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
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