Rachel Dacus's Blog, page 46

Famous for not entering contests

Earth Lessons now on Kindle!I, who am famous for being opposed to poetry book contests (though I've entered my share), and about to venture my Book Left at the Altar to a few contests while also talking to some non-contest publishers. Who can solve the need for a new poetry book publishing paradigm, I wonder. Contests may give brief glory and a level up to the very few winners, but the fact that few poets actually buy and read current poetry books -- let alone the general public -- is the deeper issue. Self-published novels do well, the good ones that get word-of-mouth buzz on Amazon, Goodreads, iDreamBooks, and other reader-reviewed sites. Where's our version of the crowd-sourced reviews of Rotten Tomatoes for poetry books? I feel that's central to solving the problem. I almost feel like starting such a site!

Earth Lessons Selling on Kindle!

I'm so excited that reissuing my first poetry collection, Earth Lessons, for the Kindle, has interested new readers. I love reading poetry books on my iPhone, and someday when I get a tablet, I'll enjoy that form of reading too. Paper is nice, and poetry books are collectibles and even can be art objects, but let's face it, a library in your pocket is excellent! Especially a poetry library. Thanks, those of you who got a copy!!

Superbowl and Poetry?

Of course, we start with the fact that the winning team is named after a poem: Poe at the Superbowl. Then we add a poem-as-commercial, "God Made a Farmer," one of the more stunning moments of an evening mostly blah except the last-half play following the power outage, when the 49ers made it an interesting game. To my ear, it was poetry, Whitmanesque and rangy, and decidedly a poem, with its repetend, "So God made a farmer." That Paul Harvey, a non-poet, wrote it doesn't matter one bit. I know poetry when I hear it -- especially in a context as unlikely as America's low-culture fest, the Superbowl.

Hey, we had a wonderful plain-speech poem at the Inauguration, with Richard Blanco's moving "One Today." Why not poetry at the Superbowl?

The Next Big thing

 
The Next Big Thing Blog Hop is a chance for authors to tell you what they're working on. The author answers 10 questions about their next book and tags the person who first tagged them plus at least five other authors. I’m excited to be part of this progressive blog-hopping self-interview of authors on books we’re working on. I was tagged by poet and teacher Ren Katherine Powell. I’ve read many fascinating NBT blogs. My previous books are poetry collections Earth Lessons (newly released for Kindle) and Femme au chapeau. I hope to be able to answer these 10 questions about my next poetry collection. This one is about my just-finished novel.
 
What is the title of your book?
It’s called The Renaissance Club. 

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When Professor Norman Wesley, a frustrated economist seeking Truth and Beauty, recruits his fellow professors for a tour of Italy, a time-traveling guide and magical gold pen make the trip life-altering. 
What genre does your book fall under?
I’ve had a hard time figuring that out. Lots of googling and searching publishers’ websites, and finally I determined that it falls under Fantasy, possible sub-genre Urban Fantasy. I was going to fly under the banner of Magical Realism, but I discovered there are only about five contemporary novels in that category, so I upgraded.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I took an art history course on the Renaissance and it actually developed into a tour of the kind I describe in the book. The characters aren’t based on the people I traveled with, but the places are the places we toured, though I do wish we’d had a time traveler as our guide! We did have a man named Massimo, though he didn’t have a heart attack. He was actually the tour guide the Pope used to show visitors Rome, and quite an erudite scholar. 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
I was cooking on the plot idea for about five years (I think slow! and also know how long it takes to write a novel). Then I started writing an outline and note son characters. Another few years passed before I decided to take the plunge. This isn’t my first book, so I knew what I was getting into! After I started drafting, it was about 16 months to complete the first draft. It’s taken six months more to refine the fantasy concept and revise.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? 
Italy – a mad and enduring love of the place made me want to write this novel. Actually, first I wrote a memoir of my three-week Italian Renaissance art history tour, then a nonfiction treatment of the passion and history of Italy, and finally I turned most of these ideas into fiction, threw in some characters that had been banging around in my head, and added an aspect of fantasy that grew like Alice after drinking one of those potions. My Italian Renaissance study and tour also inspired the essay “Venice and the Passion to Nurture,” published in Italy: A Love Story (Seal Press, 2005). And if you’re a lover of Italy, The Seal Press anthology is full of treats.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’m looking for representation.
High on my wish list is a publishing place I can call home for future books. I’m looking for the kind of editorial relationship that probably only exists in novels. And history. Maxwell Perkins and F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

What other works would you compare this book to within your genre?
Readers might see parallels with the romantic Italy of The Enchanted April, which isn’t actually within my genre but has a kind of magic of its own. The magical art history time-travel tale The Forgery Of Venus also has some parallels to my book.   
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I love this question! I’ve been casting my dream team and would so love
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Who doesn’t love Italy? Even if you haven’t been there, it’s romantic, and if you have, all you want is details that bring back all the romance and the fabulous food, and oh, yes, the incredible beauty. I was going to include recipes but that’s been done.
Time travel – who doesn’t want to meet the most fascinating person in history? Of course, it’s someone different for everyone, and that’s in a way what happens to these travelers. They may not have known the person they meet is the most fascinating person in history for them until after the encounter, but the effects are life-changing in every case.

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That winds up my Next Big Thing. Thanks for tagging me, Ren! I’m tagging Ren back, and also Barbara Ellen Sorensen, Melissa Studdard, Karen J. Weyant, Sandy Longhorn, Sandra Beasley.

Poetry book publishers - additions

New additions to my website page: Poetry Book Publishers.

These are book publishers who read outside of contests. If you have a manuscript and are tired of the contest round, check it out. People have written to me to say they found their publishers with this list. You can also search on New Pages and Poets and Writers, under Small Presses. 

Keeping this list up has made me more discriminating in thinking about where to submit my manuscript. Readers of this blog will know that last year I had an unusual publishing mishap I dubbed "Poet Left at the Altar." My soon-to-be publisher, Kitsune Books, went out of business just before my book was to appear. I picked them because they also published fiction, and I have a novel ready to boil over and need a publisher. I thought I had found my dream relationship: a publisher who might welcome all my future books! As fragile a dream as any romantic fantasy, it seems. While there are a few publishers who publish both prose and poetry (the big houses don't do poetry, the small presses don't often do fiction), many small presses are so financially fragile that one life event or bad year can wipe them out.

Having learned a lot about publishing in order to market my novel and choose a publisher well for the next books I publish, I discovered that the enterprise of small press publishing is often floating on a dream, funded by not much more than a dream and some sweat, and received in the world of readers with an astonishing absence. Few buy these books, few review them, few subscribe to magazines that publish poetry and literary fiction. Yet we're all avid readers.

This isn't meant to scare us, just to pose a problem that needs some creative problem-solving. Freedom of writing and publishing depends on our collaborating to create a new publishing paradigm, one not controlled by a few wealthy gatekeepers, but more by the tastes of the reading public.

Earth Lessons for Kindle + Multimedia Poetry Ideas

My first poetry book, Earth Lessons , is now available for the Kindle! Very excited to have my first e-book, and planning lots more. I love reading on my phone or computer. Print may be alive and well, but it's so heavy! Plus, it kills trees.

I have plans to make book trailers and some other multimedia things involving poetry. Stay tuned! (Ideas welcome.)

Putting together a poetry book

A great article by Erika Meitner on compiling a poetry book manuscript. She talks about project versus what she calls "mix-tape books"-- a great term for the classical general poetry collection. She discusses the way a "project" related collection can suffer from weak poems forced into being and into the book to support the theme. It's a concern I have, this rampant trend for themed poetry collections. While a themed collection that's strong and can support an entire book is a stunning achievement, I see so many books straining at themes, rather than simply offering the best new work the poet has. I love diversity and the way a poet works her or his ongoing themes forward -- or jumps into new territory. It's part of getting to know the poet as a whole. I feel themed books put me at one remove from that. And so I tend not to buy them.

Journals Accepting Previously Published Poems

Here's a short list of journals where your published poems (in books, anthologies, journals) can get a second life. I'm working on compiling such a list, as I don't find one readily available. Reincarnate your poems! How can they be remembered if only seen once (in a journal) or twice (then in your book) or even three times (anthologized)? I'm for poems circulating widely!

Borderline Poetry Journal
Qarrtsiluni
Houseboathouse
Another short list - journals that take short poems:Inch
Angle Poetry Suggestions welcome! These lists could be a collaborative effort.

Bloghopping

First of all, I hopped to a new blog site, but got spammed out of existence. So here I am at Rocket Kids again! I hope you're still here.

Found some fun new places to publish poetry. Angle, editing from England and Australia, has a strong preference for poetry in received or nonce forms, but are open to considering any work which has a strong element of rhythm or 'music', however achieved. I like that element of music in language -- it's one of my keys to defining what is poetry as apart from prose.

Hot Street is an interesting new journal of "thinkers, writers, and artists who believe that publishing exists to promote thinkers, writers, and artists—not the other way around." They take literary fiction and nonfiction under 8,000 words that moves and transforms, pushes boundaries, and expands awareness.

Come Visit My New Blog! http://racheldacus.net/links/

I'll be posting regularly on the new blog because it's part of my new poet/writer site: http://racheldacus.net.

I'm still a Rocket Kid over there, and comments are as always more than welcome. Latest topics I've blogged about:

The Gift of a Poem
Inside Forever
Spiritual Intoxication a 12-Step Program?
Po-Biz: Marketing Your Book

And more. Come on by and let me know what you think, add ideas, links, your blog or website address. Thanks!