If you’ve been following this blog, then you know that
I’ve been trying to get published for quite some time to no avail (not counting
publication in my alma mater’s lit mag).
I finally decided to take matters into my own hands: if no one else will
publish it, then I will. I had actually
talked about starting a lit mag a while back, even discussing it with a friend
from England, but the idea was tabled as we were unsure we could make such a
commitment. I also wasn’t sure how I
would do it. Not long ago Scott Woods
posted a chapbook, free for all to download, using Google Docs. That was when I figured out how I could do
it—design it in word, save it as a PDF, and host on Google Docs, making it available
for everyone to download for free. Free
is how it should be—I’m not looking to make money out of this.
The goal is to attract younger writers and other
inexperienced or budding writers who simply wish to have their name in writing,
rather than veterans just looking for a quick buck or more bragging rights. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get myself
published, so I know how hard it can be, and it is especially rough when you’re
young and trying so hard, not realizing how difficult of a journey it will
be. People don’t seem to understand just
how difficult getting published is, especially without an agent (getting one of
those is just as difficult). I’m not
saying I intend to publish everyone who submits—unfortunately there has to be a
line drawn somewhere (and it has to be good)—but I definitely intend to publish
as many good, young writers who have had countless rejections as possible. In fact, I am actually asking everyone who
submits to include the approximate amount of rejections they receive. Rejections are a badge of honour—every writer
will tell you that. If you can push
through 100 or more rejections until can get published, then you can do
anything. That’s a lot of very
impersonal rejections. A lot of “this
just isn’t the right fit for us” (that’s literally what they say, and that’s
all they say). They don’t get into any
specifics and they generally won’t flat out tell you it’s a terrible
piece. Instead they give you the most
broad, general statement possible, which just stings. The worst ones are the ones where you’ve sent
an excerpt of a novel and they respond with “Sorry, but it just didn’t pull me
in like I thought/hoped”. That
hurts. They all hurt. But keep onto that—use it to motivate
you. If you can keep pushing through all
those rejections until you finally break through, then you can do anything. The literature game is a hard one to break
into, especially poetry. But if it’s
what you want to do, then keep trying. I’m
here to make it easier on you.
Not long after I got the blog, Twitter, and Facebook page
up and running, I received my first submission from a girl in college in
Indiana. I was able to get Kate Nash
(yes, that Kate Nash) to retweet the lit mag and that brought in a few
followers; that is how this young lady found us. She sent three poems. They were good poems. I was surprised by the fact that she said she
hadn’t been writing for very long, having only really just discovered the art
of poetry recently while taking a poetry class.
I’m glad she discovered it. She’s
pretty talented. I think I made her day
when I told her I really liked them and wanted to publish all three at some
point in time since she was our first submission. I further made her day by asking her if we
could include her as a featured writer on the lit mag’s blog, again since she
was the first to submit. Basically this
means I’ll do an e-mail interview with her and post it on the blog along with
whatever else she would like. I sent her
the questions the other day and am now waiting on her answers; I’m really
anticipating them. She now has four
poetry-based things to include on her resume or CV: three publications and one
achievements/award. I’m a little proud
of her and I’m sure she is too. I’m
really glad she happened to be on Twitter when Kate Nash retweeted Some Weird
Sin. Keep an eye on that blog for her
interview.
Here are the links so you can check everything out.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/someweirdsin27
Facebook: http://facebook.com/someweirdsin27
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Let's hear it, bro