MODULE 10: PUBLISHING YOUR WORK

The learning objectives of this module are:

• To understand the process of submitting your work to publishers, compiling your own collection of poetry, and to understand the differences between commercial publishers and self-publishing.
  

AND FINALLY...

Throughout this course we have explored many of the techniques used in writing great poetry, and the tasks we have set have focused primarily on getting you to experiment with different forms and styles of poetry, and of finding and defining your own poetic voice.

TO PUBLISH, OR NOT TO PUBLISH? THAT IS THE QUESTION.

A lot of people write poetry just for themselves; as a therapeutic, cathartic and relaxing past-time, and have no intention of having anyone else read a word they have written. Ever. From writing privately about personal experiences, to not thinking their work is good enough to publish anyway; there are lots of different reasons why an author doesn't want his or her words read .And that is, of course, absolutely fine. Most writers, however, are excited about the prospect of being acknowledged and recognised, and getting published and sharing their work with others is a vital first step in this process. And so, in this final module, we will look at how to get your work published; from submitting individual poems to poetry magazines, journals and online platforms, to compiling and publishing your own collection of poetry.

SUBMITTING YOUR WORK TO PUBLISHERS

The most important thing to keep in mind when submitting your work for publishing, is to always FOLLOW THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES. Some international journals and online poetry platforms get hundreds of submissions each and every week, so if you don't follow the submission guidelines, most editors won't even look at your submission, let alone publish it. Why would they? Also, make sure you put in the subject line what the submission is for (e.g. book title, competition etc), and that you write a brief covering email to go with your submission too - we often receive emails with nothing but an attachment, not even a Dear Sir or subject line! If the submission guidelines asks for a writer's biography then again, follow the guidelines with word count and whether first person or third. A writer's biography is exactly at it states; a biography about you as a writer, for example: where you have been published (magazines, online platforms, anthologies etc.,), any published books, awards, competition wins, special accolades etc. A writer's biography isn't a personal biography, so don't write personal stuff.

If the submission guidelines state you can submit up to a certain number of pieces, then follow the guidelines and don't send more than the maximum number. Editors simply don't have the time to look through reams of poetry in the hope of perhaps, (or perhaps not) finding something they might (or might not) like to publish. Again FOLLOW THE SUBMISSION guidelines.

Try to send everything together in one email; with hundreds of emails every day, poets who send their submissions in lots of different emails make it very hard for editors to identify each one, and therefore some are very likely to get missed, or even ignored.

As we discussed in MODULE 9, proofing your work is extremely important. THE POET often gets submissions from poets who, a few days later, then send an updated submission, and then, a few days after that, another updated submission. One poet sent the same submission five different times because of typos. This wastes the editor's time, so make sure your submission is PRINT READY!

If the deadline is on a certain date, then file your submission by that date at the very latest – even with calls for submissions months before deadline, you would be surprised how many poets still ask editors for extensions of deadline! Don't just randomly send poetry to publishers in the hope that they might read it and reply either. Whether a one-off annual anthology, or a monthly magazine, editors are usually solely focused on compiling content for that particular title, and at that particular time, and most editors just don't have the time to read random poetry sent by hopeful poets wanting them to look at their work.

Also, make sure you research the magazine before submitting; its content, style and publishing remit, and ONLY submit according to the subject and/or requirements. For example, a magazine specialising in fantasy will not be happy with you sending them your Shakespearean sonnet. And if they don't accept unsolicited work, then don't send them any in the hope that they might read it and reply... because they probably won't.

KEEP RECORDS

It is really important to keep records of who and where you have submitted your work; keep a notebook detailing the publication, the editor, the title/s of the piece/s you have sent, the date sent and the deadline. And if you get a reply, make a note of that too. Also, it is OK to send the same piece of work to multiple publications or platforms, but as soon as a piece gets accepted, make sure you withdraw your submission from the others. And remember, once deadline has passed, whether you have heard back from an editor or not, it is too late to withdraw your submission.

DEALING WITH REJECTIONS

We at THE POET do not know of any poet, anywhere in the world, who has never had his or her work rejected - even professional poets who work hard at crafting their poetry, get rejected. So you will undoubtedly get letters of rejection too. It isn't personal, so try not to get upset, instead use rejections to review your work and ask yourself; could it have been better? What could I have done to make it better? What could I have changed? With each rejection learn to become better, and eventually editors will start to say 'yes' they really liked you work and want to publish it!

GETTING PAID FOR YOUR WORK (OR NOT)

Only a very few poetry journals and platforms pay for poetry submissions, most however do not. Poetry is not a best-selling genre and therefore most publications and publishing houses simply could not exist if they had to pay poets for their work. But don't be upset that you are not getting paid for your hard work composing your poem, instead be thankful for the journals and platforms dedicated to promoting poetry and showcasing poets, because without these publications there would be far fewer platforms for poetry, and hence extremely limited opportunities for poets to get themselves and their work seen. And a consequence of that would be the only poetry being published would be from professional poets, with no room for anyone else!

COMPILING YOUR OWN COLLECTION

If you have been writing poetry for sometime, it is likely you'll already have a body of work that you would like to have published as a complete set, rather than individually in poetry journals and online platforms. 

CHAPBOOK

A chapbook is a collection of up to around 30-50 poems, normally with a unifying principle, theme, question, or experience. Chapbooks date back to 16th century England, and were originally called 'lytle [little] books.' Typically priced at a penny or a halfpenny, and sold by pedlars and travelling tradesmen, these 'lytle books' featured poetry, short stories and occasionally illustrations and, like the penny dreadful, they provided a cheap form of entertainment for the masses. Today chapbooks are mostly related to collections of poetry, and because they are fairly inexpensive to produce, chapbooks are often initially used by commercial publishers to introduce new poets into the market, and to gauge the response from readers. Also self-publishing your own chapbook can often be an inexpensive way for individual poets to introduce themselves and their work into the marketplace, and a great stepping-stone to publishing larger collections.

STANDARD COLLECTIONS

Standard books of poetry start at around 50 - 80 pages, with no maximum ( THE POET has published anthologies of over 300 pages). However, most poetry books are from between 50 and 100 pages, with the number of poems depending, of course, on the length of each poem. They can be on particular themes and topics, or just a general collection of miscellaneous poetry by a single author. Once you have compiled your own collection, you will then need to either find a commercial publisher to publish your manuscript, or self-publish it yourself.

COMMERCIAL PUBLISHERS

Commercial publishers take your completed manuscript and invest in having it proofread, edited, typeset and then published in the hope it sells enough copies to make a profit. They will also help promote and market your book for you too, and will often have independent book distributors onboard who are able to offer your title into the high-street retail sector. Commercial publishers will normally sign a ten year copyright contract with you, and will generally pay royalties every six or 12 months. Royalties are normally between 5 and 8% of the retail value of the book (so for example if your books sells for 10.00 GBP, you might get between 50 and 80 pence per copy sold). The royalty rate for authors is low because:

• The retailer takes around 50% of the price of the book.
• The publisher takes around 25% of the price of the book.
• The distributor takes around 15% for distributing the book to bookshops.

Leaving the actual author, who wrote the book in the first place, with around 10% (at the very most)!

For commercial publishers, your book is their investment, and therefore their risk, and consequently they will never ask you for a fee for publishing your work (this is called Vanity publishing; where you are actually paying a publisher to publish your book, regardless of its quality or content). Some publishers also ask for a 'contribution' towards your book publishing costs; this is still Vanity publishing.

LOOKING FOR A COMMERCIAL PUBLISHER

Poet's Market and the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook are two good sources of commercial poetry publishers. As mentioned earlier, when submitting your manuscript to a book publisher, the most important thing is to follow their submission guidelines as detailed on their website or directory listing. Send your manuscript to as many publishers at the same time as possible, as many won't even reply to you anyway. If a publisher likes your work, they will contact you for further details and (hopefully) offer you a contract. Here in the UK there are lots of small poetry presses, many of which can be found at the National Poetry Library:

W: www.nationalpoetrylibrary.org.uk/write-publish/publishers.

If you are struggling to find a commercial publisher willing to invest in publishing your manuscript, another popular option, especially with poets, is to self-publish.

SELF-PUBLISHING OR INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING

Because finding a commercial publisher can be very challenging, and because of the time it can take for a commercial publisher to accept and then publish your work (many work a year or more in advance), a lot of authors now choose to self or independently publish, as this is a very quick, effective and low-cost way of getting your work published.

The biggest self-publishing platform in the world is Amazon's KDP. Here you can get your book published as both a Print on Demand paperback (various sizes available) and Kindle, and listed on all the Amazon's platforms worldwide in only a few days. And it doesn't cost anything either. However, you will need:

• To open an Amazon KDP publishing account in the country where you live.
• Register the title and author of your book.
• The blurb for the back of the book, and a book listing description.
• Tag words for search engines looking for your book.
• Two listing categories of your book e.g. African poetry, Love poetry, General Poetry.
• An ISBN number – this is normally provided by Amazon for authors registering their title with them.

And when putting the manuscript together, you will need to prepare some, or all of the following:

• The title page.
• A title verso page.
• A contents page.
• An about the author page.
• A dedication page.
• Other books by the same author page.
• And of course your completed, proofed manuscript of poems properly formatted.

You might also need a cover image (in high resolution for printing) and a picture of the author for the back cover (again, in high resolution for printing). There are standard Amazon cover templates available free, or you can use book cover design suite such as Canva. You will also need to know how to correctly format your completed manuscript into both a paperback and Kindle, and upload them both onto KDP's website. 

Depending upon the production cost of your book, and your selling price, author's royalties can be around 40% of the retail value of the book. These are paid monthly directly into your bank account. The disadvantages with Amazon KDP is that books published with them are currently only available from Amazon websites (currently eight countries for POD paperback, and 13 for Kindle), as well as a limited number of high-street retails such as Barnes and Noble bookshops in the USA. However, you can buy up to 999 author copies at a time at cost price, and then sell and distribute them yourself, invoicing bookshops and retailers independently. Also, as a self-publisher, it is you alone who is responsible for promoting and marketing your own book, and therefore its success is completely dependant upon the amount of work you put into promoting and marketing it, but you'll have full control over the whole process.

COURSE CONCLUSION

We hope you have enjoyed this course and have found it useful in understanding more about the various methods and techniques used in writing really great poetry, and can put some of these techniques into practice when writing your own poetry. We also hope that this course has motivated you to write more poetry, and has helped you develop your own unique poetic style. Time and time again we have heard from people around the world saying poetry really does help their mental health, and we hope that this course inspires you to write too. Be strong, be safe, and get writing ... poetry!

We forward to seeing your work in poetry publications around the world.

Keep writing!

COURSE END

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