Writer’s Craft: Poetry Project Part A
Submit your work to an external publication.
There are two ways a writer gets published. One is through “blind” submissions to publications. That’s where you, as an unknown writer, submit your work to various publications, editors, or agents. Once you establish a reputation in the writing community, you might find yourself invited to submit work to a publication.
Publications that receive work get a LOT of submissions. Preparing your work for submission is a bit like preparing for a job interview. It involves research so that you know that your work and the publication are the right fit for each other. It involves careful grooming of your work. You wouldn’t want to show up to an interview with spinach in your teeth right? Typos are the spinach in the teeth of a literary submission.
Steps:
1) research
Choose three publications andor projects to which you would like to submit work.
sources: class website, your own initiative
For each one, find their submission guidelines and print them or copy them if the publication only exists in print.
2) Choose one of the poems you have written.
Give it a polish and bring THREE copies to class on Tuesday.
You will receive feedback from both your writer’s workshop groups and from me.
You will also be marked on the quality of feedback you give the work.
3) Revision
Revise the work based on the suggestions.
4) Within a week following the writer’s workshops, choose ONE of the publications and prepare a submission for it. Include a cover letter. Your cover letter should be addressed to whoever is in charge of the publication’s submissions.
Your cover letter must include:
- an indication that you understand the nature of their publication
- a description of the kind of work you do, using words from the poetry profiler, and mentioning names of poets who have influenced your work
- your publishing history (your blog, if nothing else)
- a request to be included in their publication or project