Good luck, Bob. I think the secret of writing for readers (something
that I confess I've never thought about for poetry) is to write
something that you want to read yourself. If it works, it gathers its
own energy. I've "proved" this theory to my own satisfaction at least
twice.
Could the thing about being "too advanced" be an American thing? I'm
thinking of books like Fungus the Bogeyman, say, one of the best
children's books ever, and of things I've heard about US publishers
who will tend to censor their editions of children's books for being
(for example) too rude, even though children _are_ rude and the books
have done very well here.
xA
On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 12:53 AM, Bob Grumman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks for the answer, Alison. It's the way most writers break in, I
> suspect.. I've only gotten "big pay-offs" for writing twice, both times due
> to happening to know the right person. The first time a close visual poet
> friend of mine was close to another poet who had an in with the editor of
> the Gale Contemporary Writers Autobiography Series, and me and four or five
> other fvisual poetry friends of the visual poet got essays into the series
> for which we were paid a thousand dollars (or something close to that). I
> got $500 for an introduction to visual poetry for some kind of newsletter
> for teachers because, again, a poet friend of mine mentioned me to the
> editor of the newsletter. Absolutely nothing came of either. My only other
> two pay-offs of more than a hundred dollars were due to a poet friend who
> knew a gallery owner and was able to talk that person into having a show of
> visual poetry that included mine and a lot of other people's work, and I
> sold a work at each show for $600, getting half that at one, and the full
> amount at the other.
>
> I self-published 500 copies of my children's book, and have sole most of the
> copies over the years through word of mouth. All the commercial places I've
> tried it at seemed to find it too "advanced" for children, and too silly for
> adults. But teacher friends who had it in their elementary school classes
> told me the kids fought over who would get to read it next, and most adults
> who have read it seem not to have thought it too advanced (although they
> were all friends of mine or relatives, so may have wanted to be nice to me).
> I'm now gearing up to try again to get a commercial publisher to take it.
> I made it in black & white before I had a computer. With a computer, I can
> add color, and I have ideas for lengthening it. Just got to get the energy
> to do it.
>
> --Bob
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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