June 2020
I was cleaning up pics from my iPhone and ran across this one from June 2020. I was seated at an outdoor space at my fav Cantina, having lunch and working on a poem from my book: “Poets Should Not Write About Politics” which was accepted by a publisher in February 2021!
POETS SHOULD NOT WRITE ABOUT POLITICS
by Jerry T Johnson
Winner of the 2020 Evening Street Press Sinclair Poetry Prize
After the Celebrations
Ok, I just had a book published by a publisher. I have celebrated with my friends and with family. What next?
I’m reminded of watching a television show one night where a new writer had finished his first book and spent an awfully excessive amount of time talking about it.
A veteran writer invited him to a poker game. At that game was James Patterson and Michael Connolly. They grilled him a little. Michael Connolly asked him,
“Do you know what I did after my first book was published?”
The young writer answered, “No, I do not.”
Connolly replied, “I shut up and started on my next book.”
So friends and fam, Thanks for all the Likes and Hugs and Loves and Congrats!
But now it is time for me to shut up and work on my next book! (already in progress)
Notes From My Writing Experience. Post #2
I Also Use Submittable
Attached to this post is a picture of my Submittable Account. The pic displays my active submissions. Active submissions are those that are submitted and have not been accepted or rejected yet. Of course this is my own definition. A more high fa-lu-ten definition may state: Active submissions are submissions that are under consideration. (I used my proper English voice when I said that)
Using my street voice, half of these ain’t being considered at all right now —especially during a pandemic. All the publishers are short staffed. Also, due to the pandemic, I am sure that submission totals have skyrocketed.
Therefore, try to be patient. I have edited for small presses before. I have great appreciation for their work and their challenges. As matter of fact, I think every writer should do a round of editing for a small or large press at least once in their lifetime. Writers attitude towards publishers may change quite a bit after that experience. More importantly, their writing and their writing approach may change. I know mine did.
Oops, I digressed a little —Back to using Submittable.
How does Submittable benefit me?
1. Electronic submissions – no stamps, no envelopes, No SASE – that’s self-addressed stamped envelope for the computer age crowd.
2. Tracking of your submissions – automatic. You don’t have to track your own, Submittable does it for you. I use Submittable for tracking and I use my own spreadsheet in conjunction with Submittable.
3. It is easy to withdraw a poem that was simultaneously submitted and accepted by another publisher (imagine writing withdrawal notes by hand to 29 publishers)
4. Oh, by the way, if you did submit a poem to 30 publishers and one publisher accepted your poem, you should immediately notify the other 29 publishers that the poem was accepted by another and is no longer available. Don’t be a jerk, It is the right thing to do.
5. I use Submittable to track —when was the last time — I submitted to a publisher. (Some publishers only allow 1 submission a year)
I will stop here. There are many other benefits for using Submittable. It has many benefits for the writer and the publisher.
Stay tuned for my next post: Resources
Notes From My Writing Experience
I track what I submit in a spreadsheet whose design I borrowed from an old edition of Writers Market. Over time I tweaked the format, customizing it to my specific needs.
The picture you see is an example of how I track my submissions. I usually estimate that most publishers will respond favorably to my submissions within 60 days after submission deadline. If I receive no response within 80 days, I consider it “rejected”. Why? I have never received an acceptance for any submission that has aged past 62 days.
I mark these aged submissions as “no response” and I filter them out of my list.
I am not a writing expert. There are 11,001 writers who qualified to be listed in P&W. Out of that list I am ranked #11,001. There are, probably, another 10,000 well known writers who are not in that directory. That makes my ranking about #20,001. Nonetheless, I have experience on being published and I want to share my tools and my experience with you.
Look for more posts about what I have experience as a writer in the near future.
More Editing
No sneak peeks this time
Deadline I’m working towards – July 15th
Round of editing – number 5
next step put in shelf for a few days and forget about it
following step – remove from shelf , read aloud and edit
Final step – final edit and submit
Editing for a submission- July 15th deadline. Cutting out my cute lines. They are my darlings. They gotta go. They’re weighing down the entire poem!
My Next Literary Tasks
Since I’m away from my house and due to a serious looking storm approaching, I’m stuck at a safe place that practices social distancing very, very well — therefore, I may as well share my next literary plans with my friends:
Post Video Compilation of yesterday’s Poets, Writers & Storytellers of Norwalk Art Festival
Finish my epic poem (9 pages long) – title: My First Day Flying” submit it to Rattle’s annual contest- you never know
– by July 15th
I’ve decided on my next book. After polling my friends for feedback – Thanks for the Yeas and Nays. Based upon the feedback, the title:
“Poets Should Not Write About Politics”
Yes. I’m going there.
– by July 31st
That’s enough for right now!
My Next Poetry Chapbook
I just finished 3 new poems:
A Song of Remembrance for Mama
My Last Smoke
Red Versus Seadog
all 3 are some of the longest pieces I’ve ever written. Too long to read at most Open Mics (A Song of Remembrance…clocks in at 4 minutes and 25 seconds).
I’m sending all 3 to a poetry contest held by Phoebe, Journal of Literature and Arts.
The entry fee is $5 and the deadline is tonight 11:59pm Eastern.
Now my chapbook plan is as follows: if Phoebe accepts 1 of the pieces, rights return to me immediately after publication and that 1 poem as well as the other 2 will go in my chapbook, now slated for release later this year! We will see.
Home
Word Flab
I sent a poem to an editor once at 7am before leaving the house for my 7:52am train.
As I boarded the train, my smartphone dinged, it was the editor. He accepted my poem for publication. He loved the piece and he said something to me that I will always remember:
“It’s a good piece, it needs some editing, just a sprinkle of punctuation and cut out some of the word flab and it will be good to go” he said.
I have been cutting word flab out of my poetry ever since.
In a earlier post, I talked about how I write poetry and then I place the work on the shelf for weeks at a time. Well, the first thing I do when I pull my work off the shelf is cut out the word flab.
After weeks of letting the work sit, I spot that word flab right away. It stands out like a wart in a verse, an abnormal growth
in a stanza. So I cut, cut, cut and after I’m done cutting I put it back on the shelf for weeks again.
One published piece of mine went back and forth to the shelf for an entire year. It
went from 3 pages to one page —approximately 34 lines. The word flab was nearly gone. The editors of anthology asked me to cut just 2 more words. I did so —gladly! Out with the
word flab, out with the word flab!
Jerry T. Johnson, Poet 