Paying for literary success

An enhanced version of this article is on my articles blog at Paying for literary success

Writing and evaluation

Some people write for the sheer joy of it. Putting things into words helps other writers understand themselves better, maybe. Or they find it therapeutic. They don't need the ego-trip of publication. After all, look at Emily Dickinson - only 10 poems published in her lifetime.

Other people tot up their publication successes, happy to change what they write to fit the required themes and guidelines. To them, writing for yourself is like talking to yourself - a dead-end.

Such a variety of motive makes it difficult to offer suggestions at workshops. A comment that one type of writer may find useful (e.g. "your main character's too naive") might be heartbreaking for another.

Offering assessments is even more fraught. Evaluation can put a damper on creativity but it's what some people want. It's not uncommon for new members to come along with a piece that's been in their drawer for years wanting to know whether it's any good. Alas, however much the group prefaces their opinions with provisos, it's easy for the author to take opinions too seriously. Problems arise especially when the harsh realities of the publishing world begin to impinge on our little meetings. When considering the chances of getting accepted by Picador, say, our assessment-meters need drastic recalibration. A story that goes down well in the sheltered surroundings of a writers group may be rejected in seconds by a busy publisher’s intern.

People are often advised when commenting on a piece to say two positive things for each negative one. That approach has risks too - a newcomer with a poor piece might think that it’s mostly ok (apparently better than pieces read by experienced writers at the very same meeting, which can get criticised a lot!). Consequently they might waste much time and money. There are people out there all too ready to take hundreds of pounds from budding authors.

Also if a writer knows that their piece is bad but the group says it's good, the group may lose credibility in the eyes of the writer.

Adding numbers doesn't help. An Italian paper I read had these evaluation categories. Places like Goodreads and Amazon have a simpler system, though the details are worth checking - stars don't always mean the same thing.

Stars	Goodreads	Amazon
*	did not like it	hate it
**	it was ok	don't like it
***	liked it	it's ok
****	really liked it	like it
*****	it was amazing	love it

The overall rating's not a simple average - age of vote etc matters

It's worth asking authors what they want out of the meeting, though replies needn't be completely believed. One option is to offer information rather than overt opinion - suggesting some relevant books to read, etc.

2 manifestos

Two books I recently bought in a charity shop feature manifestos.

"The vision of culture and other poems" by Mark Howard Davis (Minerva Press, 1998) begins with a 10-page preface. Here are some extracts -

• In an age where individualism is haloed with spotlights, where relativism runs amok, there are many clever and sophisticated people but few with real, intense, aesthetic depth of wisdom
• Everything is based on good contacts in the right places at the right time, rather than on serious evaluative criticism
• when I read any of the current poetry on offer (whether written by supposed first league or lesser poets) I am aware of a lack of structure, lack of form, content and style
• Once you slide into cultural relativism and it is deemed fine for everyone to pursue 'their own thing', all the critical apparatus and accumulated wisdom of tested craft and innovation become as nothing
• Relativism has enslaved our culture and nowhere more so do we experience this bitter truth than in the meagre, half-cooked microwave poetry of postmodernism
• today's postmodern conformism is due to the absense of any sort of intelligible poetics
• The world of the true poet is, in the last result, a unique world of personal joy and suffering. The sheer intensity of such inwardness seals this world off from any mere facile cleverness
• Poetry must regain its basis of meaningful patterning

"All hail the new puritans" by Nicholas Blincoe and Matt Thome (eds) (Fourth Estate, 2000) begins with a single page manifesto, explained in a 10-page introduction. Here are some extracts -

• In the name of clarity, we recognise the importance of temporal linearity and eschew flashbacks, dual temporal narratives and foreshadowing ... Flashbacks are a cheap trick ... I have no problem with dual narratives generally, especially in longer fiction. But for this project we wanted to force the included writers into putting everything into a single narrative strand.
• All our texts are dated and set in the present day. All products, places, artists and objects named are real ... Current historical fiction seems to be written with the sole purpose of denying life
• We are moralists, so all texts feature a recognisable ethical reality

A write-up of the initiative and aftermath is on workshyfop

Publishing poems

I'm going to be in "The High Window", which I'm pleased about.

Sad news is that Envoi's closing down after over 60 years of issues. I've had over a dozen poems in it. Fortunately magazines are still coming into being. See for example

• Poetry Birmingham
• Finished Creatures

For more ideas about where to send pieces it's worth looking at

• Angela Carr's list
• Poets' directory

Publishing short stories

I've had a story accepted for the next Postbox magazine. They received 82 submissions, from which they chose 15. I'm surprised so few authors sent stories. The press which produces the magazine published a book which has just appeared on the Edge Hill Prize longlist of the year's best short story books (along with books by Picador, Faber, etc). All 12 longlisted authors are female.

Magazines come and go. Here are some magazines I've sent stories to in the last year or so, and got replies. There's a UK bias. A few are prose only but most print poetry too, so space is at a premium. Some are paper only. They all accept longer stories - I've a different list for Flash. Have a look at the sites if you can before sending off, to see the types of authors and stories they deal with. Buy the printed magazines - they deserve your support. I think they're all respectable (even if they're all not major). Many accept simultaneous submissions. Many have submission windows.

• Ambit - UK poetry and prose paper magazine. Has submission windows. You pay to submit - http://www.ambitmagazine.co.uk/submit
• Barcelona Review - http://www.barcelonareview.com/mis/subguide.htm
• Barren - https://barrenmagazine.com/submissions/
• Fiction Pool - https://thefictionpool.com/submit/ ("An unusual style or voice really grabs our attention. We would prefer not to read stories … concerning the Covid-19 pandemic")
• Fictive Dream - https://fictivedream.com/submission-guidelines/
• Forge - Online. Stories only. Pays $60/story - https://forgelitmag.com/submit/
• Lunate - https://lunate.co.uk/submissions
• Manchester Review - http://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/?page_id=231
• Postbox - Stories-only paper magazine - https://www.redsquirrelpress.com/submissions (2 windows/year)
• Short Fiction - Online. Stories only. Pays! - https://www.shortfictionjournal.co.uk/subs
• Sonder - https://sonderlit.wordpress.com/submissions-3/
• Stinging Fly - Irish poetry and prose paper magazine. Very competitive. See https://stingingfly.org/submissions
• Under the radar - UK poetry and prose paper magazine - https://ninearchespress.com/magazine.html (June and December windows)

Cornwall

We spent a few days at St. Ives, visiting Land's End, Penzance, The Eden Project, St Michael's Mount and Tintagel. The street names in St. Ives were dual language - a tourism ploy maybe, though I know more people are learning Cornish nowadays. Cornwall flags were flying.

The visual arts seemed popular in the region, with galleries, art schools and the occasional sketcher. Alas, the Tate and the Barbara Hepworth museums were closed.

Driving was a hassle. Sometimes there were helpful signs. One road advertised itself as a 25% slope, though other unsigned roads seemed steeper.

I read an anthology of short stories (Updike, Achebe, etc), and a book about why people read fiction (theory of mind, etc).

Diversity statistics

In a recent report The State of Poetry and Poetry Criticism in the UK and Ireland 2011-2018 there's an analysis of how well women and BAME writers (BAME=Black, Asian, and minority ethnic) have got on in magazines. 26 magazines were studied. Over the period, the percentage of poems written by women and Non-binary people rose from 39% to 48%. In contrast the percentage written by BAME poets has stayed at about 8% (the census results suggest that about 13% of the UK are BAME).

I have some sympathy with the editors. Perhaps the low-BAME magazines get few submissions from BAMEs despite their best efforts. Perhaps they publish a high percentage of some other oppressed minority group - the old for example, or Rhymesters. Sometimes only a change of [sub]editorship will convince submitters that a magazine is genuinely open.

Poets will send poems to outlets that they think gives them the best chance. Sonneteers will send sonnets to magazines that publish sonnets, not realising that other magazines might love to publish more sonnets if only they were sent more. Ditto perhaps for poems written by BAME poets - poems of particular types/origins will tend to cluster.

Articles and reviews were studied too. The magazines have more control over this - most pieces are commissioned. White males dominate. It's tempting to stick to contributors who've not disappointed in the past - newer magazines have an easier time getting a mix of contributors. On the face of it, some magazines aren't doing well - the report states that "The London Review of Books has publised (sic) 70 articles by 33 different poetry critics. All 33 were white. Those 70 articles reviewed 86 different books. All 86 were by white poets. Of those 83% are male."