[stylist] a different take on everything

Mon Jun 23 18:11:26 UTC 2014

Lynda,
Thank you for responding with such an interesting history of your own.
I also met Gwendolyn Brooks as she was a good friend of my mother's. I
believe that she also was a contributor to the Chicago Tribune's column,
called, "A Line O' Type or Two, Let the Quips Fall Where They May" I think
they both got their start as poets in Chicago, and I still have Gwendolyn's
book called "Bronzeville," I think. I love her poem called, "We Real Cool."
I patterned one after that called, "We Real Old."
A small world, isn't it?
At any rate, Yes, I would like to have a pattern for how to submit a mixed
genre poetry/narrative book to a mixed audience of abused women, and the
professionals that concern themselves with this group. It is  difficult  to
crack, as the treatment of domestic violence is not done in poetry, the
victims are not usually interested in poetry, and teachers, counsellors,
doctors who treat the broken bones, and psychiatrists digging deeper,
usually all have their own jargon, and not a lot of motivation to read the
poetry about the subject. 
At the same time, the problem only gets worse, and there is a huge hidden
audience out there somewhere. 
Off-hand, I do not know of mixed genre publishers that would treat of this
subject in  poetry with a dollop of prose.
Let me know if any thoughts come your way. I have had many of the poems
published in contests. Perhaps I will attach one, a first place in a Science
category.

Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz	 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lynda Lambert [mailto:llambert at zoominternet.net] 
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 4:11 AM
To: Jackie Williams; Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] a different take on archaeology

the house is still quiet this morning. I walked the dogs, and checked my 
email. Our two house guests are still snoozing, and so is Bob! I wanted to 
drop you a few lines after reading this note from Jackie and Chris.

I enjoyed reading the two posts this morning. I had read Chris' post earlier

but don't think I responded to it. It is hilarious and I think you are spot 
on, Chris.

In the art world, the parallel to self-publishing would be for the artist to

be sitting in a tent at a local arts festival and selling their wares, 
compared with the artist who shows work in a gallery or museum setting where

it is displayed in comfortable, aesthetic surroundings, and is sold by a 
professional who does this for a profession.  I have done both and can speak

from experience that the first example is not the way to go unless you love 
being "out there" working very hard, and usually not even breaking even.

On the other hand, I attended a workshop at a university where Gwendolyn 
Brooks was the honored guest. Folks attending could read one piece for the 
audience and for Gwendolyn.  One man introduced himself and said something 
like, "I am not really a published writer, I just published my own 
chapbook."  Gwendolyn smiled, as she is always known for her quiet spirit 
and her smile, and said, "You are a published poet! It does not matter who 
paid for the publishing of the book, it is still a book, and it is 
published. Never be ashamed to say you have published a book."  I will never

forget the grace she had with people who had the courage to read a piece for

her at that workshop, and this is the one that stands out in my memory after

25 years.

I can certainly relate to all the reasons Chris gave for NOT 
self-publishing. I would say the same things, too. It is not something I 
would have the inclination to do, for all the same reasons.

Poets typically publish their own chapbooks, and this is historically the 
case. That is something different, I think, than other forms of writing that

are self-published.  The audience for poetry books would be so minimal when 
compared with publishing of a novel - the audience much smaller for the 
poetry book.

For a number of years I belonged to a very little circle of friends who 
wrote poetry. We met once a month at each other's home. We prepared a lovely

lunch, celebrated each other's birthdays, and read our work to each other. 
We were four friends who loved poetry, writing, art, and getting together 
with each other. One of them was the poet laureate of Beaver County, in PA. 
Eventually 2 of the ladies died, and one has Alzheimers. That ended our 
group, of course. We never felt complelled to expand our group or to grow - 
that was not the purpose of what we did. But, I wanted to say that we 
published a chapbook of our work - just for the joy of doing it - and so 
that we each could have a little book of our work to share with family and 
good friends. It was something we did together, for fun, and as a way of 
putting our poetry together as a group.

One thing that would be wonderful to have as a program some month would be 
to have an author speak to us about the road to getting our work published -

such as HOW to write good query letters, and how to write the other kinds of

things that would lead to getting the work published by a publisher.  Most 
of my own publications came through my life as an academic - most pieces 
were conference presentations that were picked up and published in books, 
and some things are publshed in magazines because I write about topics that 
the magazine embraced.  My own writing is mostly focused on writing about 
art and poetry, artists and poets. I think the biggest thing the writer has 
to do is to understand exactly what our focus needs to be and to follow it 
instead of being "all over the place."  Figure out who you are, and dig in!

But we all follow the path that is before us and the opportunities that we 
grasp when they flash by our consciousness.

Happy writing today! Lynda
Lynda McKinney Lambert
Artist, Author, Educator

www.lyndalambert.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jackie Williams via stylist" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2014 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] a different take on archaeology

> Chriss,
> This was far back in what I  saved. I did want to comment that I do agree
> with all of your points on self-publishing, and most strongly, that I 
> almost
> rather die than try to sell anything to someone, and in particularly
> something I wrote myself. I enter contests for all of my poetry, and my
> poetry manuscript in poetry book contests, on the basis that if it is good
> enough, it will be selected eventually. If it is not, I either have not
> found the right market, or my skill is not good enough, or that I have not
> been disciplined and persistent enough.
> My mother was nominated Poet Lauriat   in AZ in the 1980s but the position
> was not funded. She self-published nine books, in     spite of being 
> invited
> to join the Mark Twain Society when  I was a teen in Chicago. Somehow it
> never occurred to her to send a manuscript out anyplace. Secretly, I do 
> not
> think she wanted anyone to edit her work.
> I still have many copies of five of her books, while the others have sold
> out. But under a thousand copies each, as you mentioned. She never made 
> any
> money as a profit over costs.
> This does not mean I don't admire those who put in the massive effort of
> self-publishing. But, it like you, I could not do the marketing, have 
> great
> difficulty doing styles and art, and so on.
> Jackie Lee
>
> Time is the school in which we learn.
> Time is the fire in which we burn.
> Delmore Schwartz
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kuell
> Sent: Monday, May 05, 2014 7:37 AM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] a different take on archaeology
>
> I'll address several comments below.
>
> Vejas - Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed my story. At 5,600 words, it's much 
> too
>
> long for Slate and Style.
>
> Bridgit - Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to read and
> critique my story. I agree with your comments 100%. John worked for what I
> needed in the story, but he is rather two dimensional, and it wouldn't be
> hard to add a little complexity to his character. While I enjoy reading
> praise and kind words about my writing, I really appreciate the types of
> helpful comments you gave me, which will help me to become a better 
> writer.
> All great writers are great because they have good critical readers.
>
> Donna - There are several reasons why I haven't taken the path of
> self-publishing. The primary one is that there is still a stigma about
> self-published books, and this stigma is actually well earned. Yes, there
> have been some excellent self-published books in the past, but 98% of them
> are still pretty bad. As a result, the public is very reluctant to 
> purchase
> them. Again, sure, a handful of writers have made excellent money
> self-publishing their work. But only 1 in a hundred sells more than 500
> books, and one in a thousand sells more than 2000 books. And according to 
> an
>
> article I read a few years ago, almost all published books sell at least 2
> thousand copies. The reason is that the publishing house is invested in 
> your
>
> book, and even though they can't publicize it like they once did, they 
> still
>
> want to help you sell books. And I'm the kind of guy who needs that help,
> because I'd pretty much rather get a root canal than try to sell somebody
> something. I just can't bare the thought of me standing on a corner with a
> book in one hand and a gun in the other, shouting "Buy my book or I'll 
> shoot
>
> this dog!"
> Because I actually like dogs.
>
> Plus, theoretically I could publish for free, but not realistically. I'd
> need to hire someone to do the cover art, and hire someone else to do the
> formatting, and another person to do the copy editing. I'd spend weeks and
> months trying to get people to buy my book, and I'd be lucky if I broke
> even.
>
> If you're really interested in reading one of my novels, we can work out a
> deal. If you'll donate $2 to your local NFB chapter, and promise not to
> share it, I'll send you the novel as a word doc. In the meantime, I'll 
> keep
> querying.
>
> chris
>
>
>
>
>
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