If you're looking at an ezine or journal, what tempts you to submit? The layout? The poems? The name recognition (poets or editors)? The submission requirements? The theme or preferences of the journal? The name of the journal? Word of mouth? Bribes in small denominations of unmarked bills?
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 replies:
Looks first, then quality of poetry and poets. An unattractive layout will turn me away before I even look to see whether the poetry is good and the poets are ones I recognize.
Then I look to see whether the poetry is the kind I write.
I much prefer journals that take e-mail or online form submissions (in my limited experience so far, they respond faster).
I like submitting to journals that promise to respond quickly, in a month or less.
There are lots of journals with all those good features. The Really Big Names are not among them, but it'll be years before I'm at that stage.
Maryann
Similarly, the quality of poetry and poets, and whether that poetry jibes with poetry I want to send. It is a special pleasure to be included in a "prestigious" journal (always good for the CV, etc.), but recently a low budget zine attracted a submission because it was featuring a poet I really liked and I got a special invitation from him to send in on a theme I happened to have a few poems for... it turns out that however cheap and "underground" this publication, I was quite impressed by the quality of most of the poems therein (a rare event for me even with so-called top-flight reviews), and it gave me special satisfaction to know the other contributers at least would be likely to have a look-see at my own poem included in those pages.
I enjoyed your blog, and will include you on my blogroll soon.
Best,
Brian
I want someone to read my work and tell me if they understand it and if they don't I want them to ask me to explain it.
Sometimes I'm almost tempted to be tempted to submit. I try to think of it as a painful gas bubble: This too shall pass.
In order:
1. The poems (if I don't like many of them, I won't submit)
2. The look.
3. Word of Mouth (if someone I like recommends a journal, I tend to check it out)
I tend to submit more to print journals, but that's partly because it's taken me time to find the good web journals. There's so much rubbish out there. Of course, print journals are as bad but tend to stay hidden away in the editors' attics.
If it's a magazine I'm not familiar with, the poetry in it is most important. If I feel an affinity with what they've published, I'm more likely to submit.
I've submitted now and then to magazines because I knew, or had met, the editor/publisher, though that's a minor consideration. In a couple of cases when editors have specifically asked or urged me to submit poems, I've decided not to, just based on the poetry in the magazines.
Now and then I've submitted to magazines because they are well-known or prestigious, kind of a "what the heck" thing, but that's low priority.
I submit poems to journals that I feel would publish my poems! I study what they publish and choose what I hope are appropriate poems. I like to try my luck with the well regarded journals but also like to send poems to little mags that are quirky in design or have a philosophy I like. I like to submit to online journals or print journals. Quick turnaround helps too.
If anyone reading this wants another journal to submit to, I edit Bolts of Silk (http://boltsofsilk.blogspot.com) a poetry blogmag for beautiful poetry with something to say that fits on the computer screen (ie no more than around 40 lines). For more info visit the blog or email me on: jmwATnanoukDOTfsnetDOTcoDOTuk. I get back to people usually within a week or two and publish two or three poems a week.
I look forward to reading some of your poems.
I ran across a submissions page for a journal today, and every single word turned me off. Their whole angle seemed to be "don't bother us, we're busy."
I guess I discovered that I don't end up with a good feeling about journals that are all about the "don't send this" and "don't send that." Rik and I should collaborate on a rhyming vampire poem just to piss them off. :D
Post a Comment