Poets and Recognition through Publishing

Salt’s announcement that it’s no longer publishing single poet collections but focusing on its anthologies, came with a press quote: “There’s never been a better time for poets to write”. Note the emphasis on “to write”, not “to find an audience” or “for poetry to be read” or “for poets to find readers.”

Unfortunately, it’s true. There’s never been a better time to start writing poetry. There’s been an expansion in creating writing courses from one-off workshops to postgraduate courses in Creative Writing, an increase in mentoring programmes, arts organisations are offering conferences in how to market using social media or how to be a writer in residence (for those who can find both the funds and time to attend) and more of a poetry presence in healthcare settings as well as more poetry prizes, particularly in regional and local competitions. The writer Blake Morrison recently observed that “there are still writers who make their way without ever having gone on a creative writing course. But whereas once they were the majority, now they’re becoming the exception. That’s in part because literary agents and publishers have begun looking to creative writing programmes to find new talent.”

In its last round of funding decisions, Arts Council England scrapped annual funding for poetry presses such as Arc, Enitharmon and Flambard and made a huge increase in funding support for writer development schemes. That’s writer development schemes, not reader development schemes.

Competition for the few publishing slots there are is fierce, which in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but where are all these creative writing graduates and emergent writers going to find their audiences?

There’s a difference between writing and getting published. One doesn’t, and shouldn’t, necessarily follow the other. Writing something doesn’t entitle the writer to see that something published. Writing a poem is about creating the best poem. Publishing is about attracting a readership or selling books. It doesn’t just consider the merits of the poems themselves, but also whether the poet can do publicity and do so without any support from a publisher with a zero marketing budget. It doesn’t help that poetry review outlets are diminishing as well: those that are left receiving far more poetry books, pamphlets and magazines than they can review.

So if poets need a form of recognition other than getting published, what form should that recognition take?

Not all poets are natural performers or teachers. Not earning money from poetry means earning money elsewhere which means less time writing and editing poems. For those that say poetry is a vocation, do it as a hobby without the expectation of earnings: fine, just don’t expect very good poems to result. Brilliant writing doesn’t happen overnight, if poets can’t find time to practise, they can’t improve. If you spend eight hours a day in a job to pay the bills, eight hours sleeping plus time on family and other commitments, time on the administration side of being a poet (accounting, sending out poems to editors, dealing with editors’ responses, etc) that doesn’t leave much time to actually write, practise and improve.

Not all writers will want to undertake a postgraduate creative writing course either, whether through lack of time, lack of funds or knowing that an academic course isn’t the best way of learning for them. What about those exceptions, now a minority, who made their way as poets without attending a creative writing course? The merry-go-round of attending a course and earning by teaching and/or performing doesn’t leave much time to write let alone develop a readership. Poets need readers and, if established poetry presses can’t find readers, how will individual poets?

Currently a single poet collection will sell less than a thousand copies. Bricks-and-mortar shops rarely stock single author collections beyond the bigger names from larger publishers. Book sellers, suspicious of vanity and self-published books, are very reluctant to even take books by local poets. Online ordering is relatively easy, but wholly reliant on the buyer knowing the book exists. It’s very difficult for a casual browser to discover a poetry book.

Salt’s decision is not surprising and it should act as a wake-up call to those who think developing writers without developing a readership is a good thing.

By Emma Lee

ARIA: Left Luggage Geoff Nelder (LL Publications) – novel review

A space crew find an object that looks like a metal suitcase on an international space station. The case is returned to earth for examination where it releases a viral Alien Retrograde Infectious Amnesia. Those exposed to ARIA find they lose recent memories but still retain much older memories. Unfortunately, people have travelled and spread the virus before it’s identified or subjected to scientific examination.

Ryder had returned to England from America when the case was brought to earth. Via satellite link illicitly set up by his supervisor Manuel, he was able to watch the initial reaction caused by the ARIA virus. His sister working in labs nearby was able to take some blood samples of affected people and get her assistant to pass the information back to Ryder. Ryder’s girlfriend is a biologist and together they travel to a research facility in the Welsh countryside with a small group of associates to try and investigate what ARIA is whilst also keeping from becoming infected themselves.

Meanwhile Manuel, who is infected, holes himself away in a Canadian log cabin. As the ARIA virus spreads as easily as a common cold, it doesn’t take long for significant populations to become infected. People who recently moved house forget where they live. People forget where they work or revert to prior, outdated working practices. There’s a happy reunion for one couple who forget they got divorced, at least until they also forget they got married.

Meanwhile a second metal suitcase is discovered by the team who discovered the first. They face a dilemma: does this contain more of the virus or the antidote? Do they risk taking it back to earth for investigation or do they destroy it? What effect will it have on people who weren’t infected? Will it return forgotten memories or merely enable infected people to start remembering again?

The only jarring note was a Welsh speed sign in kilometres rather than miles per hour. The fact that this is an extremely minor point illustrates the ease of reading and the planning and thinking behind the novel. Geoff Nelder has nailed the explanation of scientific ideas without resorting to information dumps. He creates a balance between characters who are scientists and so at ease with the jargon and characters who aren’t without using the latter as foils to explain the former. As with all good science fiction novels, the scenario and characters play out within the logic of the world created and give the plot momentum without being solely character driven. The intriguing premise becomes a genuine story, that doesn’t reach a conclusion because it’s set up for a sequel. I’d be happy to read on but I don’t think “ARIA: Left Luggage” completely works as a stand alone book as it doesn’t answer some key questions.

ARIA Left Luggage at Amazon

By Emma Lee

Who do you write for?

Do you write for yourself or for readers?

Purely in terms of writing, there’s nothing wrong with either approach. When considering publishing the piece of writing you’ve been working on, there’s a big difference. Two things have prompted me to think about this question recently. Firstly writing thirty draft poems during April. Secondly a long comment made on one of my reviews.

To comply with NaPoWriMo’s target of 30 draft poems in 30 days, the focus has been solely on getting a draft written free of concerns about whether the result, after editing, would be publishable or not. The task now is a sifting through of these drafts and deciding which ones do offer a reader something and which are more personal and not worth trying to get published.

In the comment on my review, the writer explained what she was trying to achieve with her poems and wrote about what she was doing and why she’d chosen the approach she’d taken. What puzzled me was that I stopped reading her comment part-way through and had to go back and read it again to try and understand why I found it difficult to read.

It wasn’t the writing, the style or the vocabulary she used: it was the focus.

Writers talking about their own writing often do sound pretentious or precious. All artists do, simply because the finished piece has to stand on its own merit. To an audience it doesn’t matter if you dashed off a poem in ten minutes or spent months agonising about the comma in line three. What matters to them is whether the poem’s any good. Talking about how you wrote your poem is irrelevant and doesn’t act as a guide to whether it’s any good. The method might be interesting to other writer or to someone who wants to learn to write, but to a reader it’s meaningless. Some writers will happily talk about their methods, but most know that such a conversation isn’t going to add anything to the finished poem so they find it awkward.

This was why I had to read the comment on my review again. I’d switched off because it was all about the writer, what she’d tried to achieve and how she’d tried to achieve it. Not once did she mention the reader or give any indication that a reader might be involved in her work. I’d stopped reading because I’d felt excluded.

Once a piece of work is published, readers are definitely involved. Readers are individuals with their own emotional baggage, their own ideas and their own responses to what they are reading. If your poem mentions a swan, some will see a swan on a lake, some will see images from the ballet Swan Lake, some might think of Leda’s story, some might think of Proust and at least one will remember the time they were attacked and chased because they got too close to a nest. Whatever it was your swan was to represent, it needs you to communicate that so your reader is guided towards your intentions because if you don’t, the person remembering being attacked is not thinking about a swan’s grace and about to think your poem’s failed. It takes a writer’s skill to guide and communicate to a reader.

When I look through my NaPoWriMo drafts, I won’t just be looking for poems that are technically competent or that carry an important message, but for poems that can reach out and draw a reader in. They’ll be the ones I’ll be working on to bring up to a publishable standard. I know before I look that there are three that are only written for me. They will be edited, but they won’t be published. I’m the sole reader; they won’t appeal to a wider audience so I won’t seek to get them a wider audience.

That’s the difference. There’s nothing wrong with writing for yourself, but if you aren’t writing for readers, there’s little point in trying to publish that work. When seeking to get work published and reviewed, you need to ask who you’re writing for and whether your writing involves readers.

Most writers start by writing for themselves whether that’s the book they wanted to read or because a poem won’t leave them alone. But when the editing process begins, that’s when most writers start looking at markets and readers and begin looking at what they’ve written with a readership in mind.

By Emma Lee

NaPoWriMo – how to write 30 draft poems in 30 days

The biggest source of inspiration was reading: coming across a phrase or story or theme that sparked an idea. The more I read, the more I wrote.

Momentum stalled around the seventeenth day. I’m surprised it took that long. Writing isn’t a nice little hobby anyone could do if they had the time. Although we all have our own story, it’s not a story everyone has the talent to tell. The ability to form letters and construct a sentence doesn’t always mean that the resulting writing can engage, charm and enthral readers. Sitting in front of a computer or with a notebook and pen in hand looks easy, but the concentrated focus that writing requires is hard to sustain. The editing part is easier, but you can’t edit a blank page. It takes stamina to write something new every day for a month.

I got going again by reading. I read a magazine or browsed online and picked a poem that I liked. I then chose the theme or a phrase or an image from that poem and drafted a poem around that theme, phrase or image. The results were very different from the original source poem. Song lyrics proved a useful second source: can’t get a song out of your head, use it to inspire a poem instead (apologies for the rhyme).

Some drafts are more fully-realised than others. The task now is to go back through the draft poems and shift out the ones that are close to completion. These can be worked on until they are ready to be published. The remainder will have to be looked at and a decision made as to whether it is worth developing the draft or leaving it. Usually I do my early drafts in my head and only start putting words on paper when I have something closer to being a poem. Throughout April, I was putting words on paper much sooner so some drafts used ideas or themes already used in my existing poems. These drafts probably won’t go further.

There was no difference in length between the poems written at the beginning of the month or the ones written towards the end. The poems were written to the length that was right for the poem and there was no rushing out an idea because the end of NaPoWriMo was nearing.

I stalled again on the 26th day because the hayfever season’s started early and it’s difficult being creative when battling the side-effects of anti-histamines. But I wasn’t going to give up so close to the end of the month and still managed to hit the target.

NaPoWriMo was a useful kickstart. Would I take part again? Yes. In 2014? Not sure yet.

A full list of dates and draft poems is included below. Are there any titles which grab your attention?

01 April 2013 Gaining a Loss
02 April 2013 Stop me if you’ve read this one before
03 April 2013 Poppy Red, Lime Green,
04 April 2013 Tulips on Mother’s Day
05 April 2013 Creating a Scene
06 April 2013 Bleeding Red
07 April 2013 Request
08 April 2013 Replacing the Shed
09 April 2013 Scar
10 April 2013 Not turning the light on
11 April 2013 Displacement
12 April 2013 Paint it Black
13 April 2013 The small hours have become my friends
14 April 2013 Coffee in March
15 April 2013 Blaze of Lies
16 April 2013 Sky-eyes, Caged
17 April 2013 Phoenix
18 April 2013 Hotel Life
19 April 2013 Dress Code for Live Music
20 April 2013 Letting Us In
21 April 2013 She’s given up fixing the broken window pane
22 April 2013 Judged, Found Wanting
23 April 2013 Like a bucket of water spilling over cold rain
24 April 2013 Five Irritating Habits of Co-workers
25 April 2013 Flooded by Communication
26 April 2013 Let Me Tell You a Story
27 April 2013 In the Vets’ Car Park
28 April 2013 Not the Marrying Kind
29 April 2013 It’s the Action
30 April 2013 Why a tomboy learnt to sew

Of these, I’d say three are definitely not for publication and one needs a major edit before I can even think about getting it published. The others do need editing, but there is a poem at their core.

By Emma Lee

“Close My Eyes” Sophie McKenzie (Simon and Schuster) – novel review

Gen is mourning her stillborn daughter, Beth, eight years on. As her husband, Art, has busied himself as partner in a finance company, with appearances in a business-focused TV show and taking up an opportunity to become a member of a business advisory panel to the Prime Minister’s office. Gen has failed to write another novel and does a few hours of creative writing teaching. Several failed IVF attempts have left Gen in a limbo, aware her friends think it’s time she moved on but unable to move on. It’s not spelt out whether the IVF is used because Gen found herself unable to get pregnant or if she and her husband are using IVF to prevent another baby suffering the same genetic anomaly that cause Beth’s stillbirth.

One day a woman turns up on Gen’s doorstep and tells her Beth is still alive. Gen’s immediate reaction is to dismiss the woman as a crank, however, she decides to hear her out. The woman claims to be a sister of one of the nurses in attendance when Beth was born by Caesarean section after she stopped moving in the womb and midwives failed to find a heartbeat. Gen was under anaesthetic so doesn’t know who was or wasn’t in attendance. Art was present but never talks about it. The woman tells Gen that her sister, the nurse, became seriously ill and wanted to make a confession before she died. That confession was that Beth was born alive. Gen assumes the woman wants money and dismisses her.

But she can’t dismiss the news that Beth might be alive so easily. Gen finds turning detective to try and collaborate the stranger’s story isn’t easy. The paperwork relating to her hospital stay and Beth’s birth are kept in Art’s locked cabinet, her first attempt to contact the consultant who performed her Caesarean fails as the receptionist can’t find him and the phone number given to her by the stranger is unobtainable. Gen’s dithering could easily stall the reader’s interest were it not for Sophie McKenzie’s skill in creating characters such as the charming but mysterious Lorcan Byrne who knew Art before he met Gen.

Lorcan becomes an ally. Unlike her husband and her best friend who think it’s time Gen moved on and accepted Beth’s death, Lorcan agrees to help her. However when Gen uncovers evidence that her best friend knows more than she’s admitted and that her husband may have hidden the truth from her, Gen starts to query who she can trust. Could she be allowing her hope that Beth’s still alive to distort what evidence she’s found so far? Is Lorcan helping her understand what happened or encouraging her to view her husband as an enemy as revenge for something that happened in the past? She soon discovers trust is a product of mutual benefit: who will help her depends on whether it’s in their best interests to do so. In trying to trace what happened to Beth, she uncovers a more shocking family secret between Art and his half sister Morgan.

In “Close My Eyes” Sophie McKenzie explores the long term after-effects of the discovery of secrets families hide. What makes some victims of abuse break the cycle of abuse but others go on to perpetrate more abuse? What happens when you damage the bond between a mother and child? Is it ever right to exclude a father from his child’s life? Is the bond between a biological mother and child stronger than that between an adoptive mother and child? Sophie McKenzie doesn’t judge. Readers follow Gen’s story but get to see Art’s story, Lorcan’s story and Morgan’s story with space to draw their own conclusions. It’s worth sticking through the stagnation of Art’s birthday party as the pace and story picks up and Sophie McKenzie deftly weaves the threads of several storylines together with a surprising twist.

By Emma Lee

Can a Smartphone Ruin your Plot?

The mobile phone celebrates its 40th anniversary this year but its universal appeal has not been welcomed by some writers. A recent article argued that the smartphone was sending writers back into historical eras to enable plot devices such as developments based on misunderstandings, inability to reach others or be reached, things left unsaid or characters with secrets. One commentator suggested that having scenes in thrillers where mobile phones are destroyed, mislaid, stolen or out of signal range testify to ability of the mobile phone to render standard plot devices unusable.

Of course, writers could be writing about historical eras because writers follow trends and take inspiration from reading what’s being published. Most thrillers rely on their detective being thwarted rather than helped to solve the mystery. Having no obstacles to solving the crime (whether mechanical, electronic or an obstinate jobsworth) would result in a very boring thriller.

But what if rendering standard plot devices unusable was a good thing?

Smartphones come with an off-switch, are powered by batteries and there are geographical pockets where signal cannot be obtained, so no reason to drop the inability to reach someone yet. Users still have the choice not to take a call. Misunderstandings are easier without a character being able to read a second character’s facial expressions or body language. Even a video phone conversation can lead to misunderstandings if one character wants to mislead another or one character assumes that they are talking to someone with a shared cultural upbringing and experiences. Things can still be left unsaid.

It’s a big assumption that a character with several social media profiles can’t still have secrets. Search engines can’t reveal everything and they still can’t link profiles and create a narrative or explain why someone likes a restaurant on Facebook but complains about it on twitter. The ability to track someone’s movements via a smartphone and match that data to a credit card bill to build a picture of purchases doesn’t explain their motives. Discovering that a character visited a florist and bought a bouquet won’t tell the reader whether the bouquet was for a lover or a mother. Even a character who tweets every waking moment won’t reveal everything and certainly won’t consider that their words can be interpreted in a way that is different to their intention.

Perhaps the issue is that new plot devices will have to be devised. Characters will have fewer direct one-to-one conversations and more one-to-many ‘conversations’ via social media status updates. Instead of relying on dialogue, writers will have to turn to the written word of blog articles and text messages and discover how to make these media as nuanced as dialogue.

By Emma Lee

Agent Hunter – review of www.agenthunter.co.uk

With fewer and fewer publishers looking at unsolicited manuscripts, finding a literary agent for an unpublished novel is an important first step from finished manuscript to publication. However, finding the right literary agent takes some research and persistence. A new web database, http://www.agenthunter.co.uk, aims to make it easier.

It’s obvious that sending a fiction manuscript to a literary agent who only handles non fiction is a waste of time and costs, but finding the right agent takes more effort than simply making a list of agents who handle fiction and sending a copy of a manuscript to each. Agents won’t represent a manuscript they don’t feel fully enthusiastic about or that they can’t sell. Writers have to find an agent that loves their book. Using a search engine to find and browse agents’ websites is time consuming and printed directories can become out of date.

Agent Hunter has an important search facility that allows for searches by genre, likes, dislikes, keywords, who the agent represents, how many clients the agent represents, who the agent represents, how long they’ve been an agent, whether or not the agency is a member of the AAA and whether or not the agent takes email submissions. Writers can search individually, eg for agents who represent thrillers, or for a combination, eg agents who represent thrillers, likes police procedurals and has been an agent for five years or more. Agent Hunter provides tips on how to use the search facilities to make it relevant to the writer. Searches can also be saved so the writer doesn’t have to re-create the search each time they log on. Alternatively, writers can browse the complete list of agents without any filters.

The Agent Hunter search results lists agents by name giving a thumbnail profile that includes a photograph (or silhouette if a photo isn’t available), the length of time the agent has been an agent and a couple of sentences from the agent’s profile. Agents appear in order of first name rather than surname or by the name of the agency. Clicking on the thumbnail profile gives the full profile.

Full profiles gives contact details, agent’s website, blog and twitter links where applicable, whether the agent takes email submissions, a list of who the agent currently represents, a description of the types of book represented and, where provided, a brief description of what the agent is looking for or the books and/or authors they love.

These profile details pull together information in the public domain and information supplied by the agents themselves so the amount of detail varies. I didn’t find a profile that did not give enough information for a writer to be able to make the decision whether or not to submit their manuscript.

There is a subscription fee to use Agent Hunter. However, the alternative is spending hours browsing literary agents’ websites or reading through bulky directories, both options offering incomplete or out of date information. There is no auto renewal so users won’t find themselves will a bill because they forgot to cancel a renewal or locked in to using the site longer than they planned because their subscription was automatically renewed. At the time of review the subscription was £12 or £1 per month.

Agent Hunter’s strength is that it offers a comprehensive directory of literary agents and an easy-to-use search facility, saving writers time. It also offers tips and advice, not only on how to use the site, but also general advice on finding an agent and submitting manuscripts. If you’ve got a complete manuscript and are ready to approach agents, Agent Hunter is definitely worth investigating. It’s also worth reading Harry Bingham’s guest post, How to Find a Literary Agent.

By Emma Lee