anybody publish their work? or make money off of it?

I'd be interested if any poets in here have been published? or even if any of you have submitted poems or other writings to contests? i'd love to hear about it!

 

http://windpub.com/literary.scams/

thought i'd throw this out there for anybody looking to enter "free" online contests

 

i got one of my poems published through a website: poetry.com. i am not sure that it is a real publishing company because i had to pay for the book it was in. This was it:

Overcoming the Evil:
If the darkness were to elude the light
the darkness would fall
over the city, in the forests.
over the countryside, poisoning the sea.
The sun would fall from the sky
and darkness would follow
But if chance.....
The light were to elude the dark
it would flood in
enveloping the darkenss
and kissing the shadows

 

did you get the book yet? i've heard bad things about that site

 

Great topic, I've certainly considered it.
The reason I joined hipforums was to
share perceptions primarily through poetry.
I initally met fulmah, littleskinny, inbloom, osiris & kittenx
who all have helped me with their insightful comments
and holding up the mirror. Its a wonderful feeling to be able
to circulate passion, ideas, sensations and emotions through
this global online medium... without having it be tainted by
the obstacles of price, time or in-betweens.
However in considering today, publishing, I encounted
the name of a book called 'The Poets Market' and this link...

http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/writerscorner/wc_publisher.html

which rang very clear. My intention has always been to share,
I find great profit in the exchanges of feelings, ideas and content
found in this forum. Thank you all very much.
Perhaps I'll peruse the book mentioned above...
but the link raised some very interesting points.

How does everyone else feel about publishing?

 

I personally don't have the motivation or the attention span to go through the process of publishing and through researching of the market. I've been published twice for no profit at an ezine simply to see if I could. Overall I don't think I would want to worry about publishing at this point. It can so easily become for pure ego strokin'.

 

I think it'd be cool one day, though I doubt I'm good enough for it. But I do have all my stuff saved, and maybe one day I'll give it a shot. Though I have no idea how to do that. I don't think I'd want to do it for a job, because that might take the flow and fun out of it. Maybe I'll just write and write till I have tons of poems and then start publishing them, haha.

Mostly though, it's not important to me. Just a good mode of self expression, even if you people are the only ones who ever see any of it.

My sister brought over a printout for a poetry.com poem contest (for my mom, who occasionally writes). Is that place a scam? I too have heard shit about them...

 

well my bf said poetry.com definitely is a scam, and his mom is a writer who works on judging poetry contests herself. so i think his reasoning is legitimate. from what he has said, you can write whatever you want (jibberish) and they'll still take your money and send you a book with it... i don't know if they actually send a book with the poem in it though... *shrug*

 

there are a lot of places that basically run scams; it's kinda heartbreaking, honestly. this site keeps up with them:
http://windpub.com/literary.scams/

however, this site is quite helpful for anyone out there trying to get published:
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/56


for myself, I've thought about trying for some journal or magazine but haven't submitted anything yet, I'd rather put out something more on my own. for now I really like the forums, they're so immediate, and this one in particular, it's great. there are some rumbles around now and then but overall, the community here rocks

 

that first link is also in my second post.

and i agree the community here is really great

 

i did get a book and most of them were good but the thing is i feel that you shouldnt have to pay for your work to be shared. i save all my poems too. i write when i feel strong emotions and the words seem to just form in my mind and thats when i have to find paper and fast!

 

Great poem... the last stanza is awesome.

 

I had one of my poems published in the 'Nimbin News" Auztralia.Also I sold my poetry on the streets to tourist. Love and Peace.