How can I get my poetry published?

Question

I would really like to get some of my work published but every place I check into wants me to pay them money.I heard if someone wants to publish you,they pay you.I sent my work into poetry.com a bunch of times and they want nothing but money from me it seems.How can I get someone to read my work and possiably publish it.Thank you.

Answer 1

There are sadly very few sources to publish poetry anymore. It doesn't sell. Go to a bookstore and look at how many poetry books there are there vs how many thrillers and murder mysteries. You have to understand that shelf space is money - it is rent. It costs money to run a bookstore and rent is overhead. Naturally every book in there is chosen to sell big - it is too costly to shelve books that are going to gather dust and not sell. That is what libraries are for.

Think about it - which is going to produce more income for a bookstore? A volume of poems or the latest Dean Koontz thriller? Which would YOU stock on your shelves?

Bookstores just don't have the space to house low selling books and therefore publishers don't put much of it out. As a result, you will not find an agent willing to read poetry. They cannot make money selling it because there is no market.

That is why scams like poetry.com get away with it. Because poets have very little places to turn to. The best you can really hope for is a poem here or there published in a magazine that pays you maybe 5 or 10 dollars a poem or maybe even pays you by giving you 5 or 10 copies of the magazine. For most poets, that is about as good as it gets.

First of all, once you post something online, it is not going to get published. It will get plagiarized and no publication is going to take the chance that you are the rightful owner. That involves legal work and it isn't worth it for a poem. It isn't worth it for a novel either. If it is published online, no publisher wants it.

I would recommend you join Absolute Write Water Cooler. They have a poetry forum. You can get options and ideas from your fellow poets. They even have some poetry games you can play there that are kind of fun. It used to be run by poetinahat. Nice guy. Tell him I said hi. Good luck.
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They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 2

Pick up a copy of Poets & Writers mag. or The Poet's Market. Both have entry information for a lot of journals. Most journals do charge, usually about $10 for submissions, it's how they're able to print the journal without losing money. There are some journals, too, that don't charge anything, but also don't pay if you they publish you. You could also check the colleges/universities in your area as many have literary journals that accept poetry, and/or fiction. Good Luck!

Answer 3

okay, 1) poetry.com is a scam (as is picture.com) and 2) the way things work in the world is exactly as you decsribed it-YOU pay THEM if YOU want something in return. How do you think publishing companies make money??? they have to have money in order to make books. If companies just continued to publish people without the author paying first, it couldnt happen....your gunna have to give a little before you can get a lot...

Answer 4

I think you should include some of your poetry in your question. Then you can get some honest and critical feedback from the people here on Yahoo answers. It's not like we're going to steal your poetry and try to have it published. That would be stealing! I would love to hear some fresh poetry. One of my favorite poets is Tom Clancy but I'd love to hear some new stuff and then maybe I can get you in touch with some of the right people.

Answer 5

complicated situation. lookup on to google. this will help!