Poetry Anyone????

Pam,

I love writing poetry and will check out this site this afternoon or evening. Thank you so much!

That's great Toni - We can use more poetry...Sun's publisher has just told me she'd like to see at least 150 poems if possible in the anthology which means I need MORE!!!

Thanks a bunch......I think this will be a wonderful collection when it's finally published.

Hi Pam,

As you know, I sent the call for poems out to 8 individuals one at a time because I couldn't figure out how to do it via bulk mailing. Well, I just figured it. I put all the info into a word document and pasted it into an email.

Since some of the folks on my list also have extensive mailing lists, this effectively has just reached at least 200 more people.

Thanks so much Meredith! You are a doll....Your friends are sending me some really wonderful work. I very much appreciate the help in getting the word out. I posted an ad on Writers-World (again) last week and I'm starting to get some response from that as well.

THANKS AGAIN Meredith......

Way to network ladies!

Indeed Dotsie....the Boomer Network Motto: "Women Helping Women Helping Women" a TRUE daisy chain of caring.

Just happy to be able to help however I can!

For the record -- for ANYONE in the Forum -- I run poetry programs and many of the people on my mailing list also run programs, or edit poetry publications. If everyone on my list daisy chains the email, 200 people recieving it is a LOW estimate!!

-- so if you need poetry submissions (not children's and not faith-based. I think that's another "circle") email me directly with the particulars and I'll get the word out.

Any update on Cosmic Brownies, Pam?

Hi Ladies....a bit of an update on "Cosmic Brownies"....I have 132 poems now collected for the anthology. The publisher wanted 150 but I sent her a note last night "suggesting" (!!) that perhaps we might just go ahead and put this baby to bed (so to speak) because I personally would like to see the anthology printed and "out there" before the holidays. I haven't heard back from her yet but I'm hopeful she will TAKE THE HINT.

I know it seems like FOREVER since those of you who have participated/contributed sent in your work for this anthology - but these things take time to come together I guess. "Cosmic Brownies" was one of four anthologies that were being put together. The anthologies were in addition to a number of other poetry collections from authors that they were working on. Of course I think (tee hee) that "Cosmic Brownies" should have PRIORITY - but hey - who am I?????????

Hang in there ladies...hopefully we are rounding the final corner and "Brownies" will be available SOONER rather than LATER.

Pam, I hear ya about the time it takes to put together anthologies!

By now I could have had the book finished, but what's taking so long is the positioning and "platform" building that publishers require.

Who is putting those anthologies together? Do they have a website?

Amen Dotsie! Yes indeedy....most of MY job to this point has just been accepting/rejecting contributions (which isn't always easy of course). Now I'm to put a Table of Contents together and try to categorize the poetry - waiting now to get the publisher's "vision" for that!

This is a division of Sun Books called Sun Rising Poetry Press. They are going great guns - probably growing too fast too since they seem to have bitten off a bit more than they can comfortably chew right now. They are doing books, collections, anthologies, chapbooks - but because they STARTED with poetry, and because there were so few publishers concentrating on poetry - they have been overwhelmed with projects.

You can visit them at http://www.sun-rising-poetry.com/

Julie pointed out to me in an email today that Maya Angelou is listed as a contributor for the collection I've been working on - I can only assume she sent something directly to the publisher OR we've gotten her permission to do a reprint of something. Pretty neat!!

Pam, I emailed them with some questions about a poetry book. I don't think any of poems would quite fit into the Cosmic Brownies. My stuff is mostly nostalgic or baby boomer related. At least my newer poetry. My older poetry, which might have to do with lessons I've learned are rhyming poems.
Louisa

Good luck with Sun Louisa....they are SOOOO busy it may be a while before you hear from them so don't get discouraged.

Personally I LOVE rhyming poems....I love poetry PERIOD, but when I write poetry it's usually rhyming...just a preference I guess.

Louisa,
You might also want to join their forum board. The publisher DOES frequent that area and answers questions, so if you DO get discouraged, you could post something there????

Just a suggestion. The link is:

http://p081.ezboard.com/bthesunrisingpoetryplace

JJ

Thanks, jj. I'll try the link.
My writing group is on our second anthology since May. In fact, it came out today. It's called Trail Blazers. In this one, there are I believe, 10 writers. We all contribute. Our teacher puts it together on the pc, edits, I proof and edit some more, then it goes to the printer. This time we had 175 copies printed out, perfect bound, color cover, 100 pages. I won't see it until tomorrow. In it, I have two stories and 4 poems.

It is a collection of short stories, poetry and essays. This time we are targeting local libraries. (Our last one got into one library) We have a few book nights planned. I'm going to cover one in October since the teacher can't be there that night.

It's a lot of work. We stay fairly local, except for the ones I sent all over the place on the first book

I plan to do my book the same way, only in Word instead of Publisher. By the way, can anyone tell me how the heck to get the page numbers in without it starting on the cover? I can usually do anything on the pc, but this baffles me.

I'll take it to the same printer and then market it the same way. Unless, I find a traditional printer first that wants to publish it. But, self-publishers are very expensive.

How does everyone else do it?

Louisa

jj- congrats on the new column!!
Louisa

Louisa
If you just want page #'s and no footer text: create your page break by: Insert, Break, and under Section Breaks, select "Next Page" then from the top of that Page:Insert, Page Number, Format, and under Page Numbering select "start at" and type in "1"

this will also work with a footer, if you make sure that the type of "break" you've created is a "next page" break by using the Insert, Break function (instead of just letting Word automatically create the page break)

Thanks, Evie. I'll try it. Will it work if I already have half the book in or do I have to start a whole new document?
Louisa

It should work within your existing document as long as you create a Section break where you want to start the #ing.....however, if you don't have a whole lot of formatting already done, you might find it easier to cut and paste into a new document

(I've spent several hours fooling around with getting that #ing "just right" when I was creating my poetry book - it can be very frustrating )

I do have half the book in there already, but it might be better to start over and cut and paste. I tried to do it and I still have the "1" coming out on the cover. Maybe I should do the cover as a separate document?? I can't believe I can't do this. The computer is like part of my fingers. I'm the one everyone comes to at work for stuff. But I never use page breaks. I use headers and footers with my newspaper articles and do the numbering fine, but I start at the beginning and they are only 2 pages. I don't want to have to number the pages manually. I'll try this on the weekend when I'm more alert.

Louisa