Must know for new or amateur poetry writers

As you learn to love poetry as a beginner and then write as an amateur, sooner or later you discover that your love of writing could be something more. Your peers’ comments raise questions, should you post? How do you make yourself noticed on a local and then global stage? Is there money in it? If so, how much? As you may or may not be aware, there are thousands of scams out there involving poetry, more specifically, your job. These sites or people tell you exactly what you want to hear, things like; “Your poetry is unique”, “You should consider publishing it” or “If you win this contest, your poetry will appear in a book”, something like that. So how do you know who to trust? That is if you could trust any of them. Honestly, I am not published, nor am I looking to publish my work, but I have been asked how to do it. When I was younger, I was also interested in getting my poetry published, so I did some research; I’ll discuss what I found out, pros and cons.

First of all, if you are an amateur poet, as I consider myself; You have probably asked yourself: “If I post my work on the Internet in some forums, can someone take it and publish it?”. In other words, steal your work. The answer is yes, but the probability is not, unless you write like an expert, and are a born talent; if your work were to be published, it would go through some drastic changes, basically, it would be rewritten. True critics are particular when it comes to literary works; It’s like being graded on a school paper, have you ever gotten 100%? If you’re just getting started with poetry, you’re probably just writing it, with no knowledge of style, form, flow, etc. It sounds like a poem, it is a poem, but it is not worthy of ‘publishing’; Probably grammar and punctuation corrections can be made (this of course includes my work as I learn something almost every day to improve the quality of my work).

Also, as a warning to everyone who posts on the forums, if your work is stolen and you find out, you can take legal action, but you will probably lose. The reason behind that is that yes, your work is copied when you post it, BUT it is not registered under any published author. In order to earn a violation regarding your poetry, you must be a registered author, becoming one is a daunting task in itself.

To become a registered author, you must find a publisher to submit your work to. DO NOT submit one or multiple poems, or your work will be ignored. Think of it like an interview, you need to have a portfolio or ‘anthology’, which will be explained a bit later. When submitting your work to these companies, make sure that the one you choose is trustworthy, with a good reputation. If you search the internet you will come up with thousands of sites that may promise to publish your work, some will ask you for money just to view your work, I would not bother with these because most of them are scams just to get your money. You can even find sites that offer to review your work before submitting it to an ‘editor’ for a small fee, it might sound something like “We only charge 40 cents per line, or 7 cents per word, or $9 per poem, which you always get.” cheaper”. Sounds great and cheap, right? Still, a scam, at least in most cases. I think the best sites to submit your work are the sites that don’t ask for money at all, you still have to do your research, but at least you don’t lose anything, at best they got your work. .

When you’ve found the publisher you’d like to submit your work to, be sure to create an anthology; This is a collection of your work, be sure to divide it into themes as well, sad poems, dark poems, spiritual poems, haiku, sonnet, etc. It doesn’t have to be all of your work, but make sure you send enough to ‘quench their hunger’, so to speak. After submitting your work, you will probably have to wait a few weeks, maybe even months, for a response; and when you finally get that answer, it probably won’t be something you’ll like, it’s rejected. This can be frustrating for you, but what you need to take away from this is that 1) you know your work can be improved (they will probably give you information about why your work was not approved for publication and how it can be improved) ) 2) Before you receive praise, you will always receive criticism (that’s how the world works) and 3) at least you weren’t ripped off.

While I’m not looking to publish my work, I always look for legitimate criticism for improvement, which should always be your first goal (“The day we stop learning, is the day we die” -Anonymous). If you or I are discovered by our work, this is the best way, it may be the longest way to get what you want, but it is also the safest; not scam free, but safer.

Now that the editorial part is out of the way, there are other ‘MUST KNOW’s to poetry. Below is a list, and I will discuss each of them:

rhythm and rhyme; long and short poetry; write in clichés; Titles; writers biography

rhythm and rhyme

Typically, writers interested in poetry usually start with a rhyming poem. Although it may seem like the easiest thing to write, it can actually be very difficult; You must find words that rhyme with each other, but that do not deviate from the theme of the poem. Other than that, the sound of the poem when read should have ‘flow’, in other words, it should read smoothly. The syllables in each line are important to help with the flow; for example, you wouldn’t write a poem that has line syllables like -10, 12, 8, 13. There would be no ‘softness’, therefore it wouldn’t sound appealing, no matter how good the subject is. Poetry that has line syllables like – 8, 10, 8, 10, 9, 12, 9, 12 will generally get more recognition because it sounds softer when read. As you get better at rhyming poetry, be sure to expand your talents into other styles, such as haiku or sonnets. Rhyming poetry is taken as obsolete and naive, more for novice or amateur poets.

Long and short poetry.

Longer poetry usually does not make a lasting impression on its readers; mainly because it is long (longer than a page). Also, for publication purposes, shorter poems with smaller lines are more likely to be excepted. The most accepted length for poetry is approximately the length of a page; this leaves enough space to be descriptive and short enough to leave some sort of impression on the reader.

write in clichés

Writing poetry in clichés is a common thing for new writers, it is said that money, love and death are the most common themes of poetry. If you choose to write about these topics, you still need to be original and extraordinary; if you think about it, it is actually a difficult task. One way to ensure that you are not ‘stuck’ in these clichés, you can read poetry; You will be surprised at how many different things you can relate to and write about. It will also expand your ‘vocabulary’ in poetry so you don’t reuse the same words throughout your poetry.

Titles

The title is just as important, if not more so, than the poem itself; the title encourages the reader to read his poem, it should be ‘eye-catching’ and intriguing, but of course still relevant to his work. Publishers say to stay away from one-word titles because they don’t provide much of a description of what will be read, unless it’s truly a unique title. In other words, stay away from titles like Friendship, Love, Hate, Death, etc. because they are too simple and do not arouse interest.

writers biography

When submitting your work to a publisher/publisher or even a blog/forum on the internet, make sure your bio is strong. Be descriptive, tell a story about how you became a fan of poetry; What made you decide to write? Basically, the more information you provide about yourself, the more it will help the reader understand why you write poetry and the topics you choose to write about. It almost makes it seem like the reader has a better connection to you and your work.

Lastly, if you are looking for a publisher or just write as a hobby; don’t forget the reason you started writing in the first place. It’s because you loved it, for whatever reason; Poetry should be something you enjoy writing or reading before it becomes something else.