Getting Into the Groove.

Discover the best strategies for submitting your poems. Check out Tell Tell Poetry's interview with Trish Hopkinson, where she reveals her submission strategy secrets!

 

SUBMITTING YOUR POEMS DOESN’T HAVE TO BE HARD

If you’re new to submitting your poems, the process can seem overwhelming and time-consuming. Cover letters, bio, poems, research, ensuring a good aesthetic “fit” (don’t worry—we’ve got you covered! Check out our Submission Strategies course for all the details on the whole process of submitting your poems!), not to mention actually finding the time to sit down and make the submission magic happen. And most of us are also working and taking care of families, so you might be wondering, how do I make time or find the energy to submit my work?

Schedule It: Many poets find their calendars work as helpful tools to keep their submissions on track. Decide on a regular time you want to send out your work and schedule it in your planner or on your phone. Maybe you can spare an hour once a week or a half day once a month, the important thing is to dedicate time to your publication dreams on a regular basis. Treat that time as you would a business meeting or a doctor’s visit and keep your appointment with yourself.

Accountability: For some writers, having a little added accountability gives them just the nudge they need. If you belong to a writing circle, set a group goal (submit to one magazine each week, 10 per month, 100 per year—go crazy!) and encourage each other to meet it.

Patience: Every poet has their own groove of writing, revising, and submitting. Maybe you’re in a creation or revision phase right now and submitting just doesn’t feel right. That’s ok! Honor your own creative cycle, nurture your work, and send it out when it feels ready. We all have our own timelines, and there’s no rush.

Take care of you!: If you’re like Trish Hopkinson, poet and blogger extraordinaire, you might think of your writing and submitting as something you need to do to be who you are. When the world asks so much of us, it can be difficult (and guilt-inducing!) to do something for ourselves, but as you’ll hear Hopkinson say in this video interview, sometimes you have to be “self-ish” and take care of your creativity and your dreams, for your own sake and to fill yourself up so you can continue to care for those around you.

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