Check out this cool new video my publisher made with a quote of mine on the theme of why reading is vital to our lives.
photo by Thought Catalog at unsplash.com
What do Poetry and B-Movie Robots have in Common?
Check out this cool video my publisher created for the theme of “Why I read.”
Video with B-movie Robots!
Get your copy of Poetry Power today. Makes a perfect gift for the poet in your life.
Available at Amazon, in ebook or print editions, OR, for signed editions: Poetry Power or as a bundle with my flash book .
"Six Insider Tips for Poetry-Publication Success"
My article was published today at Women on Writing! Enjoy. :)
“Six Insider Tips for Poetry-Publication Success”
By: Melanie Faith
Photo courtesy of: Trust “Tru” Katsande, @iamtru, unsplash.com
So you’ve been writing poems for months or years, and you’ve decided that you’d like to try for publication. Great idea!
You’re probably wondering where to begin and how to know which poems to submit. Here are some insider tips to encourage your poetry-submission process and to make it easier.
1. Put your best poem forward. Open your submission packet with your strongest poem. Make sure to edit that poem so that its first lines/stanza includes no warm-up or filler words. Grab the reader’s attention with an intriguing image or beautiful, meaningful language from the get-go.
2. Follow posted guidelines, to a t. Always check online guidelines (the vast majority of literary magazines have them posted, whether at Submittable or their personal webpage).
Many journals request three to five poems at a time, but there are some exceptions to that rule. Don’t send more poems than the maximum number listed; it would be a shame for your submission to be automatically rejected for not following instructions (I admit it’s happened to me more than once).
Guidelines will also include the specific genres requested (some journals only read prose, for instance, or they only read one specific genre per issue).
3. If in doubt—ask! What if you’ve written a prose poem, but that’s not listed in the guidelines? Or what if the submission guidelines don’t include a specific number of poems to submit? What if you’re wondering about simultaneous submissions? These are three excellent reasons to send a quick email to editors; I’ve certainly done so for these reasons and others.
Politely introduce yourself and list that you are a poet, ask your question, thank the editor(s) for their time, and include your email address and/or other contact information. Easy-breezy.
Do remember to respect their time: only contact them once; wait for an answer. Even a month isn’t too long to wait (remember that they often have hundreds of submissions per issue and busy lives outside of their jobs). Usually, though, you’ll hear back from editors within a few days or much less.
I’ve found editors quite generous with their time (many are also writers) and very willing to clarify or consider various types and themes of poetry even if they haven’t listed them directly in the guidelines. Just make sure, as a courtesy, to double-check and to send the query email before sending the work; never just assume you can send whatever you want.
4. Consider the poetry-publication process to be more of a marathon than a sprint. Adjust your (speed) expectations just a bit. Yes, I know— I’m also very used to the instant gratification of the internet. On the other hand, the pace of creating, editing, and submitting new poems is a slower, yet no less meaningful, art.
Set monthly goals for yourself (mine is to submit at least three submissions of poetry, photography, or prose per month, year-in-year-out), and then give yourself room to continue exploring your genre. Publication might not happen overnight (it’s not fast food or on-demand content), but it will happen. Keep submitting.
5. We’re living in an exciting time, where we can self-publish some or all of our content. You may feel free to share, from time to time, on your blog (or to guest blog) or on social media posts, but keep in mind that many online and print publications consider work published online anywhere as already published, and so it may knock that poem out of the running for submitting to literary magazines in the future. For 100% self-publishing poets that might not make any difference. For other poets, a more balanced approach might be of interest.
I’ve known writers who shared sneak-peaks of their poems or poetry-in-progress online to engage with readers, but they kept other poems for literary-magazine submissions, which is one great strategy for developing an audience while also pursuing publication. As you go, you’ll find a combination of withholding and sharing that works for you.
6. Continue to write and to develop your skills while waiting to hear back from editors and publishers. I started to submit work regularly around the time I graduated from college. I didn’t have the money to go to graduate school for my MFA right away, so for a few years I started my teaching career and kept writing in my free time while I also took a few other positive steps to continue to learn and to grow as a poet. I participated in open mikes and readings. I joined a writing group for a few months to meet others who were also on this poetry-penning path. I workshopped, both within a larger group and one-on-one with a new writing friend. I met some new writing pals online and we shared our work through emails. By the time, six years later, I had paid off my college loans and was able to apply to grad-school programs, I had steadily built my writing skills and had publication credits from several literary magazines.
Never underestimate the power of networking for growth as a poet. Join a poetry writing/reading group or start one in your community or online.
Take a noncredit poetry-writing class, again in your community or online at WOW!
Swap drafts with a poetry buddy once a month, to offer each other encouragement and helpful suggestions.
Read poetry journals and books online and in print to become aware of the markets for poetry as well as the work of your fellow poets.
Any or all of these suggestions will prove a great asset to your poetry-writing and -submitting processes.
Care to learn more? Consider my May class, Poetry for Publication: an Insider’s View. Here’s the scoop and skinny:
Get Your Poetry Published!
Poetry for Publication: An Insider’s View by Melanie Faith
START DATE: Friday, May 3, 2019
END DATE: Thursday, May 30, 2019
DURATION: 4 weeks
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Ever wonder how to go from scratching drafts in a notebook to sending poems to literary magazines that will get chosen for publication? Ever pondered what editors look for in literary journal submissions? How should we keep track of poetry submissions, and should we do that odd thing: “simultaneously submit?” Ever started a manuscript only to find it all a bit daunting to know what poems to include and which to omit? Want to prepare a chapbook or full-length collection but not sure where to start? How do we get past stalled drafts or stalled manuscripts to persevere and find our writing and reading community? If you've wondered any of these questions, then this is your workshop! Learn real-world, first-hand advice and tips from a poet who has judged poetry contests, published chapbooks and a full-length collection, and regularly submits poetry to literary magazines. Just because it’s chockfull of practical information, doesn’t mean it won’t be fun.
In this four-week workshop, we’ll explore what literary magazines look for in submissions, how the instructor as well as several other poets put together chapbooks and/or larger collections of poems, and insider advice for editing work with an eye towards publication. Students will read Ordering the Storm: How to Put Together a Book of Poems edited by Susan Grimm as well as excerpts from Poetry Power by Melanie Faith. There will be a private group for students to discuss the literary life, ask specific questions related to putting together a submission and/or manuscript, and for sharing of literary resources, such as markets and quotations about the poetry writing and submission process.
Topics covered will include: Best Foot Forward: Arranging a Poetry Manuscript; Journey without a Map; Finding, Unifying, and Revising the Body of Our Work; Throwing Poems at an Editor to See If They Stick; Keeping Company: Thoughts on Arranging Poems; Write Opportunity, Wrong Timing; Wild Cards: 8 Tips for Choosing Poems for Submission; The Art of Offering Feedback; The Plandid and Other Splendid Editing Options; Lavender Disappointment: on Adjustment of Expectation and Stalled Drafts; 76 Rabbits out of a Hat: or: The Quirky Tale of How One Poem became a Whole Book; 21-Century Publishing & Guidelines for Finding Your Ideal Audience; Spring out of a Writing Rut! 8 Tips for Getting back to Business, and more.
"Break Out Your Cameras to Enhance Your Image Writing" by Yours Truly
My craft article appeared today at Women on Writing. Ta-da! :)
Photo by Vera Ja, https://unsplash.com
“Break Out Your Cameras to Enhance Your Image Writing”
By Melanie Faith
For a year, off and on, I shot a series of photos called "In the Green." The series included many different subjects, some that you might expect (from an emerald, leafy landscape to the green whirls of a decorative cabbage I saw at a farmer’s market), and others that might surprise. A perfect example of the latter was the mint-hued upright piano I spotted at a craft store in the Midwest while visiting my sister one summer. Needless to say, I couldn’t let that piano, which also sported a giant ivory stencil of a splash of roses above the keyboard, go undocumented.
Not all of the elements in each shot were green—such as three clover-shaped skeleton keys I couldn’t resist from an auction—but I incorporated a Kelly green into the background.
Each image, several of which have been published over the past year, including in Fourth & Sycamore, includes at least one aspect of the color I’d chosen, which also happens to be my personal favorite. (A little trivia for you.)
My photography practice has enhanced my writing practice for years, and vice-versa. What can photography bring to enhance our writing skills on the page and screen?
- Photography is imagery-focused, just like writing. Do you like to take photos of your family dog or cat? How about landscapes? Or food shots from restaurants or your own kitchen? What about your children or grandchildren? Or sports? In each of these types of shots, and more, there is a subject in your composition that you zero in on, to the exclusion of other details in the shot. The same is true for our writing. In our writing practice, we narrow down the subject we’d like to explore and the best genre to explore it (poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and flash, to name a few options).
Just as in our compositions we decide if we want to take a long, wide view (as in a landscape) or the close-up view (as in a macro or micro shot), in our writing, we make choices about how we will present the protagonist(s) or antagonist(s). What will be their main motivations? What action will be the catalyst for beginning the story in conflict, in media rest? What word pictures will bring to life the tone and theme in our poem?
- Photography evokes numerous senses within visual imagery, just as good writing does. No, we don’t have scratch-and-sniff photos yet, but a great photo of a box of popcorn triggers our memories and associations with the scents and textures of popcorn just as multi-sensory imagery in prose or poetry within the minds of readers.
- Photography teaches us about connections, symbolism, and resonance. Just like in our writing, in photography there’s the surface subject—perhaps a platter of enchiladas—and then there’s the deeper meaning of the picture—your grandfather taught you to include a lime wedge to garnish them and so you always make yours with limes at the ready. The evocative personal and background details in such a shot will influence not only why you chose to document your delicious dish, but also will affect the way that viewers approach and appreciate the composition, even if they don’t know 100% (or any) of the backstory. Good photos, just like good writing, reveal key, carefully-selected details that draw in the audience.
- Photography, much like writing, is self-expressive and just plain fun. It can be easy, amidst craft talk, to forget that there’s a magical and exciting sense of exploration in both art forms. Many times, I’m surprised and entertained by the subjects and themes that both my lens and pen create and how much they share in common.
Try This Prompt! Choose a color from the ROY G BIV spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Make a photo every day for four or five days of something with this color. Warning: it’ll only take a day or two until you notice the color everywhere.
Feel free to use the camera on your phone, if that’s easier than hauling around a larger camera.
On the last day, use one of the images from your photos as a prompt to kick-start a new poem, short story, scene, or essay. Include unique descriptions to denote each color in your writing. Thesaurus.com is a wonderful resource for hue synonyms.
Consider continuing to take photos in your series for as many days or weeks as the idea appeals, and then repeat this exercise as often as you’d like with a piece of writing inspired by your new photo compositions.
Need more inspiration? Consider my upcoming Imagery Power: Photography for Writers class.
Somebody Made the Leap to Twitter; Wonder Who! ;)
This afternoon’s special project was rolling like it was 2009— yes, I have (at last!) joined the Twitter-sphere.
Ta-da! Clickety-click for some quotation inspiration and writing pizzazz.
From my Moment Series: “3.”