Wednesday, November 28, 2012

I've not been blogging much recently, shock-horror - I've actually been writing poems instead of moaning on here about the lack of poems!

Back to that thorny issue of whether putting draft poems on the blog for a short period of time counts as self-publication. More and and more poetry mags seem to be stipulating that they cannot accept submissions that have previously been published in print, on the web or appeared on a blog. As anyone who reads this blog well knows, my usual practice is to put up first drafts for a limited period of time as a form of workshopping. But this is becoming more problematic in limiting where I can submit my poems to. When I first started putting draft poems on the blog, the end result poem was often dramatically different but I have to admit that now the changes are mostly minor between the first draft and the final poem that I submit for publication. I'm not posting my latest poem on here because I want to submit it somewhere which counts blog appearances as publication. This isn't to say that I'll never again post a draft poem, the workshopping element has been essential to my writing in the past but perhaps just not every poem or only the poems I'm really struggling with.

As someone who likes reading about such things, here are my current personal poetry stats:
I have thirty-six A4 pages comprising of twenty-eight poems to either cherry-pick from for a pamphlet collection or build on for a full-length collection.

Of the twenty-eight poems, seventeen have been published:
6 in Shadowtrain
5 in Northwords Now
2 in From Glasgow to Saturn
1 in Starry Rhymes Anthology and Ink, Sweat and Tears
1 in Gutter Magazine
1 in Ink Sweat and Tears
1 (about to be) in New Linear Perspectives

Ten poems I'm waiting to hear back about and one I haven't sent out yet.

I've now written seven pages worth of Israel poems and I'm sure there are more to come so it looks like that will be a bit of a focus in whatever future collection I manage to put together.

9 comments:

Dave King said...

Hearty congrats. I think you put many of us (well me) to shame. And yet I tend to think that a poem gets more exposure on the web than it would in a printed book. Maybe I'm kidding myself. You've made me think.

James Owens said...

To be honest (about being dishonest) I usually just ignore magazines' stipulation about publishing on blogs and send them the poems anyway. No one has ever complained. Do you think they check?

Not suggesting that you be as slovenly as I am, though :-)

I miss reading your poems.

.

Titus said...

Interesting one Marion, and I miss reading you too. I find it rather counterintuitive of magazines and publishers, because the more a poet is read and liked, the more likely people are to recognise their name and read/purchase the publication. It's hardly as if poems are like a crime novel when if you get to the end and that's it.

Coo, great stats. I'm impressed. Personally, I'd hold for the collection, but if you want to pamphlet I want to do a hand-made run of someone else in 2013 and wonder if you'd like to think about it. E-mail me upon reflection!

Jim Murdoch said...

At the end of June I sent out 122 poems and stories, 23 stories and 99 poems. To date—although considering it’s been five months I’m not hopeful of hearing back from anyone else—I’ve had 16 stories rejected and have yet to hear back concerning the other 7—I find short story magazines are far worse than poetry magazines for never responding—but on the plus side I have had 7 poems accepted; of the remaining 92 I’ve still to hear back concerning 27 (six magazines). That was my last mass submission. Since then I’ve sent out 20 poems and 3 stories; 1 story accepted (to a paying market which was a bonus) and 2 poems to a print magazine in Hull who actually wrote to me asking for some poems; I’ve only to hear back from one magazine but they admit they can take up to six months to get back to you.

I don’t submit enough and I’m pretty arbitrary in who I send stuff out to. I actually prefer ezines because that way I can link to them and it doesn’t really matter how big or small they are; as long as the poem is live there’ll be a link on my blog to it.

I don’t mind rejections—I know I write publishable poetry—but I do get depressed by the number who never respond. I don’t do multiple submissions (maybe I should) but I hate tying up a piece of writing for six months or longer. So nine poems and one story over a five month period. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick I suppose.

Seventeen out of twenty-eight is good though. I’m pleased for you.

Marion McCready said...

thanks dave, my blog readership is nothing compared to yours, if I didn't publish them I wouldn't have much of a readership at all! :)

I have up till now, james, I doubt they do check but I'm noticing more and more a stricter tone in mag guidelines and many more are specifically mentioning blogs or the internet at all as a form of publication, I don't want to get caught out...

good point, titus! Ooh that is an interesting idea, I'll email you :)

thanks for the stats, jim, and congrats on the acceptances! I'm always interested / nosy about this :) That's a wopper of an amount of poems! I'm waiting on 4 mags to get back to me, three of which I've only submitted to in the last month so I guess I'll be waiting a while yet for a reply.

Titus said...

Eek! I manage 2 submissions a year!

swiss said...

i am glad that titus has managed to equal my titanic submission rate!. that's a greta list!

the poems i put up on my site (or did) were rarely the same as the finished article i.e. not the same poem (even if i've just changed a pronoun). it's just a poem - if they don't like it let them riot in the streets!

Rachel Fox said...

Just the word "strict" (used in the poetry field) makes me want to boycott them all! Oh wait... I more or less do these days... or they boycott me... could be either!
x

Marion McCready said...

titus, I don't like a poem sitting about doing nothing, I often send them out as soon as I've finished them!

thanks swiss, yes, me too, I always change at least a couple of things before I send them out

hi rachel :) all a bit over the top isn't it, it's poetry man!