Now where did I put that poem?

Keeping track of your poems is easy at first, but as your work grows, it’s hard to remember every title, much less where it was last seen.

If you occasionally (or regularly!) send poems to poetry journals or anthologies, you know a typical submission contains 3 to 5 poems in one batch sent to one editor at a time. This can add up quickly– and quickly add to the confusion!

To keep track of individual poems:

·         Type each on a separate page in a poetry file kept on computer.  

·         At the top of each poem, type the date written and the primary topic, the latter of which will help you find appropriate poems to send in one batch. (This information also helps later when you search for poems on a particular subject for a chapbook or section of a poetry book.)

·         When you’re ready to submit a poem to a contest, periodical, or other publication, type the date of submission and name of the potential publisher with the other record-keeping info at the top of the page.

That information is for yourself, of course, and not publication. If, however, you don’t like this method, another way to keep track is by setting up a “Poetry Submission” file. (I do both.)

For a poetry submission file:

·         List and alphabetize each poem by title.

·         Beside each title, identify the form, such as “haiku,” “sonnet,” “children’s poem.”

·         Also, identify the primary subject(s), such as “nature,” “faith,” “love.”

·         Type in the date and place where you’re submitting the poem, the method of mailing, and the contact info for the person to whom the poem is sent.

·         If the poem is not accepted for publication, type in the date you received a “no.”

·         If the poem is accepted, enjoy the moment! Then type in the date you received a “yes” and the date to be published (TBP.)

To see at a glance which poems are being considered, which will be published, and which are ready to send out again, I add an identifier to the left of each title. For example, I type * when a poem has been accepted and + when under consideration.

If a poem comes back and waits for me to tweak, revise, or otherwise reconsider before I send it to the next potential publisher, I remove the identifiers. This way, my Poetry Submission file shows me which poems are free to go out again without my fretting over where they are.

Mary Harwell Sayler , ©2019

P.S. After posting these tips on keeping track of the poems we submit, I discovered I'd sent a previously published poem to an online journal that wants only unpublished pieces! Lord, help! Even the best laid plans and systems can go awry! Thankfully, I caught the error before the journal had time to use the poem, so I confessed my mistake to the editor. Also, I'm thankful I have another file called "Bio" that lists the titles and genres of my published works with the places and dates they see print, which is how I found my mistake.

Keeping records makes it easy to do a poetry book

This week I’ve been going through my Word files, gathering poems for my next book, which I hope to send off soon to a poetry publisher. Trying to decide which poems to include can be a daunting task with hundreds of poems from which to choose, but record-keeping has made the job much easier.

As I wrote each poem, I typed every new piece on its own page in my Word file of “Poems.” Since I often “tweak” or revise my poems (sometimes even after they’ve been published!) I space down from the last line then simultaneously press “Ctrl” and “Enter” to start a new page. That way each page will stay put, enabling me to add or delete lines without disrupting the entire file. For instance, I might later need to add “Revised” and the date of that revision.

Other additions to the top of the page came about when it occurred to me to type key search words for each poem. For example, as I write poems of “Faith,” “Nature,” “Family,” I type those words beside the date of writing. Then I can go back and find all the poems I’ve written on a particular subject. Or I can find poems in a particular form.

Recently, for example, I’ve been writing a lot of haiku and other minipoems, so I type “Haiku,” “Aahcoo,” “Senryu,” or “Micropoem” at the top of the page and, occasionally, traditional form names such as “Sonnet,” “Villanelle,” or “Prose Poem.” If I decide to collect my haiku together for a book or chapbook, the search for those poems will be made easy by simultaneously pressing “Ctrl” and the “F” key. Immediately a “Navigation” column comes up for typing the key word in the “Search Document” space. And presto! All of my haiku that I’ve labeled as “Haiku” will automatically pop onto the list.

Without that seemingly small step, I might not have any poetry books! Instead, I was able to compile poems quickly for my book, Living in the Nature Poem, when my editor/publisher expressed interest. All I had to do was search for "Nature," and relevant poems came up. Similarly, "Praise" poems came together for my book PRAISE!

Another aspect of record-keeping has to do with each poem’s whereabouts. It might be best to type the date and publication to which I’ve submitted a poem at the top of the poem’s page too. However, I didn’t think of that until long after the fact. So I have a “Poetry Submission List” file with poems listed alphabetically by title followed by the date and place sent. If the poem is declined, I put “No” and the date of that response in the file, then send the poem to the next publishing possibility, noting that info too.

When the editor of a journal, e-zine, or anthology accepts a poem, hallelujah! I note that in the poetry file and also add the title (again, alphabetically) beneath the “Poetry” heading in my “Bio” file where I keep a record of every publishing credit, big or small.

Keeping a Bio record of those credits gives me a quick place to search for info to include in the “Acknowledgements” page for each new poetry book or chapbook, so I can appropriately thank previous publishers and acknowledge the publications which included my work.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

For more on record-keeping and submitting manuscripts of all genres to traditional and indie publishers, order the Christian Writer’s Guide e-book from Amazon Kindle.




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