Poetry Publishing Guidelines

Video Transcript

"Poetry publishing guidelines come in basically two types. One is, what is each particular publisher in a book or magazine looking for and the other is, what is the manuscript supposed to look like. And in fact, the second one is way more important because no matter what you're writing. There may someone who is interested in it. But if you've written in crayons on old paper bags, no one's going to take the trouble to decipher your handwriting. So the first thing to do is, type it up. If you have a typewriter, that's fine, most people use computers nowadays. You don't have to double space, because poetry, we can let that slide. Although many places prefer double space so they can make comments in between the lines, if they are asking you for visions. Some places will ask for visions, some won't. Make sure you have your name and contact information on each page. Make sure that all the pages of a poem are numbered and they have a running head, look first at the top. Because manuscripts fall down, paper clips fall off. And you don't want to staple it because then it gets too hard for them to make copies and show it all the other editors. You want to make it look right. Once you've got that, you can find the guidelines for particular publishers at Duotrope.com. They will set, give you links that will take you to what each publisher wants. In general, look at a copy of the magazine, look at something of what the magazine publishes. And try to get as close to that as you can. Not the exact same poetry but what are they looking for. Some places want poems that are fairly simple and that rhyme and have a regular meter. Other places don't want rhyme or meter at all, they'll take is free verse. There are journals out there that will publish nothing but Haiku or Tonka. It's short or Japanese forms, if you're not familiar with them. There are places that are only interested in sonnets. There's one magazine that I know of, that's only interested in Narrative Poems. But while that means you have to avoid all of those, if that isn't what you write. It also means that if you'll look hard enough, you will probably find place that is interested in what you do write. And then it's just a question of being good enough."