Follow My Publishing Foibles-How Many Rejections Before Publication

For my first book, I went the fairly new print-on-demand route. How is it different than traditional publishing? With print-on-demand, the publisher prints the book at the time an order is placed. Traditional publishers will do runs of say 500 to 5,000 for poetry, more for academic books, novels and, certainly more for best sellers or hope-to-be-best sellers. So, traditional publishers have an inventory that they must sell. Print-on-demand publishers, by definition, carry no inventory. Print-on demand also requires a bit more from the author but it is a virtually guaranteed way of getting published. Done right the author can even make money.

For my second book, which I feel is much better, tighter and more under control though I miss the wild abandonment of writing a first book, I decided to go the traditional publishing route. It was time to get serious. This meant a number of varied strategies had to be under taken. First, I had to downshift from the euphoria of writing and publishing that first book and quickly finishing another to the realities of promoting both books, in different ways. I quickly found that there are actually many traditional ways to publish. There are magazines and journals, reviews and anthologies, stapled and copied zines and slick shiny publications; all sizes, shapes, tastes and requirements. And nowadays, of course, there are a number of on-line publications that run the same gamut just mentioned. Though, they all follow the same basic formula.

I already had a copy of the 2010 Poet's Market and began at the letter A under the chapter titled, "Magazines and Journals." I sent out five packets of about five poems each before I realized I forgot to change some crucial information in the cover letter. That is, I asked the Alaskan Quarterly Review and four other magazines to "please consider publishing all or any of the enclosed poems in The American Poetry Review, the intended of my first letter. I do not think they were inclined to help my publishing career in quite that way. I sent a humorous follow-up apology but to no avail. At least with the Alaskan Quarterly Review, as they have the honor of the first publication to send me a rejection slip. It reads as follows,

Re: Your August Poetry Submission
We thank you for the opportunity to read your manuscript. Unfortunately, your work does not meet our needs at this time. Because we know how much effort went into this submission, we regret the use of this form. But the volume of manuscripts we receive makes a personal reply impossible.
The Editors Many Thanks

Not so bad really. The apology for the form letter was a nice touch, if ultimately meaningless. I'm sure I'll see the phrase "does not meet our needs at this time" quite a bit. Stay tuned for the next rejection. Form a pool & take bets on when I'll get my first acceptance letter. I'm sending out about five packets of 3 to 10 poems each about every other day to magazines and journals. Also, send to about five on-line publications every other day. & I send to chap book competitions, prizes & grants about every third day. There should be a mathematical formula for this. Where are the guys from Numb3rs?