cover was designed by OA's own extremely talented Toni Kerr!)

Truths and A Lie with A Cautionary Tale

For my first post, I thought I'd help you all get to know me better by expanding on the truths and lies from my Mystery Blogger introduction.

Truths first:

• On her very first time volunteering at a regional SCBWI conference, Mystery Blogger introduced Well-Respected Editor without any verbal stumbles. And then as MB exited the stage, she promptly tripped over Well-Respected Editor’s purse and nearly faceplanted. There's more to this story--after my near-pratfall, I tried to recover with a "Ta-da!" Which might have worked, except that apparently no one had noticed me trip. So instead, they were wondering why I was ta-da-ing while Well-Respected Editor was trying to talk. Memorable for all the wrong reasons!

• The most cats that Mystery Blogger has ever had piled on her at one time is seven, distributed equally between her lap, feet, head, face, and shoulders. There were another five in the queue waiting for an opportunity. Or a fight to break out, which also clears the decks. I only have two cats (both reformed ferals and special needs) but I volunteer at a wonderful no-kill, cagefree cat sanctuary called Fat Kitty City.

There are over 100 cats, some adoptable but many permanent residents due to special needs. "Does this tie into writing at all, Angelica?" you may be asking. Yes, because last year I started up an online auction called Pens for Paws to raise money for FKC and it is chock full of critique opportunities for writers. If you're one of those, you might want to bid (starting March 12).

• While recording a video pitch for a PitchFest, Mystery Blogger misspoke “sets a ship afire” with a bad word that rhymes with ship. And then couldn’t stop laughing for the next twenty takes. Now whenever she talks about that book, most of her brain cells are devoted to screaming, “make sure you say ship!” This works approximately none of the time.

• Mystery Blogger once scared an agent on Twitter by trying to make a joke. Agent had tweeted something along the lines of “you don’t ever want to send me a query so bad it ends up on my Special List” and Mystery Blogger responded with “Challenge Accepted!” Agent tweeted back that the Special List was not meant to be aspired to and Mystery Blogger apologized profusely. They shared a laugh and became the best of friends. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I ended up on that list without even querying. So the moral of this cautionary tale is not to assume that agents can spot sarcasm in a 140-character tweet. Unless . . . she was being sarcastic and I've worried for nothing all this time???

On another note, in my "hello" paragraph I failed to mention exactly what kind of writing I do. I started out freelancing, with articles published on gardening, family travel, local history, natural history, pets, green living, and recipes for special diets. These days, I mostly write poetry, picture books, short stories, and young adult novels. So you can expect to see my future posts populated with any of the above subjects.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all back here in two weeks for my next post!

Darkness in Kidlit, Victorian Style

The other day my daughter flipped through my copy of Sing-Song, A Nursery Rhyme Book by Christina Rossetti. She was attracted by the little girl on the cover cavorting with a lamb, one of the gorgeous original illustrations by Arthur Hughes, the Pre-Raphaelite whose illustrations for George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin I've loved since I bought my copy in the third-grade Scholastic Book Fair.

Many of the poems in Sing-Song cover familiar childhood experiences, including many sweet, touching, and funny subjects. But the poems often take a dark turn, familiar to Victorians for whom the living and dead existed side by side.

For example, a poem about a bird:

Babies and flowers:

A sweet poem about sisters that takes a dark turn:

A bedtime poem from which there is no waking:

Darkness in children's literature is a hot topic lately, but it's nothing new. Dystopians reflect teens' fears and perceptions about society, but also their hope -- they are the ones who redeem the corrupt societies portrays. Cursing in YA reflects the way some teens speak, but certainly doesn't expose them to words they would otherwise never hear. And absent parents in middle grade and YA reflect, for many, reality, and for others, a chance to learn about how other kids solve their own problems and make their own decisions.

Children's literature has always dealt with death -- fairy tales are notoriously grisly in their original versions, and the origins of many nursery rhymes is similarly macabre. And Victorian childhood, despite its sentimentalization in popular images, was a risky world, where infant and maternal mortality was an ever present risk. Literature for children reflected that then, just as it reflects the darker side of our world now.

More Reading:

• Dee Garretson on why YA dystopian fiction is important
• Kate Messner on building dark worlds to build a better one
• Liz Burns on profanity in YA
• Andrew Karre on motivations behind creating controversy in YA

Awesome Word Rainbow

How cool would it be to have a rainbow made up of all of YOU! 

Your words.

Your imaginations.

Umm, it would be freaking awesome!!

So here's what we need from you:

Write four lines of poetry, or a quatrain (it can rhyme or not) about your favorite color:

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green 
Blue
Indigo
Violet
White
Black (I know, not technically in the rainbow, but some people think it's the new pink)

Wax poetic. Write your soul. Or just muse about a funny color. If we get every color, we'll have a very lovely word rainbow that represents all of you, our favorite people on the whole blogosphere. *happy sigh*

I'll do my favorite color for an example:

Yellow of daisies or buttercups,
Tulips, sunshine, roses, and pups:
No symbol as sublime as thee.
You cast out winter, shadows flee.




**Starting Tomorrow: Don't forget to snag your buttons (save and post from our sidebar to yours) to show your commitment to the One K a Day October challenge {or one page a day for the time-challenged} which starts tomorrow!! Join Kristal in blogging your daily word count.. To join a write-a-thon, waltz cheerfully into the OA Writing Lab and type your favorite username. The password is awesome. 


Woot for CONTESTS! Come back tomorrow because the gorgeous Lindsay has something that will really get your creative wheels spinning. You will want this prize. Trust me. ;)