Tuesday 6 March 2007

First Poetry Collection

Hi,

I am working towards my first poetry collection. I have a number of published poems and successes in competitions and the like. But I can't work out how many poems you need to put in your first collection. I know I need a few more but should I aim at 20? 30? 40?

I googled but nothing obvious came up. Any advice?

Once I have that, of course, I need to work out where and how to submit.

Salmon Poetry says they are "not considering any new work at present. We've had to make some scheduling changes because of rising costs."

Dedalus Press says "Due to volume of work received, we are not currently reading new work."

Arrowhead Press says "We are NOT accepting unsolicited submissions at the moment."

Jonathan Cape says "Ideally, any submission should include 30-40 poems;" so maybe that's the answer.

Poetry Ireland website says "If you are planning to approach to a publisher it is preferable to send a small representative sample of your work (eg. the first 8 - 10 poems) with an introductory letter and a brief biographical note. Remember to include an S.A.E. If the publisher is interested in publishing your work they will contact you for a full manuscript. You should allow at least three months for a response."

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