2013: the Year of the Poem?
I've been good about sending out short stories for a number of years now, and most rejections don't bother me anymore. For some reason, poetry rejections did. Maybe it's because poems felt more personal, or because there are so few paying markets. Whatever the case, I'd send a poem out once or twice, then never again.
Last year, I made a major push to write and send out more speculative poetry as part of a conscious effort to work through this submission phobia. I participated in April and November Poem A Day, and also wrote at least one new poem a month as part of my Write 1 Sub 1 goals. This translated to a goal of keeping out a minimum of 20 poems at any time, though for a brief period this month, I had 40 out.
I'm not fond of math, but this is a basic equation I've learned as far as my writing: the more you submit, the more likely you are to get accepted.
All of my acceptances so far in January--five--have been poetry. Three of those in the last two days, and to different publishers. I have eleven poems due to be published this year, and two of them were published this week.
Those two silly urban fantasy poems are in issue 36.1 of Star*Line. "The Truth About Unicorns" and "A Hairy Issue" started something of a series for me, wherein I disclose some unknown truth about a mythological creature. I'll have another poem on the theme in the next issue of Star*Line.
Submit, submit, and submit again. You can't earn an acceptance without taking that risk.
Last year, I made a major push to write and send out more speculative poetry as part of a conscious effort to work through this submission phobia. I participated in April and November Poem A Day, and also wrote at least one new poem a month as part of my Write 1 Sub 1 goals. This translated to a goal of keeping out a minimum of 20 poems at any time, though for a brief period this month, I had 40 out.
I'm not fond of math, but this is a basic equation I've learned as far as my writing: the more you submit, the more likely you are to get accepted.
All of my acceptances so far in January--five--have been poetry. Three of those in the last two days, and to different publishers. I have eleven poems due to be published this year, and two of them were published this week.
Those two silly urban fantasy poems are in issue 36.1 of Star*Line. "The Truth About Unicorns" and "A Hairy Issue" started something of a series for me, wherein I disclose some unknown truth about a mythological creature. I'll have another poem on the theme in the next issue of Star*Line.
Submit, submit, and submit again. You can't earn an acceptance without taking that risk.
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