How can I get my poetry published and how can I sail them?

Question: How can I get my poetry published and how can I sail them!?

I think they might be good poems!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Good for you! Don't "think" they might be good!.!.!.!.KNOW they're good! And don't let the other answerer's tell you what you can and CANNOT do!.

Take a look:

http://www!.google!.com/search!?hl=en&q=sel!.!.!.

Pick what you want!.!.!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I'm not going to address the publishing portion of your question because I feel it's been sufficiently covered!.

However, sailing one's poetry is an interesting concept, and I've never really thought about it before!.

I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to make origami boats out your individual poems and float them away on a stream or something!. You could unleash an entire fleet!

You could also have your poems printed on some traditional sails and raise them on your boat!. Or have your boat painted with your poems all over the decks, even the undersides and maybe some fish would enjoy them!.

Metaphorically, I suppose you could "sail" your poems to deeper understanding of yourself, but that's kind of lame, isn't it!?

I'd start off with the fleet of origami ships!. With any luck they will survive a voyage downstream to a poetry lover or fellow poet who may return his own poems in the form or paper airplanes!. Maybe if there was particularly strong wind he'd be able to sail some of his own work upstream to you!. What's better than a poetry sail-pal!?

Best of luck to you on your poetry sailing!. May your compass be true, the winds be favorable, and your poems buoyant!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

if you go to www!.poetry!.com they will have a link that will let you publish your own book!. the link is towards the top of the page right beside the link for "reference"!. hope that this helps you!. however putting your poem on the site to see if you can get it published is ludacris, like the previous person said every poem that is submitted gets published in ''immortal verses'' and then they charge you an arm and a leg to get the book!. i would just use them to get the link to publish your own bookWww@QuestionHome@Com

I'M GOING TO BREAK ALL THE RULES WITH THIS ANSWER BECAUSE I FEEL IT'S THAT IMPORTANT!.
LISTEN TO PERSI!!

SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT AND SHE STEERED ME CLEAR!.

Poetry!.com is for alcoholic, wanna-be poets who hunger for their own debauchery so they invite wanna-be conventioneers by titillating their egos and charging them "what stays in Las Vegas" prices!. I like to add a little ditty at the end of an answer sometimes for emphasis!. Poetry!.com got my poem and sent me an error-filled copy of my poem with an offer to have my poem and my title "copywrited" if I edited the poem and returned it with a fee!.

I did not respond and I kept getting better offers including my poem in a book, some kind of exclusive membership, a trip to a poets convention, and finally, an error-filled copy of my poem was sent to me on a beautiful wood plaque!. All I had to do was correct the errors and send in the money and I could have one just like that without the errors!.
Like my grandmother said, You never get nothin' for nothin'!.

Before you send any money to anyone, GOOGLE them, GOOGLE them, GOOGLE them!. You might enjoy being with this type of fun-loving Las Vegas spender but have a limit and know what you're getting into!. I think some of these conventioneers go thinking of forming relations with others who have things in common!. Enjoy but don't get hooked!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Check out chapteread!.com - it's a writing site and they explain everything - there is a link called the "publishing process" and it's at the top of the site -- can't miss it!.

if you want some feedback on your poems you can also try the site i mentioned!.

they have some pretty cool features to check out!. Private writing area, can save advice people give you, fans and friends list!.!.!. there are a bunch!. Good Luck!Www@QuestionHome@Com

well poetry can sell if you have a just course for a group of people, why not try it as an anthology, self publish your first book and see how it fill, hugWww@QuestionHome@Com

Choose The Vet!. Choose The Vet!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I hate to be the one to say this to you, but will find it is next to impossible to publish poetry!. The odds of someone making a living as a poet are astronomical - worse than astronomical!. Poetry is Just not a big seller anymore!. And friends aren't necessarily the best judges of what should and shouldn't be published!.

The answers you have been given are correct in theory but not in reality!. There isn't an agent anymore who represents poets and only very small academic presses that publish it!.

Prove it to yourself!. Go to the biggest bookstore you know and ask to see the poetry section!. After you dust the books off, count them!. There won't be many and most of them will be from established and old poets!.

Now go to the New Fiction section and see how many books are there!. About 50 times as many as poetry!. Because they SELL!.

Stores cost money to rent!. A bookstore has to ration its selling space accordingly to what they can sell to meet their overhead!. They simply cannot devote a lot of square footage to books they aren't going to sell rapidly!.

A high body count Dean Koontz thriller sells!. Poetry doesn't!.

As for selling poems to magazines, let me explain it this way!. Recently the Poet Laureate of the United States sold a five line poem to a magazine!. He got a check for 25 dollars - 5 dollars per line!. If that is all the Poet Laureate can get, how much do you think you could get!? The answer is probably nothing!. They would be published free!. The best you could probably do would be a free copy of the magazine with your poem in it!. Not much, is it!?

If you want to self publish, you need to understand Uncle Jim's Law "The money should flow TOWARD the author, not away from him!." In the case of Lulu and other self publishers, the money flows AWAY from the author and at a rather large clip!. It will cost and cost and cost you!. You will pay and pay and still your books will not be for sale on shelves in any bookstore in America!. Unless you pay for an ISBN number, they won't even be for sale on Amazon!. And now, Amazon says they are removing all BUY buttons from books that aren't self published by their subsidiary BookSource!. They will only carry your book for sale if you pay them 29!.99 annual fee, plus 55 % of your cover price, plus you have to purchase the books yourself from your own self publisher and mail them at your expense to Amazon so they will stock them!. That will put most self published books in the red REAL fast!. Especially if the average sales for a self published book is 100 copies - or roughly 2/3 of your family and friends!. You will lose money big time!.

And the question is, without paying for publicity and promotion, how is anybody going to know the book is out there to buy it!? Nobody actually surfs Amazon looking for interesting books!. You can't!. There are millions there!.

I know that is not the answer you want to hear, but that is the cold, hard truth!. Poetry is not a big seller!. No major publishers are reading poetry so no agents are interested!. They won't bother with something they can't sell!. Sorry, but true, and a visit to your local bookstore will prove it to you!. Pax-C

Just to prove it to you - Random House - the largest publisher in America currently has ZERO poetry books in their line!. Harper Collins - the #2 publisher has 368!. About 85% of those poets are deceased and about 10% are celebrities!. Not much chance for a new poet to get published by them!.

NO Do NOT go to Poetry!.com!. It is the biggest scam in the publishing world!. EVERY poem is selected a semi finalist and placed in a book called Immortal Verses - as long as you pay the 49!.95 for a copy!. After that you will be told you are a finalist and invited to attend their convention at YOUR expense!. There you will sit around and listen to a lot of really bad poetry and at a cheesy chicken dinner banquet, you will be presented with a 2 dollar trophy making you one of the Poets of the Year!. Do NOT give them a penny! Check with the Writers Beware sites before you send anything to anyone!. Absolute Write Water Cooler's Bewares and Background Checks is one!. Preditors and Editors is another!. Both clearly state that Poetry!.com is NOT RECOMMENDED!. The reason you sometimes see posts like the one below is they send people called "sock puppets" to post at sites like this - saying how great the service is and luring young authors into the scam!. DO NOT listen to them!. It is a known scam!.

Pax-CWww@QuestionHome@Com