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.

Tips on sending your poems to a poetry journal or e-zine

• Read, study, and support poetry journals, anthologies, and literary e-zines whose work you like.

• Notice who publishes the poems you enjoy reading as they’ll be more likely to enjoy your poetry too.

• If these potential publishers have a website, read and study the poems archived online.

• Review your poetry to find poems with a style, length, theme, subject, or “feel” similar to the published poems you like.

• Read your work aloud. Notice any glitches. Revise accordingly, and read aloud each revision.

• Select 3 to 5 poems per batch per publisher.

• Carefully follow the guidelines on the publisher’s website.

• If poems are accepted only by mail, type each poem on its own page with your name and contact information across the top like a letterhead. Use plain white paper and a plain font in 11 or 12-point with no flourishes. Except for “business words,” such as “a, the, and,” capitalize the first letter of each word in the title. Use boldface type only for the title. Space down two spaces. Type your name as you want it to appear on the poem. Space down two more space, and type the poem, single-spaced.

• If you use an online submission manager, type the poems as described above, save as one file, and send as an attachment. Do this for email attachments too.

• If the editor wants the poetry submission sent as an email text, type each poem flush left.

• Submit one batch of 3-5 poems to one editor at a time. When sending by mail, enclose an SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) with enough postage for the return of your work.

• Keep track of where and when you sent each poem. Each publication will have a different response time, but in general, an e-zine will get back to you quicker than a print journal. If you haven’t heard in several months, follow up with a brief note, asking for an update on each title.

• While you wait to hear about one batch of poems, send off another batch to another editor.

• If an editor returns your work, read each poem aloud. Listen carefully for rough spots. Revise as needed, then submit the batch of poems to the next journal or e-zine on your list.

• To discover more options for your poetry in general and learn about the forms and techniques that will elevate your work to a higher literary level, order the Kindle e-book, the Christian Poet’s Guide to Writing Poetry.

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© 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler

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How to submit your poetry book or chapbook to a traditional publisher

Recently The Poetry Editor blog talked about the poet’s task of finding a theme for a book of poems or chapbook, selecting poems relevant to that theme, then looking for connections between each poem to establish a sequence or flow.

Once you’re satisfied with the results, consider sending your manuscript to the editor of a traditional publishing company, but just any editor won’t do! Some will be open to your work, and some will not. To find out, research companies who produce the types of poetry you like to read.

As mentioned in a previous article, “Getting poems together for a poetry book,” I submitted my manuscript for Living in the Nature Poem to Hiraeth Press because I liked the editors and their focus on the natural environment and other nature themes my poems often contain.

When you, too, have found publishers whose poetry books or chapbooks you like and who seem likely to like yours, study and follow their writers’ guidelines, keeping in mind that those guidelines are not suggestions but necessities.

In the initial contact, most editors want to see only a few poems attached to your cover letter and sent to the email or mailing address provided with the writers’ guidelines. For either print mail or a Word attachment, select a favored font such as 12-point Times Roman or Arial and type each poem on a separate page, not centered, but flush left beneath your letterhead, which includes your full name, mailing address, and email. If you have a blog or website, add that too.

For the cover letter that covers sample poems from your book also include:


Your contact information set as a letterhead across the top of the page

Date (flush right or left with the remainder of the letter flush left)

Editor’s Name

Name of Publishing Company

Address

Re: (aka Regarding: Title of manuscript)

Greeting of the Letter: (Dear Editor Last Name:)

Body of the Letter (within one page)

Closing (such as “Sincerely,” or “Best Regards”)

Your Name

Enclosures: (i.e., SASE aka self-addressed stamped envelope for manuscript's return; number of poems if sent by postal mail)


The body of the letter will briefly say why you’re contacting this particular publisher, what your poetry book is about (theme and purpose), how many pages the book has, how many poems are enclosed, and whether any of the poems have been published in poetry journals, e-zines, or anthologies.

Waiting to hear can be hard, but give the editor at least 6 weeks to respond before following up by mail or email with a quick note asking about the status of your manuscript (title) sent on (date.)

If, however, your manuscript comes back or keeps coming back without a contract, you may need feedback or professional advice in a Poetry Critique for a minimal fee. This does not mean criticism of your work but practical suggestions and helpful corrections to show you how to improve your manuscript and make it more marketable.

If, after all of the above, the book or chapbook still does not place with a traditional publishing company, THEN you might want to self-publish – the exception being if you know going in that you have a specialized market and/or readers eager to buy and read your book. However, even with a built-in eager market (such as TV personalities have) do not self-publish without first getting a final edit from an experienced editor.

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© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved.

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Going Postal with Poetry

Most poets like to email a batch of poems to an editor because, duh, it’s fast and free. Although email guarantees you an instantaneous submission, that does not guarantee your poems will be read any sooner. Nor will your poems be taken more seriously than, say, that of someone who cares enough to send their very best work first class with an adequately stamped SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) for its return.

Other problems with emailing often arise too. For instance:

Email from an unknown source (meaning you) may be treated by the editorial department as Junk Mail or, worse, Spam.

Competition increases because, yeah, it’s fast and free to submit poems by email, so everyone does it – even non-poets!

Some editors rarely check their email.

Most editors do not want to print out the very poems that poets used to print for them.

Some poets have word processing software that is not compatible with whatever the editor has, so file attachments may not open correctly.

Some editors do not want to open any attachment from anyone.

Copying and pasting poems into the body of your plain text email will resolve the last couple of issues, but then your layout might be lost or skewed.

Conversely, when you carefully type your eye-pleasing format for each page of the poems you send through the p.o., you can be assured that what you see is what I get.

When I critique a manuscript, provide a poetry consultation, or edit someone’s poems, I like a hands-on approach that allows me to carry your sheaf of poems around with me and up-put with a “good read” instead of sitting all day at this computer.

I also find I quickly catch mistakes on paper but may be blinded by glare or pixels in editing on-screen. Penciled notes in paper margins can be erased, clichés circled, and arrows added to point to this or that, so critiques usually receive more detailed comments than I can figure out how to give, say, with the editorial features in Word.

As I leave the editorial side of my desk today to go back to my poet’s corner, I will still email some of my own submissions, especially when I send a batch of 3 to 5 poems to an e-zine or online journal. Presumably they have set up their offices to receive poetry this way, so will probably handle my work and yours with maximum efficiency.

I wonder, though, if the poems will be read as quickly as they were sent. Since poetry needs to be read aloud and savored, a snail-pace might be just fine. Besides, I would really like to help keep our local post office in business for as long as I can.


Mary Sayler, poet-writer