Poet's Dialogue

Poet's Dialogue

I try and stay in touch with Cortney Bledsoe these days over on his blog Murder Your Darlings . He had announced the upcoming publishing of his new poetry collection, RICELAND.

I wrote to him, saying,"Wow, you are like a poster child for HOW TO BE PUBLISHED ON LINE. Over the last several years, as you were completing your Master's, and now as a teacher, you seem to have the process wired about how to submit to chapbooks and ezines and get wonderful results. I guess it is also important to note that your work speaks for itself; that you are one hell of good poet to begin with. Looking back over the 120 of your poems and stories I have collected on line and posted on my site, it is still amazing to track the different phases and interests you have pursued."

Cortney responded with these words of wisdom:
"Getting published is all about hard work and taking your ego out of the equation. Editors are people with their own tastes. Do the research, see what they like, see if you like them, and if your work is similar enough, they'll probably publish you. Unfortunately, there's also some luck in there--timing is important, and other factors. There's a story that Ray Bradbury had over 500 rejections before he was published. There's another story that Truman Capote never had a rejection in his life. Both of these could easily be true, but they don't really reflect on the talent of the writers so much as the fickleness of the industry.

It's easier to submit work online because the turn-around time is usually quicker, and it's less expensive to e-mail than to snail-mail, but the principles are the same. I have forthcoming work online and in print. I can't say I really prefer the one to the other.

When I first started sending work out as an undergrad., it took over a year before I saw any results. I "carpet-bombed" which just means I wasted a lot of stamps sending work to every market I could find. Imagine going up to complete strangers and asking them to buy something from you. Maybe one will, but most won't. Now, I target things more. I have developed relationships with publishers. I still send work out to journals I haven't appeared in before, but it's less of a crap shoot. Still, it's taken years of work, and the most impressive publications I've had have been maybe fourth tier. And I still get a lot of rejections. When I was starting out, I might get 20 rejections for something before it was picked up, especially fiction. Now, I often place a piece on the first try because I know what particular editors like, but sometimes it takes 5 or 6 rejections before someone picks it up. Of course, I'm a better writer now, as well."

Thank you, C.L. Bledsoe, for your generosity of spirit, and your willingness to share, to teach, to be accessible to inquiring minds.

Glenn Buttkus