Today’s Poetry Tuesday comes in the form of advice on how to establish a system for submission, compliments of award-winning poet Connie Post. Connie’s work has appeared in Calyx, Kalliope, California Quarterly, The Toronto Quarterly, and elsewhere. She served as Poet Laureate of Livermore, California from 2005 – June 2009, and her latest volume of poetry is Trip Wires. – Meg
Many poets who don’t necessarily find it difficult to write, but find it difficult to “get their poems out there.” It can be a daunting task, and submitting comes with some psychological challenges that can be hard to over come. Sometimes when a poet receives a rejection notice, they often will not submit for weeks or months. I submit poetry very often, and make it a weekly process. If you submit often enough, receiving rejection just becomes a “part of the business.” This habit can help a person get used to the idea that not everything will be accepted, and even getting a 10% acceptance rate is something to feel good about. Sometimes when the editor says “its not the right fit for us” they really mean it!
I know some poets who submit 2 or 3 times a year, and they submit a large quantity at once to many journals. If that works for you that’s fine, but you have to find a system that works for your life and your schedule. I work full time in business so it is easier for me to find fifteen minutes or a half hour to submit to a few journals a week. This system also makes it easier when you get rejected, because you have so many other poems “out for submission” that you still have many possibilities for acceptance. I think of it as a rolling submission system. It allows you to feel engaged in the submission process, without feeling deluged by too much work! Submitting regularly for me also helps me re-evaluate poems that may not be doing so well in submission land and gives me time to revise as I look at them with a new perspective. Sometimes when your poems “leave home for a while” , when they come back you can look at them with a new perspective.
Whatever method you decide to establish, make sure it is something you can stick with. Make sure it’s something that helps you feel that you are engaged in the process but not overwhelmed by it. Some writers find it useful to use an index card system, while others find it easier to use an excel spreadsheet to track submissions. I personally like the excel spreadsheet idea, because it helps me go back and review what I have submitted and possibly look at annual results.
I always recommend that poets try to think of the writing and creative process as separate from one another. Thinking about the submitting process as a business helps one to keep their creative life separate from their submission life. It can be difficult for writers, to feel creative and also business-like in one day. For that reason, I often dedicate one day to simply writing and another day to submitting.
Before deciding what submission process works best for you, look at your current daily schedule, your goals, spend time perfecting your craft and finally use all the available resources
to decide what and where to submit. Keep good records. Stay engaged in your writing community. Collect and keep your acceptance letters. And make confetti out of your rejection slips. Find a system, and stick to it! – Connie
