Each time you write,  submit, or publish a poem, you risk rejection. Believe it or not, rejection from editors is not the worst kind of rejection. It's rejection from readers (and critics) that stings the most. When an editor rejects your poetry, you can at least comfort yourself by submitting the same poems elsewhere.

If a poem is published or posted and people slam or ignore it, getting a mulligan can be problematic. Not impossible, just challenging...

Another thing is: you're going to get rejected no matter who you are. You could be Shakespeare and you'd still get your fair share of rejections. 

So what do you do?

Well, I've had hundreds if not thousands of rejections and I can offer the following insights:

1) Expect to get them. Just like you accept getting sand in your stuff when you go to the beach.

2) Never answer them. Not privately by messaging the editor, or publicly, by whining to your social media circle. You can post an update as in "I was rejected today..." But resist the urge to defend yourself or criticize.

3)  Take a close look at your bio and cover letter. Can you make improvements? If you have a dull bio (I do!) or  a rambling (or sloppy) cover letter, it will likely influence editors' decisions. 

4) If a poem has been rejected by more than 5 venues, see if it may need improving. Sometimes it's just a single line or even a single word that's putting people  off.

5) Move on. Resubmit.

6) Only submit your best, most fully polished work.

When an editor asks to see more work from you, they really mean it. If they don't make that specific request, you shouldn't read much else into the rejection.

It's important to guard against the hurt of rejection because you can really get sidetracked by the glums. I'll talk about how to deal with online rejection, social media hate, and critics in a future post.
 
Tally
Poems Written: 311
Submissions: 51
Rejections:  21 (13 tiered)  
Acceptances: 0
Poem written today: "N/A"  Still mixing song, "Coming Home."

If you need a hand revising and polishing: 
1) Have me do it for you! Click the "Poem Polisher" button below. I've helped lots of poets.
2) Use my 7 Secrets of Poetry pdf as a guide for revision.

Being a poet means engaging in a  process of lifelong learning. No matter what you do, or how hard you work and study, you'll never master the art of poetry. But writing poems can help you master yourself.

Believe it or not, this has something to do with the topic of rejection. When people ignore your work, reject your work, or criticize it, you're on the road to learning. Usually that road is very painful and involves a lot of frustration, soul-searching, maybe even swearing of vengeance.  The point is, you'll be a different person for the experience no matter what.

Whether you're a better person is up to you.

The important thing to remember is that being a poet means embracing growth and change, both in your writing and in your life. Writing poems can help you connect with others and that's a wonderful feeling.

But never forget the power that writing poems has to help you connect with  you. Both who you are now, and who you might become.

Tally
Poems Written: 311
Submissions: 51
Rejections:  21 (13 tiered)  
Acceptances: 0
Poem written today: "n/a"   Mixing music track "Coming Home."

If you need a hand revising and polishing: 
1) Have me do it for you! Click the "Poem Polisher" button below. I've helped lots of poets.
2) Use my 7 Secrets of Poetry pdf as a guide for revision.

While writing a poem can be a very tough challenge, getting people to read even the best of poems is almost always tougher. Poets face a serious "no win scenario" with marketing. If you don't market your poems, nobody will ever know they exist. If you market your poems, you risk looking desperate  or self-absorbed. 

What's more, marketing is a very stressful, rough and tumble world. It's a shark tank mentality, while writing poetry is more of a Zen, one-with-nature and inspiration feeling. The difference between writing poetry and marketing it is as big as the difference between eating a nicely cooked steak or trying to eat a live cow.

So what do we do?

Actually, I was hoping you'd tell me!

It's a very problematic obstacle and it's probably only going to get worse with the rise of AI platforms. Not because AI's will write good poetry, but because even more wannabes will flood the market cheekily devising a masterplan to use their AI word-salad to get rich and famous.

It's going to be very, very ugly.  And it's already pretty bad.

Here are a few things I think may help:

• Avoid flooding the market. If you out to much stuff out, people will tune out.
• Be selective about what you publish or post. This is particular true of self-publishing. If you're going to bother to self-publish something be prepared to put in 5x the amount of work promoting it. 
• Don't pester people. If they want what you've got, they'll find it; if they don't, they'll just move on.
•  Lower expectations. If you self-publish a chapbook, 25 copies is a Big Number to move.
• Spend money. If you can do it, and you really believe in your work, hire professionals to promote for you. Be careful who you hire and remember, you'll get what you pay for. Fivr alone won't do it.
• It's basically everyday. You can't take a break form marketing or you lose momentum. If you're trying to market something you have to be on it all the time.
• Don't expect to make money. Expect to spend it.

Poetry for the most part only self-markets for dead poets. Something about being dead makes a poet more interesting. Unfortunately, you can't bask in the glory from six feet under and the light from your halo up-top past the Gates will blind you to earthly success. 

So, I leave you with these famous words, slightly paraphrased: "Do you know what it takes to sell poetry....?"

One thing you can do is to have really solid, polished work. If you want some help with your poems, email at [email protected]
OR
​[email protected]

​​Or click a button below.

Tally
Poems Written: 311
Submissions: 51
Rejections:  21 (13 tiered)  
Acceptances: 0
Poem written today: "n/a"  Mixing song "Coming Home" for release!

Disaster!!!  For the first time since May 3rd, I missed my 4 a.m. wake-up.
 
But this is actually good news!!

Why?

Because I felt really bad about it. It made me mad. The reason I overslept is because I had a good time on Sunday and wound up staying up a bit later than I should have. So, I paid the price...  It's infuriating to be put off my game like this!

Sometimes our emotions send us messages we don't really "get." For example. when we're mad we just feel... mad. In this case, my anger is a positive sign that I'm committed to my regiment, that it's not just a pose or a momentary flight of fancy.

So what do I do about botching my Monday wake-up?

I carry on as usual, try to make up for the lost hours by working even harder today and get up at 4 a.m. tomorrow!

Tally
Poems Written: 293
Submission Tally: 47
Rejections: 17 (10 tiered)  
Acceptances: 0
Poem written today: "Sleeping Late"​  
Music track (unmixed demo) completed "Global Rain."

Two poems drafted this morning: "Honeysuckle" and "Small Self-Portrait." The first poem came after taking a bike ride yesterday and seeing honeysuckle everywhere.  Also, I had a brief but troubling encounter with a "fugitive" man who struck up a conversation with me in the park. 

The second poem, "Small Self-Portrait," is about 8 lines long and I wrote it mainly to fill up the rest of the page in my notebook.

Some  Stats

Writing:
291 poems written since 3-19-20.  Probably about 35-40 typed  and submitted. 
Submitting:
45 submissions.  16 rejections. 0 acceptances.  9 tiered rejections. 7 standard. 

Geeze, Daniel, no acceptances? I thought you were good at this! Well, I'm only submitting to the toughest markets right now by design, so you know how that goes...  

Since May 3rd, I've been getting up at 4 a.m. each day to work on poems and I'm determined to write a poem each day, type up a draft each day, and make a submission each day. I'm interested to see what comes of this push, foremost in terms of whether or not it seems to make my poems better. I've been feeling inspired lately and I want to make the most of the creative energy while its available!

I'm also working on some music tracks and prose pieces that I hope to release and/or publish soon. 

Meanwhile, I'll probably post more blog entries like this one, just keeping a tally of my trek. Once my energy is expended, I'll almost certainly go back to tips and reviews...  I'm seeing good work out there on social media and in the literary journals and 'zines.  Keep it up! It's deeply inspiring.

Meanwhile if you want another set of eyes and ears for your work, hit me up through one of the buttons below. The editing and critiquing services have been working out extremely well. I've had absolutely zero complaints or dissatisfied customers and have dealt with scores of individual poems. So far, I've heard nothing but enthusiastic praise and many poets have become repeat customers.

If you want some help, just click one of the buttons below!

I'd like to thank everyone who submitted to the First Flashes poetry anthology. It's been a great experience reading your poems and responding to them. From the outset, the plan was to choose only a very small number of poems and poets to showcase in the anthology. This, of course, means that more poems had to be rejected than accepted.

If your poem was rejected, this doesn't say a whole lot about your creative capability or your poetic skills. It just means your particular poem didn't meet my current needs for this particular project.

I urge you to keep an eye on this blog, on my Facebook page, and my Twitter page to stay in the loop for soon-to-be-launched projects and future submission calls.

Just by submitting you've gained my interest and earned a well-deserved nod of admiration for your spirit and enthusiasm. I wish all the best in your future creative endeavors and look forward to sharing the published anthology with you all very soon!!!​  

If you're looking for an edge in submitting to publications or contests, consider getting feedback, or a quick polish (or both) through one of the buttons below.

Or simply send an inquiry to [email protected]

I've also posted a lot of poetry tips, ideas, and exclusive access to my own poems over at my Patreon page. There's also unique pictures and  access to my flash-fiction and occult writings. Please help me out by supporting me at Patreon!!! 

​ Thanks so much!! 
​@BlackstonDan

In my last post I mentioned some reasons why I think it's still a good idea for poets to submit poems for publication. In this post, I'm going to list three big perils of publishing. Of course, there are more than three!  But these will get us started.

1) Long response times. It's worse for poetry than in any other sector. I know because I submit (or have submitted) everything from flash fiction to novels. Go back and read that first sentence again. Underline it. Bold it. I can't overstate this. I've waited years to hear from journals. It's not unusual to wait six to eight months just to get a form letter. In fact, this is what happens most of the time for most people who submit.

2) Rejections.  No  matter how talented you are, or how thorough, expect to get far more rejections than acceptances. Also, don't try to read anything into your rejections. We all get the same notices. If an editor specifically requests you to send again, that means something, but if it's a generic "feel free to try again" that's not the same thing. You can increase your chances by sending your best, most fully polished poems, and targeting them to the right places.

3)  Ambivalence. It can be tough to  fight your way through long response times, grueling competition, and long lead times before publication only to find out no-one really cares that your poem's in a journal. How many people do you know who've even read a single poetry journal in their lives? You may find that even your closest friends and family just can't work up much excitement for your triumph. It's not like you won a sports trophy or got a bunch of money.

With these perils in mind, it's still definitely worth your time and energy to submit your poems. I'll get back to talking about why in a future post. 

And remember: the best way to avoid rejection is to send your best, fully polished work to journals you want to publish in with a simple, short cover letter (or email).

If you'd like some feedback on your poems, or want to get an edge in submitting to publications or contests, consider getting feedback, or a quick polish (or both) through one of the buttons below.

Or simply send an inquiry to [email protected]

I've also posted a lot of poetry tips, ideas, and exclusive access to my own poems over at my Patreon page. There's also unique pictures and  access to my flash-fiction and occult writings. Please help me out by supporting me at Patreon!!! 

​ Thanks so much!! 
​@BlackstonDan