Queen Mob's POEMHACK: Donald Dunbar Offers a Few Pro Tips

Got a hankering to flip your writing from .docx to Powell's material? Portland poet Donald Dunbar has a few handy tips. More:

There’s two main routes to a book, with some major overlap between them: contests and open reading periods. Entropy has a good bimonthly list of both, as well as journals currently accepting subs.

AS FOR THE ACTUAL PROCESS OF MAKING THAT .DOCX INTO SOMETHING AT POWELL’S, SOME THOUGHTS:

1) There will be lots of rejection. Lots and lots.

2) Getting a book out is a numbers game. Regardless of how GREAT (like GREAT) a manuscript is, there is still plenty of chance involved. Chance that the person sorting through the slush pile is drunk or hungover or just got dumped. Chance that the editor hates one of the words in the title and it makes them wanna puke. Chance that your manuscript is sitting right next to the God of All Books Manuscript and though they sincerely want to publish yours, the editors must obey the Book God and publish it instead.

3) You only have control over your poems and sending them out. You can’t control anything else, and so the sooner you get over worrying about anything else, the more energy you’ll have for writing poems and sending them out.

4) Save yourself some rejection (and reading fees) by sending to presses that publish books you dig. While fiction and music and like everything else has defined genres and poetry is just as aesthetically diverse as everything else, a book from FSG is right next to a book from Fence is right next to a book from YesYes at the bookstore, and though they all publish excellent poetry, they usually wouldn’t be interested in the same manuscripts. The buying of lots of poetry books to figure out who’s doing similar stuff is a cost that can only be defrayed by borrowing from friends, as most libraries don’t keep up on small press poetry (which is where like 95% of poetry happens).

5) The organization of a book matters a lot, and is worth addressing every month or two. Shuffle up your poems and come up with the best groupings you can think of; imagine how your ideal reader will feel from poem to poem. If you still like the organization you’ve got, all the better.

And more at Queen Mob's.