August 27, 2024 • 21 mins
In this episode, we explore five common mistakes new writers make during the submissions process and how to avoid them. From crafting the perfect bio note to navigating correspondence with editors, let’s demystify the submissions process by making these minor tweaks to your publication strategy.
Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell, Lori Walker, and bridgette bianca.
Theme song: "Simply Upbeat" by Christian Telford, Kenneth Edward Belcher, and Saki Furuya.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(00:00):
pop quiz
off the top of your head can you answer
these questions
what should i include in my bio when
submitting my work to a literary journal
what's a common mistake i'm not realizing
is in every submission
what is the proper etiquette for responding
to a rejection letter
(00:21):
should i explain what my poems are about in
my cover letter
how can i effectively promote my work and
the journal that published it
you may have all the answers my friend but
did you notice that hidden in each of these
seemingly simple questions is a common
mistake or faux pas i've seen writers make
(00:42):
especially new writers when trying to get
their work published
that's what we're here to demystify today
my hope for you is that these tips or micro
tips if you will
will help you present your work more
professionally and improve the chances of
your submission's success
(01:02):
by removing any
silly barriers that you don't realize are
there to begin with
welcome to the poetry lab podcast
the poetry lab started 11 years ago to help
dedicated self taught and formally trained
(01:25):
riders find a place in their community to
write read
learn
and collaborate
we help writers tap in their craft with
radical self compassion unlike anything
you've ever seen in a creative writing
classroom before if you're a creative
person trying to establish a writing
practice in the real world
(01:46):
this podcast is designed to help you carve
out the time
the courage and the inspiration to keep
writing your new shit
are you ready poet
let's get into it
hello my friend welcome back to the poetry
(02:09):
lab podcast i'm danielle and
here's something random to get us started today
for a very short period of time about nine
months many years ago
i worked in the corporate office of a
fashion company
i hate to say it but it was such a
demoralizing experience it was filled with
(02:31):
mean girls
lecherous bosses
and extremely affluent vps who are totally
out of touch with reality
but i bring it up because
i had one coworker who was a would be
lifestyle blogger
she was an influencer before influencers
(02:52):
were a thing
and she had this one saying that comes to
my mind every now and then
it was nobody comes along to tell you how
it's done
she said it all the time usually in
instagram captions while she was holding a
bottle of champagne at some glamorous party
that she'd been to that weekend but still
(03:13):
why does that phrase those words still
resonate nobody comes along to tell you how
it's done i think because as artists it's
really true
no one comes along and trains you on what
it's really going to be like to
have a child and be a full time teaching artist
no one tells you what it will be like to
(03:35):
have a poem go viral no one talks about the
burnout of working in the arts while being
an artist
honestly it's your dream job and maybe the
worst thing to ever happen to your art
and even more practically speaking i've
noticed that there's very little training
on how to write a cover letter or what to
(03:57):
do when you're submitting your work
there's no paint by numbers here things are
highly subjective of course they are
what publishers matter what journals should
you be striving to be accepted to well
there's no roadmap it's really about what
matters to you and your community members
(04:17):
how you reach your audience in your readers
maybe that's what's happening there's no
one path towards publication and there's no
one size fits all way to be a writer
but still
i do think our mentors and our teachers
sometimes they don't prepare us for the
publishing world
(04:38):
with at the very least common mistakes we
might make pitfalls to avoid
even social faux pas we might not be aware
of and that's what i want to tackle in
today's episode
these five basic mistakes could be in your
submissions process they're minor things
but they might be what's holding you back
(05:00):
from taking your career to the next level so hi
i guess i'm the guy who just came along to
help you figure out how it's done
mistake number
overloading your bio note
so let's start with the very common place
for mistakes the biographical statement
(05:21):
also known as your bio note when you get
accepted for publication and i believe that
you soon will my friend
the publisher will ask you to resubmit your
updated bionote resubmit because you
probably included it in your cover letter
when you first submitted your poem so they
email you back and let you know you're
(05:41):
accepted and ask you to respond and confirm
the palms are still available and give your
bionote once more
so definitely you're going to need one in
fact you're probably going to need several
you might need a long bio you might have a
fun one and definitely you're going to need
a short bio note because sometimes
(06:03):
publishers especially of print journals
will say that your bio note can be no more
than 50 words
so you're going to have a few different
versions of your bionote the question is
what to include in it
well don't worry i've been teaching on
submissions for over 10 years and i've
(06:24):
observed some key elements that are listed
in almost every bionote i have ever read
and in what order they usually appear
so your bio note is going to list your
books published
chatbooks published
journal or magazine publications relevant
education and degree relevant work or
teaching experience honors and awards and
(06:45):
usually your current location of residence
if you don't have these elements to put
into your bio you might also consider
including featured readings that you've
done notable jobs or assignments if you're
a newspaper reporter for example or if
you're an ice fisherman that might be
interesting especially if it's relevant to
what you write about
(07:06):
your day job or career
any other accomplishments you've achieved
like if you've won an olympic gold medal
you should probably include that in your bio
where you were born if you're raising
children
other remarkable things that you've done
do you rescue animals have you swam the
english channel broke the world record for
(07:27):
a long zoom meeting
and other awards and honors outside of the
literary world as well
remember sometimes we are our harshest
critics so ask your friends your parents
your partner what's the most impressive
thing about you and then consider including that
especially when it comes to the longer bio note
(07:50):
some people call it the kitchen sink bio
because everything's in there including the
kitchen sink don't be afraid to let your
bio note help shine
again with the micro tips a few little
things to keep in mind when you're creating
that bio note
you want to use proper english all the
commas no abbreviations write things out
(08:12):
completely
definitely proofread it you don't want any
mistakes in your bio note it's great to
also include your pronouns after your name
please do that personal details add
character to your bio and your bio
represents you and your work so don't be
afraid to be yourself getting down to that
common mistake that i always see in bios
(08:35):
especially newer writers
once you start to get published you're
going to hit an unexpected snag you may
need to decide what to cut out of your bio
note to make it a palatable size
in particular how many journals to list
when you go to that sentence about which
(08:55):
journals you've been published in
it's sort of a faux pot to list too many
journals stick to between three and no more
than six journals when it comes to that
sentence where you say her work has
previously appeared in
i used to tell my students to base the
number of journals you list in this
(09:16):
sentence on the number of sentences in the
total bio so if it's a short bio note list
no more than three journals if it's a
longer bio note i would count the sentences
if the bio node is five sentences long i'd
include a list of phi journals something
like that just remember to limit it this is
not a space where you're going to list
(09:37):
every single journal that you've ever
appeared in
and it's probably good advice to consider
this for anything that you're listing in
your bio
whether it's featured readings or accolades
you want to list things in order of what's
most impressive on down
and that's highly subjective
when i list journals in my bio know i base
(09:59):
it on two factors
one is the journals that i felt were the
biggest accomplishments to get into those
were the places that
maybe have the highest rejection rates or
just the places that i admired the most and
was so incredibly pleased to be published in
but another factor that i use is which
poems they published and are they still
(10:21):
available online
because i also provide hyperlinks to the
journals that i list there
so that it makes it very easy for any
interested readers or editors to click on
the link and read a poem of mine
now if a poem that's published isn't my
favorite or one that i really don't want to
be showing off then i wouldn't list that
(10:43):
journal
i learned this tactic from the poet
laureate of los angeles lynne thompson who
puts hyperlinks to all the journals she's
been published in that are listed in her
bio which again is not all the journals
she's been published in just a handful
she's included in that bio note and she
links to them which i think is a brilliant
idea so you can do that too
(11:06):
moving on
neglecting the proofread
do you remember that poem by taylor molly
the impotence of proofreading
typos and grammar mistakes in your
submission can be a major turn off for
editors
so before you hit that submit button make
sure your work is polished if you have a
(11:27):
poem you think is truly excellent and it
keeps getting rejected over and over send
it to a friend for a round of copy editing
sometimes it's very hard for us to catch
those simple errors when we've been working
on a piece for a long time
my best tip for this is to use the read
aloud function in microsoft word
(11:48):
you can find it under the review tab when
the computer reads the poem aloud to you
you'll be able to hear if you're missing a
word or if you've used a word wrong
i get things like crave and carve
switched all the time
i had a poem once published with the word tub
(12:08):
as tube because that extra e on the end
really screwed me
so listen for the errors and make sure that
there's no silly mistake holding you back
this is one of the most common things
hiding in your submission you just don't
realize is there
another mistake i see riders making and
(12:29):
this is maybe more of a social faux paul
you should always be kind understanding and
professional when dealing with an editor
these people are your allies they're
helping you get your work out in the world
and more importantly even if they're
rejecting you you have to remember they're
doing their job
(12:51):
your job is to submit your poem for
publication and theirs to decide whether or
not they're going to take it and there
really are a myriad of reasons why they are
rejecting you this time
sometimes rejection letters say it's just
not a good fit at this time but please
resubmit in the future
now be honest
how many times have you actually
(13:13):
resubmitted in the future
some of us are really good at going back to
those journals and trying again but if
you're like me you just don't do it because
you don't believe that's what they really
meant when they said we liked it but not
this time please resubmit in the future
so be aware of that
and be generous towards your editors
(13:36):
these are usually
volunteer positions most editors you're
going to encounter are completely unpaid
they're doing it because they're good
literary citizens and even though we would
prefer they choose us love us pick us for
publication
it's just not always the case
especially when they have hundreds of
submissions to read through a major faux
(13:58):
pas that many people don't realize you
should never respond to a rejection letter
even if it's to say thank you there's
really no circumstances under which you
should be responding unless they've asked
you to for some reason but that's very rare
in a rejection notice
if you're angry by the rejection definitely
(14:20):
don't respond take a deep breath and calm
yourself down
and if you're sad because of the rejection
that's totally okay find a pet or a friend
to console you
sometimes people post their rejection
letters on instagram just to sort of blow
off some steam and say hey i'm human too
i'm trying my best in fact a rejection
(14:42):
letter could be cause for celebration
because it's evidence that you did the work
you submitted your poem you can never be
accepted for publication if you don't put
your hat in the ring
so acknowledge the work has been done
and regardless of whether you get rejected
or accepted
there's more work to do
(15:03):
because even if you get accepted you have
some tasks on your to do list
and chances are you're going to live to
submit your poems again and that same goes
with rejection it just feels different
so be respectful of your editors do not
reply to a rejection letter even if you
know the editor personally or you have a
(15:24):
point of contact with them don't reply to
the rejection letter because chances are
it's just not that editor who's going to
see it and it's considered a faux pas
so if you know the editor reach out to them
separately maybe you go out of that message
into your inbox start a brand new email
(15:44):
directly to them and think them that way
just don't reply to their rejection letter
i'll say it one more time for the people in
the back
misusing the cover letter
another mistake i see is writers using
their cover letter to explain what their
poems are about
(16:04):
don't do this my friends
your work should speak for itself your
cover letter is a place for a brief
introduction a short bio a list of the poem
titles and relevant
information about the submission such as if
it's a simultaneous submission or not it's
not the place for a deep dive into your
(16:26):
creative process unless that's something
that was asked for in the submission
guidelines
but that's probably for something special
like a residency or a fellowship
for most literary journals they are not
looking for a deep dive into your creative
process in your cover letter that's what an
(16:46):
artist's statement is for
there's a free article in our resource
center about how to write an artist's
statement with great examples i'm going to
link to it on the show notes page for this
episode so go to the poetrylab com and
search for episode 33 and you'll find it there
as a side note you also don't need to
(17:07):
explain your poems before you read them at
an open mic either
have faith in your readers and your
listeners let them experience your work on
their own terms
all right we're winding down here
let's talk about what happens when you get
that long awaited acceptance first
(17:29):
congratulations poet it's okay to be
thrilled
excited very pleased in fact when you reply
to that editor because now that you've been
accepted you certainly can they're going to
ask you for an updated bio note and whether
or not the poms are still available and you
can say i'm so thrilled to be published in
this magazine thank you
(17:50):
please don't say i knew you would take this
poem or of course you want this piece
because that's not humble or kind
and honestly no you didn't you didn't know
they were going to take the poem you got lucky
in the words of cheryl strade
be about 10 times more magnanimous than you
(18:11):
believe you're capable of being
your life will be a hundred times better for it
just be gracious and humble and ready to
promote your success so when a print
journal features you they're uplifting your
work often for little or no pay do your
part in return drive traffic to the journal
encourage your friends to buy copies or
(18:33):
subscribe
write about it on your blog promote
yourself and the journal
think of it this way the more attention the
journal gets the more esteemed it becomes
and that in turn reflects positively on you
and your work
so make your publication a big deal if it's
a big deal to you it'll be a big deal to
(18:55):
your friends and your fans too
so don't be afraid to hype it on your
website link to it wherever you can make
social media posts about it make reals go
on tiktok whatever you need to do to spread
the word but don't forget this crucial step
your job does not end at the acceptance
letter remember that you're an artist for
(19:16):
life and that we are coexisting in an
ecosystem of creativity together so don't
be afraid to hype journals up even when
they reject you
read the issues you didn't make it into
talk about the poems that you like leave
reviews on books just do your part poet i
know you have it in you
(19:37):
so there you have it my friend these are
five basic mistakes in your submissions
process and how to avoid them
submitting your work can definitely be
nerve wracking i get that
but at least now we have some mistakes that
we can try to avoid and because you stuck
around to the end of this episode i want to
let you know that i'm working on a class
(19:58):
called the submissions formula and it's all
about how to submit your work for a
publication it's a step by step process
that we teach you how to do because frankly
like i said at the beginning no one else is
coming along and telling us how this is
done it's really experience and trial and
error but at the poetry lab we have really
good insights on what you can do and how to
(20:19):
help and we want to give that to you so if
that class sounds like something you're
interested in i want to hear from you i
want you to dm the poetry lab on instagram
i want you to email us at
podcast at the poetry lab com and let us
know hey the submissions formula sounds
amazing and i can't wait to get into that
(20:40):
class we have a lot of work to do here at
the poetry lab and i would love a good
excuse to prioritize working on that class
this fall so don't be afraid to reach out
to me and let me know your thoughts about
what a submissions class could do for you
remember that the journey of a writer is
full of ups and downs but with persistence
(21:01):
and professionalism you'll get where you
want to go
if you enjoyed today's episode please don't
forget to like and follow and help spread
the word about our podcast
your reviews and positive words really do
help keep us going and reach more writers
like you
i'm danielle
and that's all for now i really hope to see
you soon at the poetry lab
(21:23):
(00:00):
pop quiz
off the top of your head can you answer
these questions
what should i include in my bio when
submitting my work to a literary journal
what's a common mistake i'm not realizing
is in every submission
what is the proper etiquette for responding
to a rejection letter
(00:21):
should i explain what my poems are about in
my cover letter
how can i effectively promote my work and
the journal that published it
you may have all the answers my friend but
did you notice that hidden in each of these
seemingly simple questions is a common
mistake or faux pas i've seen writers make
(00:42):
especially new writers when trying to get
their work published
that's what we're here to demystify today
my hope for you is that these tips or micro
tips if you will
will help you present your work more
professionally and improve the chances of
your submission's success
(01:02):
by removing any
silly barriers that you don't realize are
there to begin with
welcome to the poetry lab podcast
the poetry lab started 11 years ago to help
dedicated self taught and formally trained
(01:25):
riders find a place in their community to
write read
learn
and collaborate
we help writers tap in their craft with
radical self compassion unlike anything
you've ever seen in a creative writing
classroom before if you're a creative
person trying to establish a writing
practice in the real world
(01:46):
this podcast is designed to help you carve
out the time
the courage and the inspiration to keep
writing your new shit
are you ready poet
let's get into it
hello my friend welcome back to the poetry
(02:09):
lab podcast i'm danielle and
here's something random to get us started today
for a very short period of time about nine
months many years ago
i worked in the corporate office of a
fashion company
i hate to say it but it was such a
demoralizing experience it was filled with
(02:31):
mean girls
lecherous bosses
and extremely affluent vps who are totally
out of touch with reality
but i bring it up because
i had one coworker who was a would be
lifestyle blogger
she was an influencer before influencers
(02:52):
were a thing
and she had this one saying that comes to
my mind every now and then
it was nobody comes along to tell you how
it's done
she said it all the time usually in
instagram captions while she was holding a
bottle of champagne at some glamorous party
that she'd been to that weekend but still
(03:13):
why does that phrase those words still
resonate nobody comes along to tell you how
it's done i think because as artists it's
really true
no one comes along and trains you on what
it's really going to be like to
have a child and be a full time teaching artist
no one tells you what it will be like to
(03:35):
have a poem go viral no one talks about the
burnout of working in the arts while being
an artist
honestly it's your dream job and maybe the
worst thing to ever happen to your art
and even more practically speaking i've
noticed that there's very little training
on how to write a cover letter or what to
(03:57):
do when you're submitting your work
there's no paint by numbers here things are
highly subjective of course they are
what publishers matter what journals should
you be striving to be accepted to well
there's no roadmap it's really about what
matters to you and your community members
(04:17):
how you reach your audience in your readers
maybe that's what's happening there's no
one path towards publication and there's no
one size fits all way to be a writer
but still
i do think our mentors and our teachers
sometimes they don't prepare us for the
publishing world
(04:38):
with at the very least common mistakes we
might make pitfalls to avoid
even social faux pas we might not be aware
of and that's what i want to tackle in
today's episode
these five basic mistakes could be in your
submissions process they're minor things
but they might be what's holding you back
(05:00):
from taking your career to the next level so hi
i guess i'm the guy who just came along to
help you figure out how it's done
mistake number
overloading your bio note
so let's start with the very common place
for mistakes the biographical statement
(05:21):
also known as your bio note when you get
accepted for publication and i believe that
you soon will my friend
the publisher will ask you to resubmit your
updated bionote resubmit because you
probably included it in your cover letter
when you first submitted your poem so they
email you back and let you know you're
(05:41):
accepted and ask you to respond and confirm
the palms are still available and give your
bionote once more
so definitely you're going to need one in
fact you're probably going to need several
you might need a long bio you might have a
fun one and definitely you're going to need
a short bio note because sometimes
(06:03):
publishers especially of print journals
will say that your bio note can be no more
than 50 words
so you're going to have a few different
versions of your bionote the question is
what to include in it
well don't worry i've been teaching on
submissions for over 10 years and i've
(06:24):
observed some key elements that are listed
in almost every bionote i have ever read
and in what order they usually appear
so your bio note is going to list your
books published
chatbooks published
journal or magazine publications relevant
education and degree relevant work or
teaching experience honors and awards and
(06:45):
usually your current location of residence
if you don't have these elements to put
into your bio you might also consider
including featured readings that you've
done notable jobs or assignments if you're
a newspaper reporter for example or if
you're an ice fisherman that might be
interesting especially if it's relevant to
what you write about
(07:06):
your day job or career
any other accomplishments you've achieved
like if you've won an olympic gold medal
you should probably include that in your bio
where you were born if you're raising
children
other remarkable things that you've done
do you rescue animals have you swam the
english channel broke the world record for
(07:27):
a long zoom meeting
and other awards and honors outside of the
literary world as well
remember sometimes we are our harshest
critics so ask your friends your parents
your partner what's the most impressive
thing about you and then consider including that
especially when it comes to the longer bio note
(07:50):
some people call it the kitchen sink bio
because everything's in there including the
kitchen sink don't be afraid to let your
bio note help shine
again with the micro tips a few little
things to keep in mind when you're creating
that bio note
you want to use proper english all the
commas no abbreviations write things out
(08:12):
completely
definitely proofread it you don't want any
mistakes in your bio note it's great to
also include your pronouns after your name
please do that personal details add
character to your bio and your bio
represents you and your work so don't be
afraid to be yourself getting down to that
common mistake that i always see in bios
(08:35):
especially newer writers
once you start to get published you're
going to hit an unexpected snag you may
need to decide what to cut out of your bio
note to make it a palatable size
in particular how many journals to list
when you go to that sentence about which
(08:55):
journals you've been published in
it's sort of a faux pot to list too many
journals stick to between three and no more
than six journals when it comes to that
sentence where you say her work has
previously appeared in
i used to tell my students to base the
number of journals you list in this
(09:16):
sentence on the number of sentences in the
total bio so if it's a short bio note list
no more than three journals if it's a
longer bio note i would count the sentences
if the bio node is five sentences long i'd
include a list of phi journals something
like that just remember to limit it this is
not a space where you're going to list
(09:37):
every single journal that you've ever
appeared in
and it's probably good advice to consider
this for anything that you're listing in
your bio
whether it's featured readings or accolades
you want to list things in order of what's
most impressive on down
and that's highly subjective
when i list journals in my bio know i base
(09:59):
it on two factors
one is the journals that i felt were the
biggest accomplishments to get into those
were the places that
maybe have the highest rejection rates or
just the places that i admired the most and
was so incredibly pleased to be published in
but another factor that i use is which
poems they published and are they still
(10:21):
available online
because i also provide hyperlinks to the
journals that i list there
so that it makes it very easy for any
interested readers or editors to click on
the link and read a poem of mine
now if a poem that's published isn't my
favorite or one that i really don't want to
be showing off then i wouldn't list that
(10:43):
journal
i learned this tactic from the poet
laureate of los angeles lynne thompson who
puts hyperlinks to all the journals she's
been published in that are listed in her
bio which again is not all the journals
she's been published in just a handful
she's included in that bio note and she
links to them which i think is a brilliant
idea so you can do that too
(11:06):
moving on
neglecting the proofread
do you remember that poem by taylor molly
the impotence of proofreading
typos and grammar mistakes in your
submission can be a major turn off for
editors
so before you hit that submit button make
sure your work is polished if you have a
(11:27):
poem you think is truly excellent and it
keeps getting rejected over and over send
it to a friend for a round of copy editing
sometimes it's very hard for us to catch
those simple errors when we've been working
on a piece for a long time
my best tip for this is to use the read
aloud function in microsoft word
(11:48):
you can find it under the review tab when
the computer reads the poem aloud to you
you'll be able to hear if you're missing a
word or if you've used a word wrong
i get things like crave and carve
switched all the time
i had a poem once published with the word tub
(12:08):
as tube because that extra e on the end
really screwed me
so listen for the errors and make sure that
there's no silly mistake holding you back
this is one of the most common things
hiding in your submission you just don't
realize is there
another mistake i see riders making and
(12:29):
this is maybe more of a social faux paul
you should always be kind understanding and
professional when dealing with an editor
these people are your allies they're
helping you get your work out in the world
and more importantly even if they're
rejecting you you have to remember they're
doing their job
(12:51):
your job is to submit your poem for
publication and theirs to decide whether or
not they're going to take it and there
really are a myriad of reasons why they are
rejecting you this time
sometimes rejection letters say it's just
not a good fit at this time but please
resubmit in the future
now be honest
how many times have you actually
(13:13):
resubmitted in the future
some of us are really good at going back to
those journals and trying again but if
you're like me you just don't do it because
you don't believe that's what they really
meant when they said we liked it but not
this time please resubmit in the future
so be aware of that
and be generous towards your editors
(13:36):
these are usually
volunteer positions most editors you're
going to encounter are completely unpaid
they're doing it because they're good
literary citizens and even though we would
prefer they choose us love us pick us for
publication
it's just not always the case
especially when they have hundreds of
submissions to read through a major faux
(13:58):
pas that many people don't realize you
should never respond to a rejection letter
even if it's to say thank you there's
really no circumstances under which you
should be responding unless they've asked
you to for some reason but that's very rare
in a rejection notice
if you're angry by the rejection definitely
(14:20):
don't respond take a deep breath and calm
yourself down
and if you're sad because of the rejection
that's totally okay find a pet or a friend
to console you
sometimes people post their rejection
letters on instagram just to sort of blow
off some steam and say hey i'm human too
i'm trying my best in fact a rejection
(14:42):
letter could be cause for celebration
because it's evidence that you did the work
you submitted your poem you can never be
accepted for publication if you don't put
your hat in the ring
so acknowledge the work has been done
and regardless of whether you get rejected
or accepted
there's more work to do
(15:03):
because even if you get accepted you have
some tasks on your to do list
and chances are you're going to live to
submit your poems again and that same goes
with rejection it just feels different
so be respectful of your editors do not
reply to a rejection letter even if you
know the editor personally or you have a
(15:24):
point of contact with them don't reply to
the rejection letter because chances are
it's just not that editor who's going to
see it and it's considered a faux pas
so if you know the editor reach out to them
separately maybe you go out of that message
into your inbox start a brand new email
(15:44):
directly to them and think them that way
just don't reply to their rejection letter
i'll say it one more time for the people in
the back
misusing the cover letter
another mistake i see is writers using
their cover letter to explain what their
poems are about
(16:04):
don't do this my friends
your work should speak for itself your
cover letter is a place for a brief
introduction a short bio a list of the poem
titles and relevant
information about the submission such as if
it's a simultaneous submission or not it's
not the place for a deep dive into your
(16:26):
creative process unless that's something
that was asked for in the submission
guidelines
but that's probably for something special
like a residency or a fellowship
for most literary journals they are not
looking for a deep dive into your creative
process in your cover letter that's what an
(16:46):
artist's statement is for
there's a free article in our resource
center about how to write an artist's
statement with great examples i'm going to
link to it on the show notes page for this
episode so go to the poetrylab com and
search for episode 33 and you'll find it there
as a side note you also don't need to
(17:07):
explain your poems before you read them at
an open mic either
have faith in your readers and your
listeners let them experience your work on
their own terms
all right we're winding down here
let's talk about what happens when you get
that long awaited acceptance first
(17:29):
congratulations poet it's okay to be
thrilled
excited very pleased in fact when you reply
to that editor because now that you've been
accepted you certainly can they're going to
ask you for an updated bio note and whether
or not the poms are still available and you
can say i'm so thrilled to be published in
this magazine thank you
(17:50):
please don't say i knew you would take this
poem or of course you want this piece
because that's not humble or kind
and honestly no you didn't you didn't know
they were going to take the poem you got lucky
in the words of cheryl strade
be about 10 times more magnanimous than you
(18:11):
believe you're capable of being
your life will be a hundred times better for it
just be gracious and humble and ready to
promote your success so when a print
journal features you they're uplifting your
work often for little or no pay do your
part in return drive traffic to the journal
encourage your friends to buy copies or
(18:33):
subscribe
write about it on your blog promote
yourself and the journal
think of it this way the more attention the
journal gets the more esteemed it becomes
and that in turn reflects positively on you
and your work
so make your publication a big deal if it's
a big deal to you it'll be a big deal to
(18:55):
your friends and your fans too
so don't be afraid to hype it on your
website link to it wherever you can make
social media posts about it make reals go
on tiktok whatever you need to do to spread
the word but don't forget this crucial step
your job does not end at the acceptance
letter remember that you're an artist for
(19:16):
life and that we are coexisting in an
ecosystem of creativity together so don't
be afraid to hype journals up even when
they reject you
read the issues you didn't make it into
talk about the poems that you like leave
reviews on books just do your part poet i
know you have it in you
(19:37):
so there you have it my friend these are
five basic mistakes in your submissions
process and how to avoid them
submitting your work can definitely be
nerve wracking i get that
but at least now we have some mistakes that
we can try to avoid and because you stuck
around to the end of this episode i want to
let you know that i'm working on a class
(19:58):
called the submissions formula and it's all
about how to submit your work for a
publication it's a step by step process
that we teach you how to do because frankly
like i said at the beginning no one else is
coming along and telling us how this is
done it's really experience and trial and
error but at the poetry lab we have really
good insights on what you can do and how to
(20:19):
help and we want to give that to you so if
that class sounds like something you're
interested in i want to hear from you i
want you to dm the poetry lab on instagram
i want you to email us at
podcast at the poetry lab com and let us
know hey the submissions formula sounds
amazing and i can't wait to get into that
(20:40):
class we have a lot of work to do here at
the poetry lab and i would love a good
excuse to prioritize working on that class
this fall so don't be afraid to reach out
to me and let me know your thoughts about
what a submissions class could do for you
remember that the journey of a writer is
full of ups and downs but with persistence
(21:01):
and professionalism you'll get where you
want to go
if you enjoyed today's episode please don't
forget to like and follow and help spread
the word about our podcast
your reviews and positive words really do
help keep us going and reach more writers
like you
i'm danielle
and that's all for now i really hope to see
you soon at the poetry lab
(21:23):
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