Warning to Poets Who Do Competitions

In a fit of vanity/nostalgia I googled the phrase "poetry competition" this morning. As you can imagine there are thousands upon thousands of competitions ("about 130,000" to be precise) and even websites dedicated to organising and cataloguing them. However, I was surprised at how many refused to consider works which had been previously published, "including online."

I'd just always considered Goodreads etc to be good places to get a little feedback/ego boost when I thought I'd just done something that might be good. Sound it out before an audience that wasn't an open mic one - so if it flops at least I'm not on stage and with bright lights pointing at me. Up until now the only real filter for what I put on Goodreads has been "nothing I wouldn't want my mother/a colleague to read" - but I guess from now on I'll have to be a little more careful what I put up from a writing-career perspective.

Pants. Especially since I wanted to put some of my more 'page poem' pieces (which I don't do so much at open mic nights) foreward for the odd competition.

Ah well. Live and learn. You have been warned.

Hannah

(The book review bile/ravings will continue as normal.)