Contemplating - What Poems do I include in my manuscript?

Glenda reading poetry at Poetry Hickory

In 2009, my poetry chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then, was published by Finishing Line Press. The book was released in October and Barry had died from cancer in July. He never saw the finished product. The reading pictured above was one of the few I made when the book came out. In my grief, I had very little interest in setting up readings or appearances. My sister hosted a book party at her home in Roswell, Georgia and her friends bought books. We also had 100 pre-orders from friends and family. 

It is a fact that most poetry books are sold in person-to-person situations. Also, most poetry books are bought by other poets, but I am pleased that many non-poets purchased my book and let me know they enjoyed it. 

One of those non-poets was a French lady in Marietta, GA who used one of my poems on her blog page with lovely pictures that fit with each verse. Another was Nancy Purcell, a fiction writer who said of my book:  You touched my heart over and over again with your words. I've already read the book (Now Might as Well be Then) three times...I'm so glad I own a copy.

                                                       

Steven Harvey, author and essayist, said "I enjoyed reading your chapbook, "Now Might as Well Be Then."  I was interested in it, of course, since you frame it as an exercise in memory, a subject that I am much interested in these days as my class at your "writer's circle" probably made clear. "The Woman in the Mirror" reads like a call to duty for the poet as rememberer.

I do like the narrative impulse behind some of the longer poems such as "Inundated" and "Roosevelt" and "Blue Moon Every Twenty Years" because you allow them to build in a way that conveys the emotions, usually of loss, but in the end the lyrics were moving, too, pieces like "Beneath the Beauty" where your vision of life as a mix of beauty amid ugliness is powerfully presented. You can be proud of this small book!"

Dr. Harvey volunteered his comments after reading my book and I was as excited about his compliments as I would have been if my book had won first place in a contest.

I am contemplating submitting another manuscript of poetry this year. I think I might include some of the poems in "Now Might as Well be Then" because the book was not widely read, and I hope the new book will reach more readers.

If you have my book and have read it, will you let me know which were your favorite poems? "The Woman in the Mirror" seems to appeal to most people, but I would love to have your input as to which poems you think I should include in the new book.

Email me, gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com   or leave a comment on this blog.

Why Writers Need to Blog and Why Blogging Helps Build a Readership

Why Writers Need to Blog

My view as I sit and write blog posts twice a week. 

I am a fan of blogs by writers and I really like those that give helpful hints or lessons they have learned about the writing world.

Blog posts are shareable and they stick around for a long time. FB and Twitter posts slip away quickly and are forgotten. I can easily find a blog post published on my blogs or on the NCWN-West blog in the past seven years. Belinda Pollard's article explains why every writer should have a blog.

Check out the article and tell us what you think? If you have a published book or several, maybe blogging once or twice a week would help you create a readership for your work. If you are beginning to publish in journals and magazines, having a blog as part of your online presence gets an editor's attention.

http://www.smallbluedog.com/the-one-big-reason-authors-need-to-blog.html#comment-46475

Running Toward the New Year

As we approach the new year, 2016, we look back at what happened in the past twelve months.  I think you will enjoy this article  by a fellow blogger, Sharon Bray who is a writer, an educator and a thinker. I relate very much to what she says. Hope you do, too.

Haiku Winner in NCPC contest

I am so proud of my cousin, Pat Daharsh, who has won another First Place for haiku. This time it was the NC Poetry Society, Griffin-Farlow Haiku contest.

GRIFFIN-FARLOW HAIKU AWARD, JUDGED BY MICHAEL DYLAN WELCH

(The poems are identified by their first lines in square brackets.)

1st place: Patricia Daharsh, [“partial eclipse”]
2nd place: Crystal Simone Smith, [“plantation tour”]
3rd place: Chen-ou Liu, [“thinking of mom”]  

The following is the email Pat sent me.
North Carolina Poetry Society has announced winners in their annual Griffin-Farlow Haiku contest. My entry took First Place (publication in Pinesong and a cash prize),

Pat has been writing and winning haiku contests for some years now. Congrats, Pat.

Keep writing and winning.

Sorry I am so late posting this announcement. I thought it had come up back in the spring.

Submit Your Writing and Learn to Market Yourself and Your Work

Yesterday we held a panel discussion at our local library in Hayesville, NC. The subject was publishing and marketing your writing. 

We hear so many people say they have written a book but don't know what to do next. On the panel yesterday we heard from an author who has a regional agent who has been extremely involved in helping him with publishing his four novels. Two were published by a Memphis press, BelleBridge Books.

DEANNA KLINGEL

We heard from an author who travels far and wide to festivals, speaking events and other places where she finds the audience for her young adult books. She knows her audience and has done her research. 

One panelist was the owner of a small press that helps authors self-publish their books. As he said, it isn't as easy as one might think to publish your own book. He helps people with design, typesetting, covers and all the details many new writers would not know.

I spoke about my interview with Scott Douglas and Kevin Watson, owners of two small presses, Main Street Rag and Press 53 and what is expected of the writer once the book is ready to sell.

KEVIN WATSON

Our attendees were enthusiastic and had so many questions we ran out of time before we could complete the program.  Our handouts included some writing resources. I have a few of them below.


New Pages - find publications - http://www.newpages.com/

Writers Market  www.writersmarket.com   

Poets Market  www.poetmarket.com

Duotrope  www.duotrope.com 

Writers Relief   http://client.writersrelief.com/writers-classifieds/anthology-calls-for-submissions.aspx

Narrative Magazine   http://www.narrativemagazine.com/node/360

 Poets and Writers Magazine     www.pw.org/literary_magazines

Main Street Rag Publishing - http://www.mainstreetrag.com/
Press 53 - www.press53.com 

Literary  Journal - The Journal of Kentucky Studies.  https://kentuckystudiesjournal.wordpress.com/submissions/  No fee to submit

http://thewritelife.com/where-to-submit-short-stories/

Marketing:
The Write Life   - http://thewritelife.com/what-it-really-means-to-market-your-writing/


www.booksbydeanna.com  - author Deanna Klingel writes clean books with a moral theme for children. Grandparents love them. She loves writing them.

http://www.oldmp.com/  Old Mountain Press. Author Tom Davis publishes anthologies with poetry and flash fiction or memoir. In a hurry to publish your book? Tom will help you get the book out in a short time. 

Wally Avett - author of four novels based on true events in Appalachia. 

Kristen Lamb's advice for self-published authors

Kristen Lamb gives the best advice to new self-published writers in this post. Read the comments as well.

She gives us five mistakes that kill self-published authors. I agree with every one of them. She is giving her readers my talk at the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference in Blue Ridge, Georgia a couple of years ago.

She is also telling us what two small press publishers have told me this week when I interviewed them.

Here is Kristen's number one mistake:
Mistake #1 Publishing Before We Are Ready

The problem with the ease of self-publishing is that it is, well, too easy. When we are new, frankly, most of us are too dumb to know what we don’t know. Just because we made As in English, does not automatically qualify us to write a work spanning 60,000-100,000 words. I cannot count how many writers I’ve met who refuse to read fiction, refuse to read craft books, and who only go to pitch agents when they attend conferences at the expense of attending the craft sessions.

Read more of the article here.  https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/caveat-venditor-five-mistakes-killing-self-published-authors/#comment-227839

Are You a Rainmaker?

Kristen Lamb tells us what it takes to be a rainmaker.

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/being-the-best-what-it-takes-to-be-a-rainmaker/

I like her remarks about blogging: 

"One of the reasons I recommend blogging and teach authors how to do it in my book Rise of the Machines---Human Authors in a Digital World, is blogging trains us to get out of our comfort zone. Not only are we pushing ourselves mentally, psychically, and professionally, but the sheer word count is grueling.

It is incredible training, especially for the new author.

If we look at some of the most awarded and prolific writers of the last two centuries, many of them were journalists (and blogging is actually a modern form of journalism). A journalist can't wait until the kids are in bed to write about the four-alarm fire. A journalist can't wait for a visit from the muse to detail the bombing in the train station. A journalist can't wait until her family offers emotional validation to take time to write the article due on the editor's desk."

My thoughts on blogging
Some of my favorite writers I know through their blogs. Websites are usually static with the titles of books, where to order them, etc. But a well written blog introduces me to the writer and I feel I know her personally. I will be more likely to buy her books if I like her as a person even if I don't read her genre. I can give it as a gift.

More information on publishing and marketing your writing

If you live near or within driving distance of Hayesville, NC come to our Panel Discussion on Saturday, Dec. 12, 1 - 3 p.m. where three authors will discuss their experiences in publishing and marketing. I will moderate the panel and discuss publishing poetry. This is a free event by NCWN-West a program of the North Carolina Writers' Network. 

My book is published, what do I do now?

Recently I received an email that asked, "How can I promote my book?" 

New writers often think if they write a book, the readers will appear and it will sell like the proverbial hot cake. Once the book is written, edited and published, the author is not done. He must work at promoting his book. If he publishes with a small press instead of a NYC publisher, he will probably find the following to be true.

Publisher of Main Street Rag, Scott Douglas says, "Marketing requires manpower. In the small press arena (where Main Street Rag lives) that generally means the author. We give them the tools, directions, and support. Those who take advantage of these do well. Those who do NOT, tend to sit back and blame the publisher for not believing in the book enough or working hard enough to make it a success. The truth is: it’s a matter of manpower and expectations.

Some authors expect the publisher to do all the work after the book has been written and edited. That may work well if they were working with a high-profile publisher, but most of us (small press publishers) do not fall into that category and if an author wants a book to be a success, he/she needs to be proactive."

Kevin Watson of Press 53 also said that the author has to be willing and able to promote and sell his book.

I asked, " Will the publisher help promote the book or offer guidance to the writer as to how to do that?"

Kevin replied. "One reason we work with authors who are widely published is for this reason. Being a small press, we do not have the time, manpower, or finances to also provide marketing. A widely published author typically has connections for book reviews from the magazines and journals where their work has appeared; they also have experience  setting up readings, leading workshops, and being featured on panels at conferences and literary festivals.

In the small press world, the author must get out and give readings and meet their readers. The promotion we do is making sure the book is available from all the major online booksellers, mail out review copies to reviewers with whom we have an established relationship, provide a book page on our own website for the book and author, and send emails to our list of subscribers. If an author today is with a small press or, in a lot of cases, even a larger press, the majority of the marketing (scheduling events, etc.) is left up to the author."

I learned from Kevin that widely published means having a goodly number of stories, essays or poems published in well-read magazines or publications that are well known. So, new writers get busy and submit your work. If you receive a rejection, don't give up. Send out the same manuscript to another publication the same day. Don't let it hang around. Keep a list of places where your work is likely to fit. Always have a place to submit if your work is turned down. If it receives many rejections, then take it to your critique group or good writers you know who will tell you the truth about your writing. 

That is why I think belonging to a writing community where you receive good and honest feedback is extremely important. That is why I have been a member of NCWN-West for over twenty years. Our groups, prose and poetry, have professional people attending who help me see where I need to make changes.  A well-seasoned group understands those who come regularly and wants to help them improve and be the best possible writers.

If you don't have a writing group, start your own as my friend, Karen Holmes, did. She discovered our NCWN-West group here in the mountains and when she went back to Atlanta, she organized one of her own. You will meet others who have similar interests to yours and make long lasting friendships. 

The important thing is, don't try to publish a book until you have built a name for yourself as a writer. Don't get the cart before the horse. Many self-published writers get in a big hurry, publish a book that is not yet ready and then are stymied when it comes to selling the book. 

The market is flooded with self-published books today and many of the authors probably should have waited until they had taken writing classes and submitted to journals or magazines. In my classes, I tell my students when I think their work is ready to submit. One of my students had her first story published recently in an anthology with 49 other western North Carolina women writers. 

Writing is a craft that must be learned and practiced daily or at least often. If the writer expects to build a community of readers, it is never too early to start.