A
goal to which all
poet aspire. Completing a manuscript and sending it out is
not the first step. Many emerging poets focus so intently on
the first book, that they ruin their
chance of ever getting one.
The first step is publication in small literary magazines. While these
magazines have a small distribution, they are read by your target market – poets , people who publish poets and people who book poets for readings. In addition, they are
critical for becoming eligible for grants. See:
Poetry is a business,
grant proposals.
A
common mistake poets make is to begin at the end. Poets should begin submitting work to small regional journals. After generating publishing credits on their
resume, they can begin sending their work out to larger, more well known journals such as:
The American Poetry Review and
Ploughshares. It is critical to assess your
market niche and determine what your opportunities are. This means, in addition to
writing poetry, you need to read poetry. Who is your competition? Where are they publishing? How is your voice
unique? More important than reading poets is researching editors. Many editors of small literary journals are also poets. Discovering their
bias is critical to having success obtaining publication credits.
Avoid
vanity presses. See -
poetry.com