on poetry and publishing
(my humble cover of my first draft manuscript)
A bit ago, I got a note from Irene Mathieu, a recent grad of The College of William and Mary about publishing her own poetry anthology. I wrote her an email like I meant it (aka it was very long, but i wanted to give her the best advice I could), and thought it would also be a helpful source for other blog readers and aspiring writers. Enjoy!
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Hi Ruby!
You probably don’t remember me, but I met you after Ill-Literacy’s performance at the College of William & Mary. I also bought a copy of Miss Universe, which I have really enjoyed reading. I love when I recognize some of my own experiences in someone else’s words!
Anyway, I just graduated from William & Mary, and although I’m headed for a career in medicine, I have always been a writer, too. I want to look seriously into publishing a short anthology of poetry like Miss Universe in the next year or two, and I was wondering how you went about finding a publisher, etc., and if you have any tips for organization of works on a variety of subjects into a cohesive, publishable anthology.
Thanks so much! Congrats on Miss Universe being sold out, by the way…keep up the creativity and best of luck!
Take care,
Irène
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Hi Irene,
Congratulations on graduation, and also on your path to publishing an anthology. I want to share with you that publishing Miss Universe was a 4 year journey- a lot of the poems that went into a book were poems I’ve had for a long, long time, but were too scared to put out and publish to share with the world. You’ll run into that challenge too, but know that there is a need, and as long as it is written with authenticity, people will respond.
My first advice is to collect your pieces, and keep writing until you think you have enough for a book. As you continue to write pieces, the themes will become clear, and identifying and defining your theme is what will help you choose what poems are necessary and which ones you can leave out. Know that your manuscript will change and transform as you go along- my book was initially going to be called “Equinox”, but obviously, it got changed around as I focused my energy on the project and realized I was shifting and changing along with it. Defining your work will take some time, but be patient. The ideas will come if you decide with yourself that you will be commited.
Which leads me to my next advice- COMMITMENT. I had to sit down with myself and decide that I will commit to this. Doing this will help you focus, it will set your mindset, and it will propel you for the journey of publishing that is to come. Trust me, it was easy to get discouraged, but keeping that commitment to yourself will keep you grounded.
To answer your question on publishing, I actually chose to self publish for my first round, because I was afraid of handing my project (a very personal, very dear project) off to someone to tear apart and put back together. I wanted the work to stand on its own, 100 % my vision, and then see how people respond. That way, when I approach the publisher, I can present them a physical copy of my idea, my own vision for it, and report to them how people have responded. Unfortunately, its been taking some time for me to find a new publisher, but that is only because I have an added challenge of transitioning into a new city. I hope I can contact someone with this soon, and am looking forward to re-publishing!
There are several websites you can use to self publish your work- when I was considering going through a company, I highly considered
AuthorHouse. They are very responsive and very helpful. You can google them and see if they would be a good fit for you. They will take care of the art, the physical image of the book (the cover, the spine, the back, etc.) and also the distribution online. You can also google other self publishing companies, most of which are very affordable. In the end, however, I still wanted total control, and because I was also on deadline to release the book, I decided it would be easier to use a local printing company, DeHart’s (Santa Clara,CA), to publish. That, and I’m lucky enough to have a best friend
(Adriel Luis) who is an amazingly talented graphic designer who helped me layout my work.
Good luck Irene, and I hope this helps!
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*I’d also like to add that I had invaluable support from my idol,
Ishle Yi Park, from this project, who edited my work and offered her insights. This would not have been possible without her. She’s a amazing!
This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 5:33 pm. It is filed under Uncategorized.
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thank you SO much for posting this!! <3