My Plastic Bag of Words (Part 2 of 2)

Rule #2: Everything must get published

Everything. You'll find pieces, ideas and concepts from 20 year old raps, and reggae lyrics in my poems. Inspiration can come from anywhere. What matters most importantly to me is theme.

You ever notice how certain members of the literary community have had tons of work published in journals, but regularly fail to get that first, or second book published? That's not because they lack talent. As there is a skill to getting your work in journals, there is a skill to getting your book manuscripts published.

This is the skill that I want to polish. Having more unpublished poetry than I can read in a day would be a detriment to me polishing this skill. Both of my collections have themes that permeate throughout the collection. My first book, Bending the continuum had a number of themes that echoed throughout the collection, but every poem was influenced by the concept of time. Nostalgia of the past, wonder of the future, and of course the present.

My second book, A Mingus Lullaby, had multiple themes as well. However, the undercurrent of the book was mental health and personal psyche. There's an intent there that the editor may not even notice. But the point is to have a series of poems connected by a small thread. When a publisher reads your manuscript they should feel like they've read a collection, not a homemade mixtape of work shaped to please different publications, with different tastes. Chapbooks are a great way to master this skill.

As I realized that I was picking up habits that I didn't want because they would hinder my ability to write a coherent full manuscript, I reached out to someone I knew (Jeff) who was the poetry editor at a micro-publisher that published chapbooks (Burning Effigy Press). My plan was to slowly publish my manuscript as a series of chapbooks, and then seek publication. After promoting my chapbook, Narcotics//Flora for a year, and reading bits of my next chapbook at said readings, I was invited to submit my manuscript to Guernica Editions.

If your goal is to eventually have books published, I highly recommend finding publishers who make chapbooks and build a relationship. Chapbooks allow you to learn the skills you need to put out a collection at a smaller scale. You publish more of your work than the slow process of submitting to journals, and they also add to your publication history. Obviously, you need to have a handful of journals in your publishing history for most publishers to bite, but, chapbooks are where you'll start mastering skills you'll need for that collection.

This leads to my final rule, which should be obvious by now:

Rule #3: At some point the plastic bag of words must be thrown away.

I've lived with a plastic bag for almost 20 years. However, nearly every poem I've ever written has been published, performed as a spoken word piece, or recorded with music. Other than my first attempt at a novel, everything that I've written for print has been published, I have an agreement to publish, or I strongly believe it will find a home.

One day I may give some of my note pads of early drafts away to friends. The original draft of A Dozen Roses, arguably the most important poem I've written, is tucked away in an envelope. The rest can be recycled at some point. I'm not trying to hold onto my childhood. I'm attempting to become a world-class author.