# How many poems, &c



## wainscottbl (Dec 15, 2014)

Well, I have been saying, "Later, when I have more poems." But I figure, why not go for it now. I would say I have about 30, maybe more poems of various nature. Is that enough to try and publish a book of poems? Also, it seems a lot harder to get poetry published, let alone gain some notice through it in the general community. Like the poet in My Girl 2 says, "No one reads poetry anymore. They watch TV." Novels are a lot easier to get money and fame by. Not that I am seeking that per se, but I should like to make _some _money, even if not enough to live by. But 30+ poems good? Some of them are religious, some romantic, and some sort of random. I would likely not publish some of them, such as a couple of the rather crude ones. Also, I worry that they are so various in nature that a publisher might feel hesitant about them.


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## krishan (Dec 19, 2014)

I've come across collections of poetry as short as one poem and as long as several hundred. Different publishers will have different requirements with regards to the length of a given manuscript, but in general I wouldn't worry too much about what the "right" number of poems might be.

I suspect that a collection of general poetry from an unknown author might be a more difficult sell than a collection that has some kind of identity or theme.


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## Bloggsworth (Dec 19, 2014)

When you have about 150/200 poems, ruthlessly whittle them down to 30 or 40 for a pamphlet - Unless, of course, you are a genius; then you can go for it with a full book.


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## escorial (Dec 19, 2014)

good luck with that


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## PiP (Mar 3, 2015)

Wainscott, I'm also considering publishing some of my poetry. I'd be interested to know if you've progressed any further with your idea


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## wainscottbl (Mar 3, 2015)

PiP said:


> Wainscott, I'm also considering publishing some of my poetry. I'd be interested to know if you've progressed any further with your idea



I might submit some to a magazine first. It would have a better chance than my short stories, I think. I do need to get all my poetry together and print it out. I've saved it to OneDrive to make sure I do not loose it if my computer gets sick!


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## PiP (Mar 3, 2015)

wainscottbl said:


> I do need to get all my poetry together and print it out. I've saved it to OneDrive to make sure I do not loose it if my computer gets sick!



Sounds like a plan! At the moment my poems are filed randomly on my PC or here at WF. I was going to use GoogleDocs but as I recently got locked out of a google account, I'm not so sure. I'm not familiar with OneDrive must google.  You've just reminded me I also need to make hard copies of my poems  Good luck with the submissions.


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## AaronR316 (Apr 22, 2015)

wainscottbl said:


> Well, I have been saying, "Later, when I have more poems." But I figure, why not go for it now. I would say I have about 30, maybe more poems of various nature. Is that enough to try and publish a book of poems? Also, it seems a lot harder to get poetry published, let alone gain some notice through it in the general community. Like the poet in My Girl 2 says, "No one reads poetry anymore. They watch TV." Novels are a lot easier to get money and fame by. Not that I am seeking that per se, but I should like to make _some _money, even if not enough to live by. But 30+ poems good? Some of them are religious, some romantic, and some sort of random. I would likely not publish some of them, such as a couple of the rather crude ones. Also, I worry that they are so various in nature that a publisher might feel hesitant about them.


 I had about 100 poems that I wrote over the past 10 years that I published but yeah the average short poetry book is like 25 pages!


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## midnightpoet (Apr 23, 2015)

I've been looking at several literary magazines but my poetry in general doesn't quite fit.  I've thought why not write to fit, except I'm not sure that would even work.  A poet at my old critique group gave us a list one time of sites that accepted poetry but of course that's 15 years back (although I think I still have it in some of my old files).  Her approach was successful - write a dozen a week and keep sending them out until she got a hit.


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## Gargh (Apr 23, 2015)

midnightpoet said:


> I've been looking at several literary magazines but my poetry in general doesn't quite fit.



One way to combat that is to look out for submission opportunities that have a theme -- war, marriage, love etc. -- and fit your poetry to that, rather than try to tailor your style.


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## Transcender (Jun 27, 2015)

With the internet, it isn't unthinkable that a large group a writers could submit two or three of their favorites into a collective work. Not only would the resulting work be more refined and varied, but a foothold would be provided for any of the involved poets who strives to eventually go his own way.


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## David Gordon Burke (Jun 27, 2015)

wainscottbl said:


> .... but I should like to make _some _money.



I really cannot decide if your idealism is refreshing or just sad.  I mean this with no disrespect but how much do you consider some money?
Case in point.  I have 8 non-fiction tutorials that teach English to Latinos.  I have 3 other books that deal with dogs.  1 memoir, 1 novel and a short story collection.  I've been at it for 2 years.  
I have recieved dribs and drabs from the Mexican version of Amazon.  20 pesos here, 40 pesos there.
Amazon.com is about to pay me my first $100.  I thank god for the weak mexican peso (I live in Monterrey, Mexico) since I will recieve a bigger payment now.  1600 pesos.  WOOO!
Amazon.es, the Spanish subsiduary owes me about 60 euros.  Who know when they will pay out.
And none of this is going to cover the cost of the graphic work I hired out for my covers.
That in the self published Ebook world.  I'd estimate that poetry might be more prestigious in printed form.  What's that going to cost?

So no, I'm going to go with refreshing.  If you can do it with poetry, all the more power to ya'.

David Gordon Burke


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