★★★☆☆ How to publish poetry in literary journals

Submit Publish Repeat: How to Publish Your Creative Writing in Literary Journals

Emily Harstone

I read this little book for a specific and entirely artificial reason. I am currently taking a course called "Poetry Writing" at my local community college. The summer term is nearing its end, and the final unit of the course is called "Business of Writing". For it I am required to produced "a one page promotional campaign for yourself as a poet". I have, in fact, zero interest in publishing my poetry, which mostly stinks, although in occasional flashes of brilliance I may attain mediocrity. But I have to produce a "promotional campaign". So, it seems eminently practical to borrow the one from this book. I mention all this so that you know that I am not reviewing it as a person who actually intends to practice what Emily Harstone preaches.

Harstone is a published poet and teacher who also runs the Authors Publish web site that aims to help out creative writers. Submit Publish Repeat: How to Publish Your Creative Writing in Literary Journals is, as the subtitle indicates, focused on a very specific task: getting creative writing published in literary journals. In fact the focus is even a bit narrower than that -- it's mainly about publishing poetry and flash fiction.

She begins by explaining what literary journals are and why it is useful for a writer to publish in them. She then sets out how to get your poems into journals, which means, more specifically, how she got her own poems into literary journals. It's a concrete and practical plan. She also tells you about useful web sites and pitfalls to avoid. (For instance, I was not aware that capitalizing the first word in every line of ones poetry betrays one as a novice poet!)

It's clear, practical, and short. It's all very basic -- I doubt any experienced writer would learn much from it, but if, like me, you are an absolute novice to creative writing markets, it's a great practical introduction.

Submit, Publish, Repeat on Amazon

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