BUSINESS OF POETRY
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF PUBLICATION

by Sage Cohen

Writing poetry is an art, and so is the process of submitting your poems for publication. If you’d like to increase your odds of getting noticed and getting published, this article can help you align your best work with the right opportunities—so you can give your poems the chance they deserve.

IDENTIFY THE RIGHT PUBLICATIONS FOR YOUR POETRY

You’ll have the greatest odds of publication when you submit your poems to journals or contests that are most suited to your work—and therefore most likely to appreciate it. If you’re not sure how to identify such possibilities, consider the following:

Read the work of poets you love

A good way to get a feel for publishing possibilities is by reviewing the acknowledgments pages of the poetry collections you admire. If you connect to a particular poet’s work, chances are good that your poetry could also be well suited to the journals where s/he has been published.

Do your due diligence

Let’s say you’ve collected a list of possible journals and contests based on the tip above. And let’s say you’ve never sent out work for publication before. You can research here in Poet’s Market to learn more about how your poetry and these opportunities might line up. For example, you’ll want to submit only to journals that say they publish work by emerging as well as established poets. You’ll want to confirm that contest submission fees and guidelines are in alignment with what you’re willing to send and spend. And you may want to make sure your themes, poetic forms, and approach to language are compatible with the publication’s description of what it is seeking. I also suggest learning what you can about the editors or contest judge(s)—and reading their poetry, if possible, so you get a feeling for their personal aesthetic.

Always experience a journal before submitting

Before submitting your work to a publication, purchase its latest issue or view content online to get a sense of the poets and poems it features. Also consider how the publication’s front cover, inside art, website design, production, paper quality, and font choice create a particular kind of experience. If you can imagine seeing your poetry in these pages, that’s a good indication that the journal or site may be the right fit for you.

Track what you learn to grow your knowledge base

I suggest creating a simple system—a document, binder, or folder—where you track what you’ve learned about each publication and record your thinking about how your poems align or do not align. This way, you’ll have a growing knowledge base about the poetry market—and how various opportunities may be suited to your goals—as you investigate, submit and publish over time.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT POEM/S

When you’ve chosen a publication or contest to which you’d like to submit, it’s time to gather the poems for this opportunity. Consider running the poems you are considering through these filters of inquiry:

Does something significant or resonant happen?

Poems get editors’ attention when they introduce a new possibility, provide a palpable experience or revelation, and say something in a way it has never been spoken (or written) before. Ask yourself:

• What happens in this poem? (Or, if the poem is nonnarrative, do the language, sound, and/or imagery create the kind of experience or journey I intended?)
• If this poem is about or addressed to someone I know, does it also reveal something meaningful or relevant to people outside of the dynamic?
• What is discovered or transformed or revealed?

Because it can be tricky to experience your own, highly subjective material objectively, you may want to share your poems with a reader or two you trust and ask these questions of them. If you’re not sure you are creating an experience that has impact or resonance, your poem may not yet be ready for publication.

Have I found something fresh to say about a familiar theme?

If you’re writing about a historical person or event or one that’s been covered in the news in recent years, chances are good that most readers will have a good handle on the facts. To ensure that your poem makes an impact, ask yourself:

• What happens in this poem that is fresh, surprising, and different than the information already available on this topic?
• How is this poem departing from the work of “reporting” and moving into the territory of “illuminating”?
• How is this event or person serving as a leaping-off point for my own inquiry or discovery about myself, history, the natural world, or the human condition?

IS MY WORK AS POLISHED AS POSSIBLE?

These 10 revision tips may help you identify opportunities to nip, tuck, and shine. Ask yourself:

1. Could I trim exposition at the beginning or summary information at the end that is not serving the poem?
2. Could I use a different voice to influence the experience of this poem? (For example, consider changing a third-person voice into the first person and see if this shift in intimacy is of benefit.)
3. Could my similes and metaphors be more distilled or powerful? If I’ve used an extended metaphor, does it hold up throughout the poem?
4. Where can I bring more energy to the language I’ve used? Can I use more active language to communicate similar ideas? Can modifiers be cut?
5. What if I changed past-tense verbs to the present tense (or vice versa)?
6. How might I shape the poem (line length, stanza breaks, white space) to more fully enact the emotion and rhythm of its content?
7. Are punctuation and capitalization and verb tense consistent? Would different choices (such as removing punctuation or capitalization) improve the experience?
8. Is there a music of repeating sounds throughout the poem? What words could I replace to create a more cohesive sound experience?
9. Are there opportunities to break lines in ways that give attention to important words or pace the momentum of the narrative more powerfully?
10. How might the title better encapsulate and add dimension to the experience of the poem? Could some of the exposition cut in step one be used to set the context of the poem in its title?

ARRANGE YOUR POEMS INTENTIONALLY

The order of the poems you’ve submitted can make a difference in an editor’s experience and opinion of your work—even if you’re just submitting three to five poems. Think about the arrangement as a single composition that provides a coherent reading journey. Where do you want the reader to start—and finish? How do you want them to enter the realm of your poetry, and how are you intending to send them off?

MAKE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES YOUR BIBLE

Every literary publication and contest will offer detailed guidelines about how and when they want to receive poems. Your job is to follow every single detail of those guidelines fanatically to ensure you don’t rule yourself out with a simple oversight. Because it’s easy to miss a detail when scanning instructions online, I recommend printing out the submission guidelines for any opportunity and then checking off each requirement as you meet it. Specifically:

• Follow simultaneous submission instructions. Some publications accept simultaneous submissions (meaning that you’ve sent the same poems to more than one publication for consideration at the same time), and others don’t. Be careful to understand and honor each journal’s parameters.
• Get your timing right. Publications have contest deadlines and specific reading windows. Send your work in advance of the specified deadline.
• Choose poems that fit. Ensure that you have chosen poems that match any specific requirements, such as: theme, form, length (number of lines or pages), number of poems allowed or required.
• Be deliberate about where you include your name. Some publications read and choose poems “blind,” others don’t. Be sure to understand whether the publication wants identifying information on the poems or not—and follow these guidelines carefully.
• Double-check the mailing address and editor names. No editor wants to see his or her name misspelled or receive mail addressed to his or her predecessor. It’s also a good idea to confirm the gender of the person you are addressing if you have any doubt.
• Follow binding requirements. Publications often specify whether they want paper clips, staples or loose pages.
• Provide SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) if this is required or requested by the publication. Follow whatever process is requested.
• Include a check if you are submitting to a contest with a required reading fee. Make sure you make it out to the organization as requested in the amount required and specify the name of the contest to which you are submitting.

FORMAT, PROOF, AND POLISH

First impressions are often the last impression. Think of your submission package as a gift that an editor or selection committee will enjoy opening and experiencing—whether you’re submitting online or by mail:

• Use a standard font that is easy to read—such as Times New Roman, Garamond, or Calibri—using 12-point font, unless instructed otherwise. Your priority should be legibility and ease for the person(s) who will be considering your poem.
• Unless you are doing so for a very specific reason, think twice about bolding or italicizing fonts. Let your images, word choice, and line breaks do the work of creating emphasis.
• Print your poems on white, unrumpled, and unscented paper.
• Ensure your toner is working or that your photocopies are clear and crisp.

WRITE A COVER LETTER THAT CONNECTS

Your cover letter should first and foremost provide whatever information is requested in the submission guidelines, if any. In the absence of specific instruction, write a concise note that covers the following:

• Explain you are submitting poems for [name of contest, issue, or general consideration].
• Describe in a sentence or two what you admire about the publication and why you chose to submit your work—if you have something authentic to say. Or, if you’ve had a previous communication with an editor (such as, they sent an encouraging rejection with a note inviting you to submit again in the future) you can mention that here.
• Lists the names of the poems being submitted. If this is a simultaneous submission, it is good form to mention this and confirm you intend to follow whatever process this publication has requested in its submission guidelines.
• Provide a brief biographical paragraph that describes key publishing or education highlights to reflect your literary experience and expertise. If you haven’t published yet or don’t have anything else relevant to report, no need to say anything here.
• Be polite and gracious.

Remember, this is a business communication. Some mistakes to avoid:

• Do not provide explanations about why you chose these poems for submission, why you wrote them, what they mean to you or your family, or how you have revised them.
• Do not advise editors about when you expect to hear back from them.
• Do not send a follow-up letter with a batch of poems that are edited versions of a previous submission.
• Do send a follow-up letter to withdraw any poems you have submitted as soon as they have been accepted elsewhere.

Over time, you’ll get more efficient and adept with this process. Preparing your poems for submission will get faster, easier, and more automatic as you know what steps to take and mistakes to avoid. Your commitment to consistently putting your best work forward—and willingness to learn from the feedback you get along the way—will give you the very best odds of publication.

SAGE COHEN is the author of Writing the Life Poetic and The Productive Writer, both from Writer’s Digest Books, and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World. She holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University and a BA from Brown University. Sage has won first place in the Ghost Road Press poetry contest, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published a number of articles in Writer’s Digest magazine. In 2011, she judged the Writer’s Digest contest for non-rhyming poetry. To learn more about Sage, visit pathofpossibility.com.