Time for a new Creative Partnership

ROBERT DAVIDSON is a published writer and an editor who draws on his experience on both sides of the fence in this survey of how to get your poetry published. The paper was originally delivered at the StAnza Poetry Festival in St Andrews.

IT’S SIMPLE ENOUGH, on the surface of it.  First, as in Mrs Beaton’s recipe for Hare Soup, you must catch your hare.  That is to say, you first write your poems.  Do bear in mind though; a freshly caught hare is more easily recognised than a freshly caught poem.
 

Satisfied that you have a few – say, six – you might look into the various magazines that publish poetry in Scotland to see which, if any, might be in your field.  Then send them off with a covering letter and a stamped addressed envelope for reply and, probably, return.  Most poems are returned so brace your battered psyche for what is usually described as ‘rejection’.
 

This word, ‘rejection’, is one of the great hindering words in the Arts, in some ways almost as bad as ‘Classic’.  It has very little reference to quality, which is fairly subjective anyway, and much to do with space and the editor’s ideas of balance across the magazine.
 

Rhoda Michael, the Poetry Editor of Northwords, receives submissions from approximately 80 poets for each issue (at least 2/3 of them men), and carefully reads and rereads about 400 poems.  Beyond our Featured Poet, which is commissioned work, we publish only seven pages of poems and we try to give them all breathing space on the page.  Prepare yourself also for a long wait.  Northwords appears only three times a year.  That is a four-month pulse and a very long wait for a disappointment.
 

Writers should not be discouraged by rejections.  In addition to the problem of being audible in the echo chamber they may simply mean the right editor and magazine haven’t been found yet.  Eventually, through a combination of talent, persistence and luck, the poet might establish quite a large body of published work and some kind of reputation.
 

So far, so straightforward but now what?  Having them collected in a perfectly bound book by a reputable publisher would appear to be a step forward.  This is the point where another kind of reality begins to bite.
 

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