World Class Poetry Blog

Reb Livingston Speaks
1 May 2008, the poet @ 9:41 pm

Nic Sebastian at Very Like a Whale asked Jeb Livingston a series of questions on his blog. I thought Jeb’s answers were very telling and I’d like to offer a few snippets and my responses:

I sent my poems to all the wrong magazines; places that didn’t publish work in the same vein as mine — or places I wasn’t familiar, never read. That’s a recipe for failure and I cooked with that pretty much my entire 20s. Some people have to learn the hard way. I’m one of those people. Now I send poems out only to places I read and admire and sometimes to places that solicit work.

I think most of us go through this phase of sending out manuscripts to the wrong places. In truth, it’s hard to find compatible avenues for your poetry. It’s like dating. You have to go through hundreds of losers, whiners, ugly first cousins, loquacious snobs, self-centered eye-batters, silent prigs, and really awful date places in order to find one relationship that makes sense. When you do find a poetry journal that you really like, support it. Read it. Devour it for a while before you jump in and submit your work. Really make sure it is something that excites you and if it does, submit your work.

On “What would you do differently if you had to start all over again?”

I would save my money and not send to any book contests whatsoever. Bye bye $1500. What do I have to show for it? A handful of the “winning” books, most of which I don’t even care for. I could have published two books for that amount. Also, as I mentioned above, I would be more selective and knowledgeable where I send my work in general. Bye bye hundreds of hours of my life.

Geez, do I know how she feels. Not about the money. I’ve never been a big contest person. Though I’ve submitted to a few, I haven’t made a life of it. But I have wasted countless hours sending work to places I never should have been sending my work to, either for the prestige or for the self-congratulatory pat on the back, or because So-and-So did and I thought I should have that honor as well. It’s not worth it. Write what you write and find those journals that will publish it. Don’t waste time sending out work to schmucks.

That’s the beauty of ch(e)apbooks. I guess I don’t really understand the question of whether or not chapbooks are good or bad. Some books are good things, others not so much. I don’t see how length, distribution or the production process has any determining factor in that. Unless the pages are made from the skins of kittens.

When I discovered the power of chapbooks, I decided it was the way to go. One poetry reading can lead to the sale of four or five chapbooks, which pays for gas to and from and a snack, usually. Though now it probably just pays for gas. But you have to offer your chapbooks sparingly. Don’t publish a new one every week. If you publish too often then people will just think you are a money hound. Only publish a new chapbook when you know you’ve got one worth selling. Then hawk it for all it’s worth.

If you’re worried about trends, fashion or popularity, for God’s sake, don’t waste your time with poetry.

No kidding. Did she really need to say that? Yeah, if you are the trendy kind of person, try writing a memoir. Or write fiction and call it a memoir.

Poems don’t make anyone money. So when you’re creating your book, listen to your inner artist, not your inner capitalist. If your inner capitalist knew what he was talking about, he’d be telling you to write a self-help book or something for Penthouse Forum.

Hah! Funny one, that. Perhaps I should query Penthouse Forum about my poem on capitalism!

All jokes aside, she’s right. Poetry isn’t for capitalists. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take money for it.

If you mean do I do readings, speak on panels, link to my books from my websites, try to cajole people into reviewing my books, send out e- mails asking friends and family to buy them, agree to participate in interviews such as this one — then yes, most certainly. I do it because I want people to buy my books. I want people to read them.

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

On another note, Tony Brown is the newest Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere. Congratulations Tony!

Submit a comment

Name

E-mail (not published)

Website URL

Enable CommentLuv which will try and parse your last blog post, please be patient while it finds it for you

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail