Advice to Rejected Poets (and Storytellers)

 A poet posted on social media, asking if she should just give up trying to get published after a recent string of rejections.  

'Hang in there, keep trying,' said many in response. With which I do not disagree, but I added this:

Pardon me for sounding like an absolute barbarian, but –

When younger I used to get published often, even sometimes had editors of publications requesting submissions. Then I discovered blogging. I get many more readers this way! The circulation of even the most prestigious lit mags and anthologies cannot compare.

Maybe being selected for publication by someone else seems a sign that your work has merit? (Ignoring the fact that not all editors make perfect choices.) Well, you can do both, blog and submit – though many editors regard blogging as prior publication, so you have to be choosy about what you send where. But to me that just proves the point, that blogging = readers.

The cost is that you do need to interact with other bloggers in your genre, advertise your stuff on social media and so on – but that applies also to getting readers for other forms of publication, including your own books even if published by industry leaders.

International groups of blogging poets who post prompts and share work include dVerse, earthweal, Poetic Bloomings, Poets and Storytellers United (of which – full disclosure – I am currently Coordinator) and Poetic Asides. Google 'em. [But for anyone reading this here at my SnakyPoet blog, I've made links so you don't have to Google.]

I also like to post some things in poetry groups on facebook. Instant community, gentle feedback, and various opportunities for seeing latest journals to submit to or being selected for group anthologies.