Where should I send a rough draft of my poetry compilation?

Question

I have a book put together, I have it copyrighted and I have it edited, its ready to go. I just do not know the first thing about sending the rough copy out to publishers. I am really anxious to get my hard work out there for people to read, I know my work is marketable and I know I could be a successful author, I just need to get the advice and tools to move forward, please help me, all suggestions will be considered. Thank you all for your time!
~~Melissa

Answer 1

The first thing you need to know is that you never pay an agent or a publisher a cent. If they ask for money at any time, withdraw your manuscript and go elsewhere. The publishing business is like the real estate and used car businesses - there are a lot of crooks amongst the legit ones. Do some research in Writer's Market (a book) and the websites of Predators and Editors (http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/peala.htm) and Absolute Write water cooler (http://absolutewrite.com) background checks.



Essentially there are two types of publishers: traditional and vanity (self). The former publish the books you can buy on book store shelves. They market your book and take about 85-90% of the shelf-price of each book sold. They should sell copies if all goes well, so you will get some money in your pocket as well as recognition as a poet.



Vanity publishers (there are lots but Lulu and Publish America are well known ones) will publish any gibberish you send them after YOU PAY THEM for each book they print. These books will never sit on book store shelves - you will be doing all the selling to your friends and relations.



Likewise, literary agents come in two flavors: traditional and crooks. You want the former. Try to interest a good agent who handles poetry in your manuscript (ms). After publication, he/she will take 10-15% of the 10-15% you get of the shelf price.



So why get an agent at all? Most publishers will not even look at your ms unless an agent sends it to them on your behalf. They get 1000s of submissions from wannabe poets and writers and they just can't deal with the work of reading them. They use agents as a filter. Having said that, some small publishers still take ms directly from writers.



Agents also get 1000s of ms. Yours has to be the very best it can be before you send to an agent. You comment about a "rough" copy is concerning. Rough must not enter the equation. It needs to be an inch away from publication quality. It must also be presented in the way the agent asks for it - look up their submission guidelines and follow exactly. Print on high quality paper. Write a brief and wonderful cover letter to a person in the company (not a Dear Sir/Madam) explaining in a para what the ms is about. In another para explain what you are about. Thank them for reading it.



Hope this helps.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Maybe an agent will help? He/she will deal with rejection letters/propositions/etc. and they help immensely when trying to get published. They have a huge influence on the publishing business.



Have you all the right format for a manuscript, though? Most publication companies don't even glance at manuscripts set in the wrong format.



Agent + Right Format + Good Material + Easily marketable = A good book/manuscript.



EDIT:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_publishers

That's a list of English Publishers all around the world, I believe.



I have no idea on how to find a literary agent, let alone hire one, to answer your question. Sorry about that. I am not totally "in tune" with the publishing business these days. I assume you just find your local agency, which would probably be in the capital of your state or a large city close to you and just ask about getting your book published.

Answer 4

Well following the 2 ppl above I would say that you need to try out your poems within a setting like a reading or workshop b/c YOU have determined that your writing is good enough, no one else. Often at readings poets offer their work in chapbook form buy-able or free, a lot of times self-published. You could also try at the local college English Dept. and see if some poetry professor there will assess your work and its marketability. I was fortunate b/c my work was good, but I saw my professor be brutal to some. And like the guy before get a copy of Writer's Market or check out some copies of writing magazines/journals b/c most poets get published by small presses. You have to be phenomenal or phenomenally well known to get a major publishing house at the beginning.

Answer 5

I hope this is helpful.



Do you know of any similar complitation books available? If you do, check those publishers and look them up online. Then read their submission guidelines and send it in! They're usually found under FAQ or Manuscripts e.t.c, so just make sure that your line spacing is the same as what they ask for and all that. They're very picky.



Or, just look up the sites of famous publishers in your country (Such as http://www.harpercollins.com if you live in America, lol) And make sure they accept poetry in their submission page. You have to be careful with poetry, as a lof of publishers do not accept it. That is why I suggest you look for books similar to your own and contact the publishers they used. (Website, or phonebook).



A literary agent might be useful, but from what I know they get a cut of the money you make e.t.c, so I reccomend that you try and get it out on your own first. But, literary agents can make the whole process a lot easier, and know of far more publishers than you may be able to find. So maybe try and find a literary agent too.



GOOD LUCK!

Answer 6

Enjoy!

I hope this list helps you connect.



Poetry Publishers Who Accept Email Submissions:





12th Planet

Poetry Editor

[e-mail]

http://home.att.net/~baronr/guidelines.htm



4*9*1 Neo-Naive Imagination

Donald Ryburn

[e-mail]

http://491.20m.com



Able Muse

Alex Pepple

[e-mail]

http://www.ablemuse.com



Afternoon Magazine

William Timberman

[e-mail]

http://motley-focus.com/~timber/afternoonintro.html



American Haibun & Haiga

Jim Kacian

[e-mail]



Ancient Paths

Skylar Burris

[e-mail]

http://ancientpaths.LiteratureClassics.com



Beginnings

Jenine Boisits

[e-mail]6

http://www.scbeginnings.zl6



Big City Lit

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.nycBigCityLit.com



Black Bear Review

Ave Jeanne

[e-mail]

http://home.earthlink.net/~bbreview



Black Widow & The Brown Recluse

Tony Gallucci

[e-mail]

http://Listen.to/TheBlackWidow



Blast

Martha Ross

[e-mail]

http://[e-mail]



Blue Collar

Albert Markowitz

[e-mail]



Blue Monk

Ashley Morris, Joseph Kees, and Briain Kees

[e-mail]

http://www.bluemonkpress.com



Blue Moon Review

Alan Michael Parker, Poetry Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.TheBlueMoon.com/



Bluesap

M. Carreon

[e-mail]

http://www.bluesap.com



Canadian Woman Studies

Luciana Ricciutelli

[e-mail]

http://www.cmpa.ca/f3.html



Children, Churches, and Daddies

Janet Kuypers

[e-mail]

http://scars.tv



Comrades

Claudine Moreau

[e-mail]

http://www.comrade.org.uk



Concrete Wolf

Brent Allard and Lana Ayers

[e-mail]

http://concretewolf.com



Coyote Magazine

Radames Ortiz

[e-mail]

http://www.radamesortiz.homestead.com



Dalhousie Review

Ronald Huebert

[e-mail]

http://www.dal.ca/~dalrev/



Deep Cleveland Junkmail Oracle

Mark Kuhar

[e-mail]

http://www.deepcleveland.com



Deviant Lit Added in 2002

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.deviantlit.com



DMQ Review

C. J. Sage

[e-mail]

http://www.disquietingmuses.com



Dream Network Journal

Helen Roberta Ossana

[e-mail]

http://DreamNetwork.net



Dreams and Nightmares

David Kopaska-Merkel

[e-mail]

http://home.earthlink.net/~dragontea/dnguidl.html



Drexel Online Journal

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.drexel.edu/doj/



Drunken Boat

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.drunkenboat.com



Dwan

Donny Smith

[e-mail]

http://www.geocities.com/dwanzine



Dynamic Patterns

Poetry Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.dynamicpatterns.com/submit/submit.html



Edge City Review

T. L. Ponick

[e-mail]

http://www.edge-city.com/



Edifice

James O'Malley

[e-mail]

http://www.edificemag.com/



Electric Acorn

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.dublinwriters.org/welcome.html



Ethereal Green Poetry

Sarah

[e-mail]

http://www.angelfire.com/yt/etherealgreenpoetry/index.html



Experimental Forest

Jeanette Trout and Kevyn Knox

[e-mail]

http://maxpages.com/xxforest



Flash!Point

Frances LeMoine

[e-mail]



Florida Villager

Jose V. Torres

[e-mail]

http://thefloridavillager.homestead.com/villager1.html



Frank

David Applefield

[e-mail]

http://www.readFrank.com



Free Verse Poetry Journal

Alisha E. Duckworth

[e-mail]

http://freeverse.webhop.net



Frogpond: Quarterly Haiku Journal

Jim Kacian

[e-mail]

http://home1.pacific.net.sg/~loudon/frog.htm



Garden Dreams Added in 2002

Katelyn Thomas

[e-mail]

http://garden_dreams.tripod.com



Gay & Lesbian Review

Richard Schneider, Jr., Editor-in-Chief

[e-mail]

http://www.GLReview.com



Gestalten

Paul Silvia

[e-mail]

http://www.brokenboulder.com



Glass Tesseract

Michael Chester

[e-mail]

http://www.glasstesseract.com



Global Vedanta

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.vedanta-seattle.org



Gotta Write Online

Denise Fleischer

[e-mail]



Headlight Journal

M. K. Kelly, Poetry Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.headlightjournal.com



Hornacle

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.thehornacle.org



Hunger Magazine

J. J. Blickstein

[e-mail]

http://www.hungermagazine.com



Ibbetson Street Press

Douglas Holder

[e-mail]

http://homepage.mac.com/rconte



Impetus

Cheryl Townsend

[e-mail]

http://gallery.passion4art.com/warm/impetusmagazine



Interbang

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.interbang.net



Interface Magazine

Earl Weeks

[e-mail]

http://WWW.baworks.com/interface



Jasper Sufficient Publications

Amy M. Bartlett

[e-mail]

http://www.jasperpub.com



JMW Publishing Company

Editor

[e-mail]

http://WWW.JMWPUBLISHING.COM



Journal of Contemporary Anglo-Scandanavian Poetry

Sam Smith

[e-mail]

http://members.aol.com/smithsssj



Journal of New Jersey Poets

Sander Zulauf

[e-mail]

http://www.garden.net/users/swaa/JrnlNJPoets.html



Karawane Magazine

Submissions page at http://www.karawane.org



http://www.karawane.org

Koja

Mikhail Magazinnik

[e-mail]

http://kojapress.com



Kotapress Online Poetry Journal

Kara L.C. Jones

[e-mail]



Kudzu

Poetry Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.etext.org/Zines/Kudzu/



Kuumba

Reginald Harris

[e-mail]

http://kuumba.net



Left Curve

Csaba Polony

[e-mail]

http://www.leftcurve.com



Literally Horses

Laurie Cerny

[e-mail]

http://www.literallyhorses.com



Literary Potpourri Added in 2002

Beverly Jackson

[e-mail]

http://www.literarypotpourri.com/Standards/online.html



Lucid Moon

Ralph Haselmann Jr.

[e-mail]

http://www.lucidmoonpoetry.com



Lummox Journal

R. D. Armstrong

[e-mail]

http://home.earthlink.net/~lumoxraindog



Lungfull

Brendan Lorber

[e-mail]

http://users.rcn.com/lungfull



Madigan Pages Added in 2002

Holly Tierney

[e-mail]



Margin: Exploring Modern Magical Realism

Tamara Sellman

[e-mail]

http://www.magical-realism.com



Messages from the Heart

Lauren Smith

[e-mail]



Mnemosyne Added in 2002

Bindu Suresh

[e-mail]



Moria: A Poetry Journal Added in 2002

Bill Allegrezza

[e-mail]

http://www.moriapoetry.com/



Mr. Cogito

Robert Davies

[e-mail]

http://mrcogito.freeservers.com



Mudlark

William Slaughter

[e-mail]

http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/



My Kitchen Table

Lesa Medley

[e-mail]

http://www.sweetpeapress.net



Mystic River Review

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.acarts.org/mystic



Nidus

Editors

[e-mail]



Nightfire

Editor

[e-mail]



On the Page

Poetry Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.onthepage.org.



Open Minds Quarterly Added in 2002

Barb Wilson

[e-mail]

http://www.nisa.on.ca



Opossum Holler Tarot

Editor

[e-mail]



Oyster Boy Review

Jeffery Beam, Poetry Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.oysterboyreview.com



Painted Poetry Added in 2002

C. E. Laine

[e-mail]

http://celaine.com



Paradoxism

Dr. Florentin Smarandache

[e-mail]

http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/lit.htm



Peer Amid Literary Magazine Added in 2002

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.geocities.com/peer_amid



Perimeter Added in 2002

Jared Millar

[e-mail]

http://perimeter.home.att.net/10frame.html



Poetic Dreamer

T.D.

[e-mail]

http://www.poeticdreamer.com



Poetically Speaking

Latorial Faison

[e-mail]

http://www.poeticallyspeaking.net



Poetry Depth

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/PoetsGuild



Poetry Haven

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Square/5222/submit.html



Poetry Midwest

Matthew W. Schmeer

[e-mail]

http://homepage.mac.com/poetrymidwest/



PoetryPoem.com Added in 2002

Editor

http://poetrypoem.com/free.htm)



Pogonip the eZine

Matthew Ian

[e-mail]

http://Pogonip.the-eZine.net



Procreation

Editor

[e-mail]



Pulsar

David Pike

[e-mail]

http://www.btinternet.com/~pulsarpoetry



Queen's Quarterly

Editor

[e-mail]

http://info.queensu.ca/quarterly



Raven Chronicles

Phoebe Bosche

[e-mail]

http://www.speakeasy.org/ravenchronicles



Red Booth

W.T. Pfefferle

[e-mail]

http://wtp62.com/rbr.htm



Red Wheelbarrow Added in 2002

Randolph Splitter

[e-mail]



Remark: A Zine of Fine Poetry Added in 2002

Justin Barrett

[e-mail]

http://www.geocities.com/remark_poetry



Roguescholars

Editors

[e-mail]

http://www.roguescholars.com



Rose and Thorn Literary E-Zine

A.L. deJager

[e-mail]

http://members.aol.com/Raven763/Submissions.html



Royal Vagrant Review

Mark Brimm

[e-mail]

http://www.royalvagrantpress.com



Scrivener Creative Review Added in 2002

Liz MacInnis

[e-mail]



Seeker Magazine

Cherie Staples

[e-mail]

http://www.seekermagazine.com



sendecki.com

Daniel Sendecki

[e-mail]

http://www.sendecki.com



Slope

Ethan Paquin

[e-mail]

http://www.slope.org/



Sneerzine

Shane

[e-mail]

http://www.sneerzine.com/



sniffy linings

Editor

http://www.sniffylinings.com



Sol Magazine

Mary Margaret Carlisle

[e-mail]

http://www.sol-magazine.com



Speaking Leaves Added in 2002

A. S. Convy

[e-mail]

http://www.speakingleaves.org



Spectrum Added in 2002

C. Alex Benowitz-Fredericks

[e-mail]



Stickman Review

Editors

[e-mail]

http://www.stickmanreview.com



Storm Warning: Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.oz.net/~vvawai



Sunny Outside

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.sunnyoutside.com/info.htm



Taproot Literary Review

Poetry Editor

[e-mail]



Temple

Charles Potts

[e-mail]

http://www.tsunami-inc.net



The Acorn

Kirk Colvin

[e-mail]



Thermopylae

Gloria Brame

[e-mail]

http://gloria-brame.com/glory/ezinequo.htm



Tundra

Michael Dylan Welch

[e-mail]

http://www.family-net.net/~brooksbooks/haikumag.html



Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Activism, Research & Education

Michael Novick

[e-mail]

http://www.antiracist.org/issues.html



Two Lines

Olivia Sears

[e-mail]

http://www.twolines.com/Main/submitting.html



U. S. Latin Review Added in 2002

Andres Castro

[e-mail]

http://www.uslatinoreview.org/



Uno Mas Magazine

Ron Saah

[e-mail]

http://www.unomas.com/umabout.html



Webdreamer

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.webdreamer.com/



Women's Center IRIS Journal

Aimee Armentrout

[e-mail]

http://www.womenscenter.virginia.edu



Words on a Wire Added in 2002

Richard Harris

http://woaw-poetry.org



WritersHood.com Added in 2002

Editor

[e-mail]

http://www.writershood.com/



Writes of Passage Magazine Added in 2002

Wendy Mass

[e-mail]

http://www.writes.org



Zuzu's Petals Annual

T. Dunn

[e-mail]

http://www.zuzu.com/w-guid.htm



and if you like you're welcome to join my yahoogroups.com Poetry & Writing list and share some'a your work there...



Hi, I'm Jim Nasium and I wonder if you are looking for a Poetry and /or Writing List to share your work on and to read poetry and short stories on? If so I have a yahoogroups.com Poetry and Writing Group I think you'd be interested in. I'd like to ask you to consider joining my list An All New Poetry Thread. I'm sure you'll find that AANPT is loaded with friendly talented people who love to share their work, comment on work submitted, and interact with others of a like mind.



Something tells me you'll fit right in.



==> To join An All New Poetry Thread just send a blank e-mail to this e-mail address and I will approve ya right away:

[e-mail]



Or you can go to The Groups Home Page:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnAllNewPoetryThread



Stop bymy web site sometime to check out my surreal digital art & my ownwriting....

Jim Nasium

http://www.gymart.com

Answer 7

Melissa, let me tell it to you like it is. This isn't going to be what you want to hear, but sit down and read because this is going to take a while. I know what I am talking about. I talk with a Senior Editor at a top two publishing house every single day. I know the business inside and out.



There is very little poetry being published today. Major publishers are not publishing it at all, and therefore agents aren't reading it. There is no sense since they cannot sell it. You don't hire agents anyway. You query them and if they are interested, they contract with you top represent you. You cannot just hire one.



You may have a shot with small literary presses. I know one woman who got a small literary press to publish her poetry book about a year ago. It has sold 11 copies and ten of them were to her. That is about average.



Do you live near a large bookstore? Prove it to yourself. Go in and look for the poetry section. After you dust off the cobwebs, count the number of books there. Not very many. Now, walk over and count the number of books under New Fiction. Probably about 100 times more titles.



I am glad you are positive about your work, but poetry is not a huge seller. Bookstores have to pay rent, and shelf space means money to them. It costs them money. So therefore, they have to stock books that sell big enough to pay their rent and earn them a profit. And poetry books do not do that. Thrillers do. Young Adult books do. Romance novels do.



That is first of all. Secondly, you never never never have your work copyrighted first. That tells a publisher or agent you don't trust them and you are afraid they will steal your work. It stamps the word "AMATEUR" on your forehead and insults publishers. If you had taken the time to do your homework and research publishing first, you would know that a standard author's contract includes a clause that provides for the publisher to obtain the copyright in your name for you. THAT is professional.



Secondly, you never never never send a manuscript to anyone unless they request it. Again, amateur and guarantees your book becomes paper shredder fodder. You send a query letter and summary in accordance with the particular publisher you are interested in's submission guidelines. Again, if you read and researched you would know that. Major publishers like HarperCollins and Random House and the rest deal ONLY with agents. Anything an author sends unsolicited gets slush roomed and thrown away.



It is your job to do your homework and learn how to advocate for yourself. Get a copy of Writers Market 2008 and start reading and learning how publishing works. It is much more than writing poems. You say you had it edited. Was it professionally edited? If so, you were ripped off in that an editor should be able to offer you this kinds of information. I do it for all my clients. I work as an author as well as a ghostwriter, unabridged editor and book doctor.



You say you know your work is marketable. On what do you base that? Have you written a book proposal describing for the publisher your markets and done comparative analysis to other similar books? I write them all the time for clients. THAT is how you know if your book is marketable. You say to the publisher - "My book is like XXXXX book, and that book sold XXX copies last year and spent XX weeks on the best seller list. Can you provide a publisher with that information? If you would like I can provide you with names of books where you can read successful book proposals and how to write one. I am doing one now and I have spent the past week on it doing research. It is tough work. And this is for a client who has already sold this book to a top 2 publisher in America.



You sound very young. You also sound like you are going to get hurt really badly when the rejection letters start rolling in. And yes, they do. Gone With The Wind was rejected fifty times. Stephen King got so aggravated with rejection letters for Carrie, he threw it out and his wife dug it out of the trash. I think James Patterson got 70 something rejections. So while you "know" your book is "marketable", you are young, naive and inexperienced and destined to be hurt. Rejection letters can be terribly rude and discouraging. You need a hide tougher than a herd of elephants. I still have my first rejection letter - hanging on my bathroom wall. It was from Scholastic. Now, I write books for a publisher who makes Scholastic look like Toys R Us. One of the top 2 in the world. I laugh every time I take a shower and read it.



So my best advice to you is to stop and step back for a minute. Take a deep breath. Then dive into researching how the world of publishing works. You have lots and lots to learn. Believe me, I am not saying this to hurt you. Quite the contrary. I am saying it because it needs to be said. There are just so many like you out there who need to hear it. Pax-C



A note of clarification. An agent MAY charge you for copying of your manuscript, long distance phone calls, mailing charges, overnight charges etc. They may NOT however charge you a "reading fee".