How do I find publishing interest in a poem?

December 21, 2005 4:20 PM

Where do I get a poem published?

A friend of mine--who is a brilliant writer--has written a poem that is... well, words fail me. It's one of the very few poems I have read in a long time that actually meant something to me.

I want to see if it's possible to get it published. Obviously I wouldn't have it done without his permission, but he's the sort of man who is incredibly self-effacing, and wouldn't believe that it would be worth publishing. (He's the sort of person who, if he offers to help you with something, apologizes for doing so, if that clarifies).

So what I'm asking is: are there publishers I can send this to in order to gain a sense of their interest, without a) violating any copyright, b) putting him at any risk of having his copyright ganked by an unscrupulous publisher, c) arousing his interest unless and until interest is shown by a publisher, d) committing him to anything?

And if so, who would these publishers be? Canadian, preferably.

Basically, I'd like to be able to say "Hey, Fred, don't yell at me but I showed $poem to some publishers, and they're frothing at the mouth to publish it..."

(Anonymized because he might see my name)

posted by anonymous to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Publishers? Journals, 'reviews' or other 'little magazines'. There are a good few in Canada, and ones with worldwide renown, such as Poetry. It's sometimes harder to submit individual poems, as opposed to three or four, but submission guidelines vary from publication to publication.

Doing it without your friend knowing? That's trickier.
posted by holgate at 4:34 PM on December 21, 2005

I would say, don't move a muscle until you have Freds backing. I have been on the business end of a situation like this, and believe me, one mans "Well, words fail me" is anothers "Jesus, I was half way through rewriting that."
posted by fire&wings at 4:50 PM on December 21, 2005

Sorry, to round up: it's not your decision.
posted by fire&wings at 4:51 PM on December 21, 2005

Great poets are routinely turned down by all the best publications and editors. Getting a poem published is really difficult, and has as much to do with finding a compatible publication as it does with quality. It's a really discouraging process, particularly if your friend isn't known at all.

How about showing it to a writing teacher or a good poet? You can find writers through the Canadian arts council, or you can just contact people whom you admire. I had a great experience mailing one of my favorite poets, Carolyn Forche. She actually answered my letter!
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 4:58 PM on December 21, 2005

Does it have to be published in print? Getting into print, or getting paid money for a poem, is very hard. But all you need to do to 'publish' something is to make it available for others to read. If all you care about is sharing this wonderful poem with others, and he doesn't care about the immense fame and money that being a poet brings (cough), why not just suggest he publish it with an online magazine, or a blog, an online poetry or fiction site, or even, say... Metafilter.

I wouldn't do anything without your friend's permission though. He has shown a lot of trust in you to share the poem with you. To shop it around without his knowledge would be terrible. Why not say, "Fred, I love this poem so much. May I share it with people?" And then pass it around, according to his wishes.
posted by Rubber Soul at 11:08 PM on December 21, 2005

I agree with everybody who says, "Don't do it without Fred's permission."

If Fred is an aspiring professional writer, then his poems are an important business asset, and it would be wrong of you to take them to market without his permission.

If Fred is not an aspiring professional writer, then these poems are his personal means of expression, and it would be wrong of you to share them with strangers without his permission.

Also, there's no good way of telling a publisher "I have some work that doesn't belong to me that I'd like you to publish, only I can't let you publish it until I get permission from the person who wrote it, because they don't know I'm shopping it around, but I need your promise that you will publish it once I tell him I'm shopping it around and get his retroactive permission to do so." No matter how you put it, it's going to sound like the awkward and unprofessional (if sincerely well-intentioned) activity that it is.

So here's another suggestion. Buy him a copy of Poet's Market with a note saying, "I think your poem is one of the most beautiful I've ever read, and it deserves to be shared with the world. If you don't want to submit it yourself, would you do me the great honor of letting me submit it for you?" If he says yes, you can borrow back Poet's Market and use it to find a home for the poem.

And if he says no, you have to respect that. On the plus side, he'll now have Poet's Market sitting around his house, and maybe it will tempt him to give it a whirl...
posted by yankeefog at 3:09 AM on December 22, 2005

/disclaimer: published poet with one collection under his belt/

Poet's Market is for the weak and lazy and quite frankly you won't learn anything substantial about the journal's actual editorial slant. When Fred is ready to publish his work (his decision, not yours, as was pointed out in earlier posts) he needs to get himself to a good library and sit down with a big pile of journals and figure out where he fits.

Also, sending a single poem as a submission will, for whatever reason, tend to lead to that poem being sent right back to you. Most journals prefer to get 3-6 poems per submission. And make sure the poems are correctly formatted for the mag in question - the guidelines are readily available on most mags' websites.
posted by theinsectsarewaiting at 6:05 AM on December 22, 2005

yeah, even if he is brilliant, getting published is as much a marketing game as an issue of talent. Being "in a community" is a major plus - if you know other poets, people who run journals, folks you meet at writer's retreats, etc, you have a much better chance than if you just blindly send to a bunch of places from a Writer's Market type of list.

But basically, no publisher is going to "froth at the mouth" to publish any poem. Poetry isn't a big money game, and it's very subjective what's good ("your favorite poet sucks"), and there are many, many more people who want to be writers than there is a market for their work. Good stuff gets turned down all the time (although it's just as true that meh stuff gets published all the time - the network thing is important). Every 'how to get published' intro reminds you that some great writer or other was rejected 37 times before someone saw their genius.

Anyway: your options are,
a)convince him to share it online or print it in a local newsletter or on a postcard (my mother was part of a writer's group that published a series of postcard poems that were really quite lovely - have to be short, though) or in a zine (oh, the early '90s...) or some other self-publish route;
b)convince him to send it off to poetry journals - to do this, you should go to the library and become familiar with the styles of different journals, as even a brilliant piece of work will be rejected if it doesn't fit the magazine's feel;
c)leave it up to him but encourage him to take himself seriously as a writer to the extent you think is helpful (i.e., if you sense he does really want to publish but is just unsure of himself, as opposed to sensing that he honestly isn't interested. Try not to project - some people just don't want to publish.)
posted by mdn at 8:48 AM on December 22, 2005

I'd like to be able to say "Hey, Fred, don't yell at me but I showed $poem to some publishers, and they're frothing at the mouth to publish it..."

I can understand this. I would forget about going "halfway" down the route to actual publishing and start focusing on how you can network your way to a friend-of-a-friend who is an editor. What you want is a nod of encouragement from someone in the know, not a publishing contract ready to sign, right? Talk to friends, hit up the NY MeFites, visit your local college, and look for contacts. Find someone who's willing to lend you their time and attention to assess the poem.

It's wholly probably that the poem means more to you because you're his friend. Even if there is nothing personal in it, chances are you two are attuned to many similar sensory experiences: the place you live, the music you like, the seasons in your region, etc. It would be good to get an outside opinion on the work.
posted by scarabic at 12:02 PM on December 22, 2005