| Tips On How To Publish Your Poems In Poetry Magazines, On Poetry Websites, And In Your Own Poetry Books By Ralph Haselmann Jr Dear Reader, 1. You can buy the Poet's Market book which comes out every September. It's essential because it has 1800 listings of magazines you can send your poems to. It tells what each magazine requires for a cover letter, how many poems to send at a time, when the reading period of each magazine is, and what style each magazine wants. It's essential so buy it often because the listings become outdated quickly, unfortunately. It costs a hefty $26. You can find it in Libraries for free, but usually it's outdated. 2. You can my submit poems to my Lucid Moon Review Poetry Website, www.lucidmoonpoetry.com, The guidelines for my poetry website are listed on the individual poetry column areas on the website. Please do not send snail mail, disc, or email website submissions, because all of the poetry columns have been converted to guest book areas. You can type in or copy and paste your best poems directly into the seven public poetry columns. When you submit your poem, you will automatically be sent an email confirmation where you will be asked to click on a link to confirm your submission, and your poem will be added to the website. This measure was added to each column to prevent spamming and unwanted messages. At the end of very month, I will remove objectionable poems. Please proofread and edit your poems before you finalize your submission. There is Your Poetry Page' (any topic poems), Moon Beams (moon-themed poems), A Few Poems A Day Help Keep The Psychiatrist Away (topical poems), Poetry, Essays and Lectures, Dissect A Poem (where you discuss your poem's meaning, line by line), Quotable Poetry Quotes (where you post your favorite literary quotes), and Jokes About Art, Literature Music and Poetry. I am posting new guidelines for each poetry column page and I'm adding a new color cartoon to each column which doesn't have one yet. 3. You can check out my Other Cool Websites page for links to other online poetry magazines which accept poetry submissions, and you can read poems for free. 4. Please read my permissions reprint agreement policy on the homepage of my website and the guidelines area below it before posting anything on my website. I do not accept snail mail, email and disc submissions for my website 5..Always include a cover letter, bio, and an sase (self-addressed stamped envelope) when submitting to other publications. Limit your poem submission to 3 - 5 poems. Most publications prefer 3 - 6 poems submissions. Try not to send poems in the body of an email because they get broken up. Always send by Microsoft Word document attachment or Rich Text attachment. Always address the editor by name, not “To whom it may concern”, which is rude. 6. There are basically 3 types and 3 tiers to publishing: a big publishing house that will give you a million dollar advance; vanity and subsidy publishing and printing on demand publishing. Let’s face it, no big publishing house is gonna give you a million dollar advance unless you are Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Stephan King, Anne Rrce or Danielle Steele. When I first researched publishing my own books, I thought I could only afford vanity or subsidy publishing but I found out even they were out of my budget. Vantage Press in NYC wanted $10,000 to print a measly 200 books and another NY firm wanted $20,000 for 500 books, Vanity and subsidy publishing are a rip-off so steer clear of them. When you are ready to print a book don't go with Vanity Publishing or Subsidy Publishing because they are a rip-off. Checkout the Printing On Demand area in my Other Cool Website page for the most affordable way to publish your poetry books. Check out links to AuthorHouse (formerly 1stBooks) , Xerox, Xlibris and iUniverse. Good luck in all your publishing endeavors. Now you can afford to publish your own book. Some people think printing on demand is a scam too, but for those with a limited budges it offers the most bang for the buck, with more options than most traditional publishers. I have links to all these Printing On Demand Publishing Companies in my Other Cool Websites Links area. AuthorHouse, Xerox, Xllibris and iUniverse are the major printing on demand companies. The only problem with 1 st Books and Xlibris is that they claim they can publish your book for $600, when in fact it’s closer to $1300 when you add in the back cover design option and the hard cover option. This is bait and switch advertising. Also, if you want promotional packages it is another $225 to $600 plus $5 to scan a page and $2.25 to type each page (data entry) if you are unable to type up the manuscript. The actual cost at AuthorHouse is $600 including base price fee, set up fee, text formatting, ISBN number bar code,$150 for Library Of Congress Catalogue Number, $75 for Copyright, $150 for full color front and back cover design and $300 - $600 for least expensive promotional packages. AuthorHouse does offer a seasonal sale of $300 off the base price, which is quite welcome. So, your book will cost anywhere from $1000 to $1500. AuthorHouse can now reproduce color inside, in addition to on the front cover and back cover, which is great, because I want to add color photographs and art work inside each book (but they can only do color inside books of 120 pages or less).. One problem I have found is that after manhandling the books from Xlibris for 3 months, the plastic film on the cover peels away from the cover They assured me they were now using a different process for the cover and offered to replace the shoddy copies. Another error I experienced is that they switched the typeface on the cover on a big order I placed, and they did replace all the copies for free. Avoid Xlibris at all cost! You have been warned! 7. You also have to consider customer relations. Are they going to foster a healthy author/agent relationship or are they just going to take the money and run? I have had nothing but trouble with Xlibris, so I can’t recommend them. Xlibris stupidly lost my entire original manuscript for my Lucid Moon Poetry Magazine which I wanted to resurrect later this year. They didn't tell me who my new agent was when he left, and they didn't answer my e-mails about pricing and scanning fees. They also didn't answer my Dad's livid letter to the president of the company. So I can't recommend them. The only reason I am not withdrawing my books from Xlibris is that I spent $1000 on each book and that would be money down the drain if I took them to my new printing on demand publisher, AuthorHouse. I just have to correct two dozen mistakes in each book and that will cost $300 each and I don't have that so I will hold off for now. You can check out AuthorHouse, Xlibris, and iUniverse, which is the least expensive of the 3 printing on demand companies, on my Other Cool Website page, but I am going with AuthorHouse to do all my upcoming projects. I would highly recommend them, they are more professional than Xlibris. They have hooked up with the largest book distributor in the U.S., Engram With AuthorHouse, you get the most royalties, 50%, and you can buy the book at half price and resell them for whatever price you want. And with all these printing on demand companies, the books stay in print forever. So you have some choices to make about which of these publishing options is right for you. Warmest Wishes, Ralph Haselmann Jr.’s Bio Lucid Moon Review Poetry Website,, Ralph Haselmann Jr., editor
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