From: "Peter Cudmore" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 12:57 AM
Subject: Re: Money and poetry
>> You're so right, Dave. It doesn't seem to occur to people that if all or
>> even most of those who submit to any poetry magazine were to take out a
>> subscription *as well*, the mag would be on a much sounder financial
>> footing, and might even be able to afford a few hours paid clerical help
> per
>> week, to help shift the basic envelope-stuffing pile.
>>
>> joanna
>
> You're right, Joanna, but the other side of the coin is that if you make
> publication dependent on subscription (implicitly if not explicitly) then
> you run the danger of becoming a vanity house.
>
> Oh and Mark, those people who have signed up to Masters' courses in
> creative
> writing have had to convince parents, bank managers or partners to FUND
> them
> for their study time, and that is rarely going to happen without strong
> evidence of ability.
>
> P
>
Now I didn't say a thing about making publication dependent on subscription,
which is something I am of course dead against. I merely find it rather odd
that people can write poetry and submit it to magazines, in full expectation
of getting it published, without having sufficient interest in poetry
publication to want to subscribe.
I do realise that subscriptions cost money and no one can subscribe to
everything. But what we and some of our friends do is subscribe loyally to
certain mags and in addition take out year-long subs to a changeable
selection of others.
joanna
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