I prepared and sent a packet of ten sample poems, my C.V. and a cover letter to the poetry editor of a press that publishes poetry collections. I have samples of this same manuscript being considered by another press but I can’t wait for one press to answer before sending the work out again. Of course I hope for a positive response from either press. I also will continue tweaking the manuscript to further improve it. I am slow to arrange the poems; and while I am making decisions as to the length, that can be altered by the publisher. Something that I came across which works in my favor is that 75% of the poems I am including in the work have been published. This is desirable. A few of the poems which I am including are currently under consideration too.
2 thoughts on “A Day in the Writing Life”
Comments are closed.
Clare L. Martin 
75% is great! I think my first book was somewhere around 50% and my second one is at 52%. You are definitely doing it the right way with how you are sending it around to multiple places while still fine tuning it. I need to get mine out to a few places. I sent some query packets off but haven’t heard anything so..hmmm
The press I was referring to in this post is the one that asked to see the whole manuscript. I got the request yesterday. I spent several hours with the ms last night and tried not to over-think it. I mailed it to the editor this morning. I was taken aback at how quickly he responded to the sample poems/packet. Fingers crossed!