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The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

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reverie

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Wyvern strikes a toothy grin and rubs his claws together as he slithers through the Cabaret crowds. The reptilian Elder swerves past Mira, Appy, and Ayshela, then squeezes his way through Peredhil (holding the Portrait of Zool) and Mynx in order to give reverie a claws up. He hops forward and extends a scaly arm around the newly-published poet's shoulder, flashing a signature sleazy salesman grin.

 

"Reverie m'boy, I alwaysss knew you would make it. Which is why I prepared thisss non-negotiable contract well in advance." Wyvern hands the Dreamlost a blank sheet of paper from the Devil's Advocate folder and nudges him several times. "Just fill out thisss sheet with your signatures, and we'll be on the road to graphic novel spin-offs and obssscure film adaptations in no time. Oh, and be sssure to fill out the whole sheet with those sssignatures... I plan to cut'em out and sell'em on the black market once your name really gets huge."

 

OOC: Congrats, rev. ;-)

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An Almost Contract? Nooooo!!!!

 

heh. :)

 

Thanks guys. As far a getting it out there. I just sent it in to them following their submission criteria. They've turned me down twice before. So either i'm making progress, or not as many people submitted this time ;) Plus I had a lot of help. The two poems that made it in are "Turning Twenty-Eight" and "Pegs." Both of which benefited greatly from the input received from other poets I know in RL, and a few here at the pen. *Winks at Tzim*

 

 

Um, but I've not exactly "arrived" sort of speak. I'm still a struggling Uni. student that's piling up the loan debt. And as far a my own skill, I've a long, long, loooooooong way to go. But if you really want to know how to get your stuff out there, then I recommend you do some good old fashioned research. I've currently doing an internship at a non-profit Writer's Network, and they're making me do this kind of research in order to answer their FAQ.

 

One place that I've looked is the "Writer's Market 2006" and "Poet's Market 2004" Books. Another one that my school has recommended to me (still haven't looked at it yet) is poet's and writer's INC. http://www.pw.org/

 

Actually I have two of the questions I worked on handy:

 

How do I publish my work in literary magazines?

 

Literary magazines often publish for a specific genre of literature or subject that may interests their core set of readers. It is important to become familiar with any magazine that you may want to submit material too. Your science-fiction short story might not pan well if you send it to a publication that specializes in folk narratives of the Antebellum south. Magazines usually have their own set of guidelines for submissions. These are typically listed in first pages of publication itself. If no guidelines are listed, then you can send a query letter to the editor. This letter should be straight forward intending to show the editor why your piece fits with them. Do not discuss payment, offer rewrites, ask advice, or include any attention-getting devises such as photographs, elaborate stationary, or name dropping.

 

 

What is self publishing? What are its benefits and pitfalls?

 

An arrangement where the author keeps all income derived from his or her work, but pays for its manufacturing, production, and marketing. The major advantage of self publishing is that an author can avoid paying the cost of corporate overhead and retailer fees. However, start up costs for the first printing can run into the ten-thousands of dollars. Also finding a medium in which to sale the works outside of the corporate distribution chains can be daunting. Self publishers often rely on sales at speaking engagements, websites, phone or direct mail, and other personalized niches that they have found to remain profitable. Another draw back is that the books that they do sale are often not considered as “published” by the traditional publishing houses, so even if your individual books sales reach into the millions, you still might never receive recognition from the traditional “best sellers” list. Still, with reprints and bulk orders being much more affordable after the initial order, sales of successive prints can be highly profitable for the self publishing author.

 

 

thanks again,

 

Hope some of that helps.

Edited by reverie
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MORE GOOD NEWS!!! :sorcerer:

 

Dear Poet~

 

Congratulations! You've been admitted to ENGL407- Advanced Poetry

Writing for Spring 2007, which will be taught by Professor Shapiro on TR

12:30-1:45. The competition was keen and it should be a very strong

workshop.

 

I had to submit a portfolio of 10 (TEN!!!) poems in order to get in to this class. Thanks for all the help from the pennites that PM'd me and posted suggestions for me in the workshop. Now if I can just get my grade point average up (possible, but very hard to do when you are a Junior) then I might be able to qualify for the year long Senior Honor's Thesis. It's good to have goals.

 

Sweet. In your face private-prep-school-kids with somewhat-externally-stable-family-situations. I'm catching up!

 

:D

 

rev...

Edited by reverie
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Inspiration, yes. Preparation affording wider opportunity to act on that inspiration, no. Life is give and take.

 

 

Interestingly enough, I finally got the official nod from Cellar Door:

 

Congratulations! Your poems "Pegs" and "Turning Twenty-Eight" have been selected for the Fall 2006 issue of the Cellar Door.

 

 

This semester we chose 15 poems from 150 submitted-- a competitive pool indeed. Information about your standing in the Fall Issue poetry contest should be coming to you within the next week.

 

Hmm, a contest. That could be interesting. Heh, anyway, I should probably print these out and create a "I love me" poetry scrapbook or something. The Army taught me to do that for important paperwork. It makes filling out job/college applications and security checks soooooo much easier.

Edited by reverie
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