Why You Should Purchase Copies of Your Poetry Book From Your Publisher

If your book gets published, it is a good idea to purchase copies of your own book. Yes, you will get some free author copies, but those aren’t really enough. Besides, you should also get a generous author’s discount on purchases of your book. So  why you should purchase copies of your poetry book from your publisher? Here’s a short list in no particular order:

1. You should support your publisher. This is done for a few reasons. One to help them recoup costs so they can print other poets. Besides, they have faith in your book, so give a little back for that faith. Plus, the publisher might remember this when your next book is looking for a publisher. But the reason is more of the former.
2. You will want to have copies to sell at your readings. This is where you will really make your money. You will get an author discount when you purchase your copies. That discount should be at around 50%. When you sell them at retail price, you will make double your money back, which at the time will be enough to buy a good dinner, a good bottle of wine, or some one else’s collection of poems.
3. You can sell copies to an independent book store on consignment and make some money. You won’t make as much as at a reading, but you will make some. The general consignment rule is 60/40. If your book is retailed at $10, the bookstore should give you $6 for every sale. (You will have to come back at some later time to collect the money.)
4. You will want to  have copies to swap with other poets. This will happen a lot, and it’s a good way to start, establish, or continue a friendship with a fellow poet. Giving is always good, and swapping is even better.
5. You will also want to have copies to give to some one you like or appreciate or to give to a poet you admire. Maybe you will meet someone and have a good time with them. A good end to that good time is to give them a copy of your book, but only if it comes up in conversation that you have a book. (You shouldn’t just randomly give them a book. That’s awkward.) You will also want to give copies to those teachers you admire or who stimulated you or supported you. I do. It feels so good. I think those teachers appreciate it, too, since they get to see something for all the time they put in. They will be happy. And most important, you will want to send copies to those poets who you admire and that shaped and affected your poetry. W. S. Merwin and William Heyen have copies of all my books. (Also, you can give a copy to someone you want to impress. Like someone you are attracted to and want to win over.)
6. You will want to have copies to give to family members. Sure the family should be supportive and purchase copies, but, hey, it’s your family. They love you. They support your enough already. Give them a copy. (The same holds true for close friends.)
7. Your publisher may or may not send out review copies of your book. If they do, there may be some places you can think of that they did not. Perhaps there is a journal you frequently appear in. They might want to see a copy of your book. Since they published you a lot, they must like your poetry. Thus, they are a good place to hope for a review. Or maybe you know a reviewer, so you should send them a copy. Really, you just want to get your book out there. You want as many people to read your book as you can. Your poems want to change and/or save lives.
8. This following reason is probably the most important  reason: You will want to have copies to sell after the publisher is sold out. Most likely there will only be one print run, so get as many copies as you can to last you for the rest of your life because the book will most likely never be printed again. In other words – HOARD. You’ll thank me for this when your seventy and you want to give a copy of your first book to someone who you currently don’t even know exists.

Here’s some additional advice. If you win a contest, use at least half the prize money to purchase copies for all the reasons above. Plus, at this rate, they are free because you’ve got all this new, unexpected money.

Basically, it comes to down to supporting and sharing. And when your older, it will come down to sentimentality. Your children might want copies. And if you are successful, so will some biographer. But, basically, you will want to hold the book in your hands. If you are like me, you will want all of your books on display at your funeral. At my funeral, I’ll have all my books on display and each issue of Redactions on display. It will be my opus. People will be able to see what I created and left behind.

No one is too big for this advice.//

Happy 70th Birthday Muhammad Ali – A Tribute in Songs

Here are some tribute songs for The Greatest on his 70th.

Sir Mark Rice – Muhammad Ali

Trio Madjesi – 8ieme Round

Jorge Ben – Cassius Marcellus Clay

The People’s Choice – Best Ever & Muhammad Ali

Eddie Curtis – The Louisville Lip

Dennis Alcapone – Cassius Clay & Joe Frazier (Round 2)

Dermot Kelly – Muhammad Ali – The Ballad

The Alcoves – The Ballad of Muhammad Ali

Orchestra G.O. Malembo – Foreman Ali Welcome To Kinshasa

Big Youth – Foreman vs. Frazier

Don Convay – Rumble in the Jungle

Tom Russell – Rumble in the Jungle

Rope-a-Dope

The Quotes

David Jordan – “My Destiny” – A Tribute

Much of this can be found on Hits & Misses.//

My Experience with The Portland Review

This is a story of a bizarre submission experience with The Portland Review.

On February 9, 2011, I submitted five poems to The Portland Review, which is a fine journal that I admire. They put out poems that I enjoy. I simultaneously submitted these poems to other journals, too. On April 23, one of those poems was accepted elsewhere, so I withdrew it from consideration at The Portland Review, and there were no problems.

On May 19, I received the following acceptance email from The Portland Review.

Woo hoo! I’ve always wanted to be in this journal, and finally I will be. However, which poem did they accept? It doesn’t say. Might they have accepted more. I hope so. But I needed to find out, so I wrote them back asking which poem or poems were accepted.

They replied promptly, within four minutes, with this email.

Oh, man they took all of the four remaining poems. I was so happy because I had just begun this long series of poems about the Paleolithic artists who painted all those paintings in the caves in France and Spain and elsewhere. Actually, the poems are broadening out to the whole Paleolithic area and era. So I even have poems about the invention of the needle and the doll and other things.

Anyway, these four poems were accepted by The Portland Review. One of them, “Paleolithic Person Explains Cave Art and the Apocalypse,” was for a friend who passed away recently. In fact, Steve Noble, the friend who is no longer with us, helped me write that poem. I wrote that poem a couple of months after he passed, and he and I weirdly communicated with each other. I asked him questions, and he pointed me in the right direction, and I, we, wrote this terrific poem. So yay. Happy me. And happy Steve, who will be immortalized as I dedicated the poem to him. Thank you Portland Review. I then responded, as shown here:

All’s good in the world! . . . until July 18.

On July 18, I received this email:

What? Hunh? Hey, you guys already accepted these poems. What’s this email about? Oh man. What’s going on?  So I responded as soon as I read the email, which was about an hour after Sam Newson, the poetry editor, sent the rejection.

And then I documented our email exchange, which you just saw, and I concluded the email like this:

Man, I had to write a lot of withdraw letters and emails. That took up some time and postage. Now, if these poems are truly rejected, I can’t send these poems to those magazines from which I withdrew them. The editors at those journals will be majorly confused and it will make me look silly. Now, my poems have less places to find a home, share their beauty, and change people’s lives.

Two days later there is no response. Last time they responded within the same day, within four minutes. Man, what’s going on? I’m kinda getting pissed here. So I wrote them again.

(And below my salutation is the second acceptance email, where Sam lists all the poems they are going to use.)

I’m being professional here. Am I not? They certainly aren’t by rejecting what they accepted and not responding. Of course this non-response continues. I wrote them again the next day. This time to both the editor and Sam Newson.

(Below is the second acceptance email listing the poems that were accepted.)

Ok. So that’s enough emails for now. Surely, someone has to respond.

Now, it’s Tuesday, July 26. It’s been a full week and a full day, and no one has responded. This is very unprofessional of Sam Newson and The Portland Review. It’s unethical, too, to accept poems and then reject them.

Further, what I am supposed to do with these poems. Are you going to use them in an upcoming issue or not? I need to know so I’ll know what to do with the poems. I mean, if you are not going to use them, let me know so I can send them back out into the world so they can find a home.

As an editor, I know what to do – You accept the poems you once accepted, and you respond.

It’s obvious they are avoiding me, and that’s even worse than accepting and rejecting the same poems. What’s going on over there, Portland Review? Respond to me. I’m getting pissed off right now. You are holding my poems hostage. Should I contact CLMP? Where’s Foetry.com when you need them? Where’s the professionalism? (At the same time, I hope everyone is okay over there, and that nothing went detrimentally wrong.)

You know, I could almost understand this if there was a change in editors. Well, not really. Re: Paris Review. (By the way, Paris Review, you’re on notice.)

In the end, I just hope this is just a mistake like the time a journal accepted my poems, printed them in their journal, sent me two contributor copies, and, then, a few months later rejected those same poems. Now that was funny. I hope this ends in an equally funny manner. Until then . . .

 Portland Review, you’re on notice!//

Behance.net and my cover and ad designs

I recently opened an account at Behance.net (http://www.behance.net/thelinebreak) to share some of my book and journal cover designs and ads and posters that I create. This site is for people who do such things plus typographers and other creative individuals.

At the same time, I’ve been preparing Redactions: Poetry & Poetics issue 14 for publication, and I’ve made a few ads for the journal. At Behance.net, I posted those ads and wrote a little story about each one. I like this. I like being able to share this kind of information and talking about it. I wish I was better at it. I really want to and should take some nighttime graphic design courses somewhere. I’m self-taught, and I’ve gone as far as I can.

So if you want to learn more about some of cover designs and ad designs, stop by http://www.behance.net/thelinebreak every now and then.

Here’s a taste of my recent addition.

Pure Elysium Ad

As you recall, I also do layout and Design for Palettes & Quills Press. Their most recent  book is Michael Meyerhofer’s Pure Elysium (http://amzn.to/ooazVu). Since I’m also responsible for advertising and marketing, in part, I needed to make two ads. One for the tremendous website VerseDaily.com. (It’s like an online anthology of the best poems that appear in the most recent poetry journals and books.) The size restrictions for this are small – 0.5″ x 0.333″. At first I tried to make this ad at that size, but, man, that wasn’t working. So I made the ad at 5″ x 3.33″ and then shrunk it down. That worked fine.

Then I had to make a bigger one, 4.5″ x 8″, for Redactions: Poetry & Poetics issue 14. What I like about this ad is that there is the perfect amount of space in the upper left-hand corner for the image of the book cover. It’s not really covering up anything. And you can still see the main action of the cover art. It was also a good way to get larger viewing of the cover, despite it being grayscale, though I like the effects.

The cover art by Peter Davis is titled “The People Make Love.”

Don’t forget to visit: http://www.behance.net/thelinebreak.//