Revising my poetry

I'd originally got my poetry published in the late 1990s.  I spent yesterday and today reorganizing my poetry for submissions.  I refile and reprinted my older poems.  I then put them into file folders by date.  I found out organizing the individual poems by date is the easiest way to deal with them.

I have lots of poetry.  I weeded out the ones I thought were too weak.  I also organized files for poems being submitted for publication and poems that have been published.

My poetry has been my best work.  Alas, poetry pays in copies.  The press I used to submit, The Sunday Suitor Poetry Review, no longer exists.  I spent last night combing through Poet's Market 2012 looking for new places to submit poetry.  I'd look them up and then go to their website for submission guidelines.

Some of the addresses for websites didn't work.  One of the problems I found is that most academic presses only take submissions from September 1st to May 15th.  I'll have to wait to submit until the fall for several presses.  Fortunately, I have more poetry than I thought available for submission.  But part of the problem is that presses on want material that hasn't been submitted to other publishers.  In other words, they won't take simultaneous submissions.  Alas, small presses usually take months to respond.  Some case it could be as long as 18 months.

So I'm starting out small with my submissions.  I hope to hear back from the first place I submit to by August.  That way, I can reuse any poems that are rejected for submissions to other presses.  Speaking of rejections, I used to keep track of the places that rejected me.  The last time I submitted poetry was winter 2008.  So it's about time I submitted something...

Regards and good writing,
Blake