It is 7pm right now and I meant to post this right after I received it however, sleep won instead. Today’s post was a bit of a close call. I had a poster scheduled for today but for reasons, that poster could not do it. I decided I would ask Twitter to see if anyone could write a post on such short notice and surprise! We have Amanda back for a double feature! I am so excited about this. This is a topic I have been pretty curious about for the past year so it’s super helpful for myself and I hope you all enjoy it too! If you have not read Amanda’s interview, definitely go do that! It is great!
Poetic Justice is a month long event, beginning April 1st to April 30th in honor of National Poetry Month. Throughout April there will be interviews, guest posts, excerpts and other poetic posts. I hope you will follow along. To read the introductory post, read about my poetic background as well as the schedule for the month, you can find out more here.
Submitting your poetry can be a daunting, but rewarding, journey. Your poems are pieces of your heart, extensions of yourself, the words you have crafted from stardust. To share your poems with the world is an act of bravery; but how does one go about submitting poems? How do you make your poem stand out to your dream publication?
I spent my 2017 working toward my year’s goal: submitting to 50 poetry publications. By the end of the year, over ten poems of mine had been published. With that, many more got rejected, and I grew a thicker writer’s skin. By the end of the year, the rejections didn’t hurt as much anymore. Allow me to share with you some Do’s and Do Not’s, as well as personal tips that helped me reach my goal.
Outline a Poetry Game Plan
Make a list of the places you wish to submit to in any given time frame – a week, a month, a year, etc. Start a spreadsheet to keep track of submissions, acceptances, or rejections. I organize my spreadsheet by Title, Format, Submitted To, Date Submitted, Response, and Notes. For every acceptance, the cell in my spreadsheet is marked a light green – I avoid marking rejections with a dark red color, because that is harsh and leads to more self-doubt. Mark rejections with a lighter red or pinker color, to keep your spreadsheet confidence-friendly.
Amanda’s Tips for Navigating Poetry Submissions
Before Submitting:
• Download the Submittable app on your phone, if feasible.
• Find poetry presses/journals/mags you would like to submit to and screenshot on your phone – delete the screenshots once you have submitted your poem(s).
• Read the About Us section to get an idea on what they like. Does the journal want to focus on politics or nature? Sonnets or free verse?
• Read the submission guidelines and follow them to the letter.
• Follow the poetry magazine you intend to submit to on Twitter or whichever social media presence they have; read up on poets that have been published by them to get familiar with their style.
During Submitting:
• Read and re-read your poem(s) and cover letter for any typos.
• In your cover letter, keep all discourse brief, formal, but not so robotic that your personality does not shine through. Introduce yourself and your poem, allowing a one-sentence summary of your work. Other than that, let your poem speak for itself.
• In your cover letter, do not talk down about your work. You are an artist and must have confidence in your art. If you have confidence in your art, then journals will see that. Note I said confidence, not ego.
• Double check that you have followed every submission guideline on the site.
After Submitting:
• Practice self-care – do something for yourself immediately after submitting. Read a book, play a video game, take a shower, clean – whatever you need to do to get your mind off the submission.
• Upon a rejection: Don’t take it personally. The journal may have already reached their capacity of acceptances, or that particular poem was just not a right fit. This happens, and this happens often.
• Upon a rejection: Do not respond with reasons why they should have accepted your poem. Do not respond with entitlement.
• Upon a rejection: If you must respond, send a Thank You – however, I usually err on the side of caution with this. If everyone who got rejected by a press sent a Thank You email, the press would be bombarded with responses. I typically do not send a response to a rejection. If I take any action, I visit their Twitter and “Like” some of their tweets to show I hold nothing against them and that I genuinely support the poets/poetry they did accept.
• Upon a rejection: If you are up for it, re-read the poem you sent for any errors or changes you want to make, and submit that poem or collection somewhere else immediately. This helps me overcome self-doubt and replaces the feeling of rejection with one of renewed hope.
• Upon an acceptance: CONGRATULATIONS! Your poem has been accepted. Do a little happy dance and send a Thank You email, along with whatever else they ask (perhaps an Author Photo or the like).
• Upon an acceptance: Be patient. Your accepted poem or collection may not be published right away. Most of being published is waiting, and the press may be someone’s side gig or part-time job. Your poem will be published all in due time – maybe submit your poems while you wait for your accepted work to make its debut.
Whether you’ve been published once, a hundred times, or never, remember – you are a poet on a journey. Like the typical Hero’s Journey, you will face adversity; but the strength of your skill as a poet is found not only in your word-craft, but how your present your work. Remember that rejection is not failure, but a lesson. We are all perpetual students in our art, and in a way our art is also our teacher.
Now go out there and submit your poems.
Amanda N. Butler is the author of chapbooks “Tableau Vivant” (Dancing Girl Press, 2015) and “effercrescent” (Dancing Girl Press, 2017), as well as the microchapbook “How A Fairy Gets Her Wings” (Origami Poems Project, forthcoming). Her poetry has also appeared in Hedgerow, Haikuniverse, poems2go, and others.
She can be found on Twitter @arsamandica.
Thank you, Amanda for this great guest post on such short notice! You totally saved my day and month-long feature streak.❤
I hope readers enjoyed this post. I hope you’re inspired to try submitting your work. Please give Amanda some love with a comment, Twitter follow or even sharing this post on social media! All of those things will give you entries in my giveaway for one physical book from Book Depository or a Kindle book! Also, Amanda hosts the #stanzaspeak chat on Twitter! I haven’t been able to catch one but seeing the questions and answers are great. Please do participate some time.
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