Publishing Help

[GwenneZ]

Hello everyone,
I would like all the help I can get. I know most of you probably won't be able to help me- but that's okay.
I would like to publish my poems. I have about 60 poems some of them are more then a page long. If you would like to read them you can check out this website:
http://www.wolf-pups56.piczo.com
I would really like to have these peoms published. Does anyone know how I can get that to happen? If you do please tell me, or if you have any advise please tell me that as well.

[minakichan]

You're probably going have to go the self-publishing route rather than commercial pro publishing.

Lulu.com is pretty standard and useful for this. You can get books printed, advertise online, and even get an ISBN.

[LadyRushia]

I suppose going about publishing poems is similar to publishing stories. For one thing, don't fall for any scams. Scammers usually promise quick responses and ask you to pay money for their "services" before anything is even published. Your best bet would probably be going to the websites of legit publishing companies and looking at how exactly they want things submitted. Generally, the big boys don't take unsolicited manuscripts, meaning that you'd need a literary agent (I think), but I believe that there are smaller publishing companies who take unsolicited manuscripts.

Another thing you could do is submit them to a poetry journal, but again there are a lot of scams out there for that kind of thing. This website should help you in avoiding them. http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/

You're probably going have to go the self-publishing route rather than commercial pro publishing.

Lulu.com is pretty standard and useful for this. You can get books printed, advertise online, and even get an ISBN.

Or that, although I've heard different things about self-publishing. I guess it depends on how far you want to go with writing. Site like Lulu are great for making personal copies of your work, but I've heard different things about how self-publishing affects your chances of getting signed with a real publisher. So yeah, it really depends on how far you want to take things.

[GwenneZ]

yeah I heard that if you go with self-publishing it's hard to get a real publisher to publish your work and I personally want to be a writer for a living. Poems are my specialty, but I also write short stories and I'm working on a novel. I asked Donita K. Paul for help, because she's one of my favorite authors. She's the author of "The Dragon Keeper Chronicles" and- now- "The Vanishing Sculptor". Do you think the librarian at my public library would be willing to help me?

[Esoteric]

Unless you know a professional author personally, I don't think they'll be able to help you much (besides being busy, they can't really do favors for random people.)
Once you've been published, libraries can help with publicity/exposure, but I don't know how helpful a librarian would be with actually getting a publisher. You could try though. Again, if you're previously acquainted with one, soliciting help would be easier.
Honestly, I think you'll get the most help from other aspiring writers.

Take writing classes/workshops and talk to instructors.

Join a reputable writer's guild or group which will offer you feedback and information. Basically everyone in these kinds of groups is trying to accomplish the same thing, so they're the sort who are interested in finding out how to acquire a publisher.

Try entering your poetry in reputable contests--If you can get some notoriety for your work, you're more likely to interest a publisher.

Oh, and a small note: Publishers are generally wary of publishing writing that has been made available to the general public on the internet. It's like having something 'leaked' and since people generally don't pay for something when they can/have gotten it for free, publishers see it as an added danger to their financial investment. Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, but that's a good thing to keep in mind.

[LadyRushia]

Building an online platform is actually becoming beneficial, hence why many writers have a blog (plus that fact that they're just really fun, XD) or even a website. I read a blog post recently by an author (I can't remember who) that talked about this. From what people were saying, it seems that publishers, agents, and the like are liking that sort of thing. For one, if you build a platform online, that means you have people who already like your stuff, which says to the publishers that you're a better investment, so they'd be more inclined to publish you. In any case, a good guideline that someone in the comments, or maybe even the poster him/herself said to follow is to not put anything online that you intend to get published, or to at least not post all of what you intend to publish. For example, I've posted reviews, analyses, and poetry on my blog, but I won't post any of the stories I'm writing because I intend to try to get them published professionally. In your case, that would mean having some poems available online for people to see, but not every single one you've written. Networking is a big tool that can help you. Don't get me wrong, posting things online is still seen, in my understanding, as something bad to publishers, but from what I've read from people who are more in the loop, they're slowly starting to warm up to the idea. I've even heard a few stories from people who posted their work online, then got that work published (of course, they took it down when the deal was made). It's still pretty ambiguous, so I'd say for now it's a good idea to give people a bite but not the whole meal.

Take writing classes/workshops and talk to instructors.

This. You can never take too many writing classes, in my opinion. Literature classes also help tremendously. By seeing how intricately themes, devices, and characters are woven together, you can learn how to do that in your own work.

And after this long post, I've moved this thread to the Writing section, XD.

[Esoteric]

Building an online platform is actually becoming beneficial, hence why many writers have a blog (plus that fact that they're just really fun, XD) or even a website. I read a blog post recently by an author (I can't remember who) that talked about this. From what people were saying, it seems that publishers, agents, and the like are liking that sort of thing. For one, if you build a platform online, that means you have people who already like your stuff, which says to the publishers that you're a better investment, so they'd be more inclined to publish you.

You're right, this is true. If you can generate a fan following with a website, then a publisher will have evidence of a good investment. My comments were directed more at the "I have 60 poems online that I want to publish" arrangement. Now if she posted 10 of the 60 poems for a 'portfolio', that would be smart. Free 'samples', are indeed, a wise strategy.

[LadyRushia]

Right, sampling is certainly the way to do it these days. ^_^ It may take awhile to build a decent online platform, but just the process of writing up free things and posting them is fun. You can use social networking sites and the like to promote your site or blog, too, so having something like Twitter for that reason is beneficial. That way, more people can see when you've updated and if they like your site or blog they'll start linking it to other people. I only started my blog a little over a month ago and I'm seeing a steady increase in the number and nature of hits (that is, there have been more unique hits than anything else). The numbers are nothing to write home about, really. The most hits I've ever gotten in a day so far has been 20, and there are only nine people following my blog. But what's more interesting is that there's been an increase in the number of hits I get every time I post something new.

Anyway, all that is to say that you should work on building an online platform, even if things start out slowly. You have a website, which is good, so perhaps you should promote it more. You can make a thread about it in the Links section and you can also have the link in your signature. You might also want to get a blog anyway, one that you keep public and use only for your writing as opposed to your personal life.

[Esoteric]

Right, sampling is certainly the way to do it these days. ^_^ It may take awhile to build a decent online platform, but just the process of writing up free things and posting them is fun. You can use social networking sites and the like to promote your site or blog, too, so having something like Twitter for that reason is beneficial. That way, more people can see when you've updated and if they like your site or blog they'll start linking it to other people. I only started my blog a little over a month ago and I'm seeing a steady increase in the number and nature of hits (that is, there have been more unique hits than anything else).

You seem to know a fair bit about the 'blog sphere'. Tell me, roughly how often do you update yours and what sort of writing content do you put up? See, I don't have a writing blog for a couple reasons;
1. I don't have a lot of free time and I'm a slow perfectionist writer. Updates would be very few and far between. We're talking three to six months between updates. That sort of time lag just doesn't seem appealing to the short attention span of most internet surfers. In other words, sites don't seem to keep people's attention very well unless they update every few weeks.
2. When I do write, I typically don't write poems or short stories--the sorts of things which make good 'sample' material. I wouldn't want to post a whole novel, and only posting the first few chapters would frustrate readers unless I provided a means of buying/acquiring the rest.

I realize blogs provide a great potential for exposure, for me personally a blog just seems like it would be an unsuccessful distraction. But perhaps you can debunk my preconceptions?

[LadyRushia]

Hmm, well for one thing frequent updates help a lot. Right now, I update every few days because I'm working on an analysis project of Showbread's Anorexia Nervosa and I'm writing about one song/chapter at a time, so I have steady source material at this point. I've also posted book reviews, music reviews, an anime review, poetry, and some other stuff. I think if you go more general with what your blog is about, it's easier to find things to write about. If I limited my blog posts to only my creative writing, I would have much to talk about.

I don't write a lot of poetry either, but I still post some, even if it's not that much. Well, there's blackout poetry (which is really fun) that I have a link to on my blog. I think that even with infrequent updates, a blog can still be helpful. You can still link it to people and they can see an archive of everything you've written. I used to think that making a blog was pointless and that keeping one would be hard, but it really isn't. I have a lot of fun doing it, and writing things up for it varies. When I do an analysis of something, writing it takes longer, but reviews hardly take any time at all. Blogs are as much work as you put into them, really.

Posting samples of your work still sounds like a good idea in my mind, even if you don't have a way for readers to get their hands on the rest of it. In fact, that suspense may even benefit you. If enough people like what you put up, they'll tell their friends to read it and you never know if someone is connected with an agent or a publisher. Then, if they want to read more, but have no way of seeing the rest, they'd want to make a deal with you. I'm not saying that would definitely happen, of course, but it is a possibility. You can also use outlets like Twitter to let people know when you have a new update, even if you don't have one for a long time. That might actually help people not click on your site every day and be disappointed, XD.

[Esoteric]

Thanks, those are some good aspects to consider. Maybe I'll manage to write a few shorter stories for a blog portfolio. One of these days. When I can find some more of that stuff--what's it called again? Oh that's right. Time.

[LadyRushia]

You can always look for ways online to post shorter things, too. Back in April, I discovered that Writer's Digest does a poem a day challenge where you're given a theme or a form and you write a poem. I came in late in the game, so I only wrote a few poems for that contest, but it gave me things to post on my blog. There's also blackout poetry, where you take a newspaper article and select certain words or letters to make a poem and then color the rest of it with a sharpie. I've also found that writing about things still manages to convey what kind of writer I am, even though I'm not posting original work. It's funny; before I started a blog, I never imagined I would have anything to write about, but suddenly there are lots of things, XD.

[~darkelfgirl~]

yeah I heard that if you go with self-publishing it's hard to get a real publisher to publish your work and I personally want to be a writer for a living. Poems are my specialty, but I also write short stories and I'm working on a novel. I asked Donita K. Paul for help, because she's one of my favorite authors. She's the author of "The Dragon Keeper Chronicles" and- now- "The Vanishing Sculptor". Do you think the librarian at my public library would be willing to help me?

Yeh, that's what I heard about self-publishing, too. Someone said that some publishers think that if your self-published book isn't doing much, then that means it's not worth the financial risk.

Some even say that you should get an agent first: http://www.sfwa.org/BEWARE/whyagent.html
Some publishers won't even look at your work if you don't have one, according to the writer of that link and this other one: http://www.sfwriter.com/beginner.htm <---this guy is very blunt about the literary market, so be prepared to feel some blows *shrugs*. Some people I showed this to were insulted. I think it's good to know.

Then again, you have to beware of bad agents too: http://www.sfwa.org/BEWARE/agents.html

Perhaps you should start entering some poetry competitions or submit to poetry magazines (this website will help you look for some: http://www.duotrope.com/index.aspx), if you think you are ready. Maybe someone of significance will spot you, you never know! ^^

Hope that helps!

Building an online platform is actually becoming beneficial, hence why many writers have a blog (plus that fact that they're just really fun, XD) or even a website.

This. (Ha, I copied your phrase =D) Very good for exposure and for meeting people with the same goals. You can give/gain good critique when you forge alliances.

I would make a blog, but I'm too lazy and have too many passwords to memorize!

[LadyRushia]

http://www.sfwriter.com/beginner.htm <---this guy is very blunt about the literary market, so be prepared to feel some blows *shrugs*. Some people I showed this to were insulted. I think it's good to know.

Yeah, I read the same thing, only from a different source. It shattered my illusions of being able to make money from writing, but that was a really good thing because I care about writing itself, not fame and fortune.

[~darkelfgirl~]

Yeah, I read the same thing, only from a different source. It shattered my illusions of being able to make money from writing, but that was a really good thing because I care about writing itself, not fame and fortune.

Same here =D. Plus I'm almost unreliable with deadlines and I have long dry spells.
I'm wondering ... I'm not sure of my major anyways, and wanted to pursue something in the fantasy literature market ...

[LadyRushia]

I'm wondering ... I'm not sure of my major anyways, and wanted to pursue something in the fantasy literature market ...

Your best bet would be majoring in Creative Writing/English with a concentration on Creative Writing. I'm not familiar of any school where you can concentrate on a certain genre. Maybe Sarah Lawrence has something like that, but don't take my word for it. You can probably take classes on fantasy literature, but that might be the best you can do.

[Esoteric]

<---this guy is very blunt about the literary market, so be prepared to feel some blows *shrugs*. Some people I showed this to were insulted. I think it's good to know.

Aw shucks, better keep my job at McDonalds then. Yeah, the odds are stacked against you. Every creative field is like this. Everyone wants to be a rock star, but they'll be lucky if they can even get a steady gig as a sound mixer.

[~darkelfgirl~]

Your best bet would be majoring in Creative Writing/English with a concentration on Creative Writing. I'm not familiar of any school where you can concentrate on a certain genre. Maybe Sarah Lawrence has something like that, but don't take my word for it. You can probably take classes on fantasy literature, but that might be the best you can do.

K thanks.

Aw shucks, better keep my job at McDonalds then. Yeah, the odds are stacked against you. Every creative field is like this. Everyone wants to be a rock star, but they'll be lucky if they can even get a steady gig as a sound mixer.

Yeh *sigh*.

[LadyRushia]

I've read that website you linked inside and out, Deg (Robert Sawyer's website), and they way he's laid out to do things makes a lot of sense to me. Get some short stories published in some magazines so you have more credentials when you ask for an agent. You don't need to have an agent or anyone to submit to a magazine; you just have to pay for postage, XD.