Three essential tips from publisher Georgia Richter that all poets need to know
Members of the Emerging Writers Pilot Program will meet for the first time later this month at a workshop run by Fremantle Press and WA Poets Inc.
The workshop will introduce members to the importance of improving their writing through giving and receiving feedback, how to know when their manuscript is ready for publication and how to identify the right publisher for their work. It will also explore the specifics of publishing poetry and will draw in the knowledge of established and successful poets to give members a rounded and experienced view of the industry.
Guest speaker and poet Nandi Chinna will appear in conversation with workshop host and Fremantle Press Publisher Georgia Richter to discuss how collections are put together, edited and published.
Although the workshop will only be available to those on the Emerging Writers Pilot Program, Fremantle Press publisher and poetry workshop leader Georgia Richter has given us her top three tips to getting your poetry published below.
1. Quality versus quantity
Your collection needs to be the strongest it can possibly be. Think of it like a garden: you have to weed out all of the plants that don’t work, the ones that are weaker and less beautiful, in order for the others to really shine. Do the same with your collection. Be merciless in your weeding out of poems that don’t quite fit. Shift poems around so that your collection has a coherent structure. Only then will you be ready to send it out into the world.
2. Borrow and build
How are other single-author poetry collections constructed? Read thoroughly around your area and borrow tips and tricks from the other poets you read. This will help you structure your collection into a coherent manuscript, rather than a scattering of random poems that have no apparent relationship to each other.
3. It’s all about the destination
Yes, your journey had been long, exhausting and probably emotional, but it’s the destination that counts. There’s no use packing a swimsuit for a month in Norway, or a fur coat for a desert trek in Africa, so why would you submit your manuscript to a publisher who doesn’t publish poetry?
When you are ready to submit, make sure you’ve done your research and know who will accept your manuscript. You wouldn’t want all that hard work going to waste, nor would you want to look silly sending poetry to a publisher that only produces non-fiction titles …
