Lost muse and short fuse - Janette Fisher's Blog

Hello again my fellow soupers

As we know - sometimes we writers get writers block and I for one lost my muse for about six months and found it hard to even pick up a pencil let alone put one to paper (even after a few glasses of wine!).

However, the break gave me time to concentrate on putting together my anthology - 'There's Enough Blue in the Sky' - not an easy task as I am hyper critical of my work (basically I think I'm rubbish) and struggled to put 10 pages together at first. But after a few weeks of filtering (and a lot of wine), I finally thought I had what I thought was ananthology to be proud of and sent it to an editor who suggested a few changes (thanks Ian) before sending off.

Changes completed, I looked in the Writers & Artists Handbook and sent it off to reputable publishers niaively thinking that was all I had to do to be a fully bona fide poet (who was I fooling???).

Week after week I recieved rejection after rejection. They said it was 'good' (good its flipping wonderful), but not they were looking for at the moment (lie), they weren't taking on any work at the moment - try again in a couple of years (another lie), they didn't publish anthologies by single authors (what?????) or I had to get published in a notable magazine first (does that include the People's Friend?).

I bet if I was some celebrity they would have no problem publishing as they seem to put out their shoping lists if they thought it would bring in the ready's.  I also bet that there are a lot of talented writers out there whose work is overlooked in favour of a 'tell all' by a b-list bimbo (not that I'm jealous....or bitter!) It's sooo annoying!!.

Has anyone else had the same problem....or does anyone know of a publisher who would be willing, nay biting at the bit to put my anthology into print.

So....what happens now.....I guess it's the self publishing route for me....if it was good enough for John Keats....then it's good enough for me.

Well enough ranting....I'm off to have a glass of wine before looking through the names of publishers who will be more than willing to put my name in print.........at least for a rice they will.

Janette Fisher Date: 8/18/2011 5:06:00 AM Thanks all for your comments - I shall take all of your advice and publish no matter what - you can't keep a good arian down - my writing group had an anthology published last year so I am going to contact the publisher to get prices and do it myself. Login to Reply

Andrea Dietrich Date: 8/17/2011 9:57:00 PM Carolyn got it right down here. The best we can do is get published in a good magazine. (buy a Poet's Market for name of magazines and contest magazines). Often you must subscribe to a magazine to get into it, or maybe they will pay you a tiny sum of money, if it is a super good magazine or just give you a free copy of it! that's been my experience with the magazines. Luv, Andrea Login to Reply

Andrea Dietrich Date: 8/17/2011 9:52:00 PM Janette, I don't think poets are a "publishable commodity" and only a very famous person or some professor of literature or someone hugely popular in a state poetry circle will ever have the fortune to have a publisher want to publish their works. Just go to any bookstore and you will rarely find modern everyday poets' books, only some famous eggheads with very hard to understand poetry that got published in the New Yorker or something. And of course the classic poets. I wonder if any of US will ever be able to appear as a "classic poet" a hundred years from now. I can't imagine we would ever have that chance because the world is too filled with internet poets now. Oh, and if I were married to a famous actor, I am sure I would finally be able to find a publisher eager to sell my books! Login to Reply

Tracy Edwards Date: 8/17/2011 8:06:00 PM You go girl...I wish i had enough confidence in my writing to even consider publishing..best of luck with it xxx Tracie Login to Reply

Nancy Jones Date: 8/17/2011 7:45:00 PM I had writer's block for 4 years.. wanted to write, but there was nothing there... so I wrestled with angels and street bums, with whirlwinds and demons and ledger sheets and applications... and then one day it started to spill. Best wishes in your endeavors, Janette! Login to Reply

Carolyn Devonshire Date: 8/17/2011 5:45:00 PM Hey, Janette, don't go calling your work "rubbish." I've always loved your writing and you've given us much pleasure reading your poems. Finding a publisher in the UK might be hard. I know of one in the U.S., but they require at least 50 poems and one UK submitter did get rejected. Talk to Karen O'Leary about getting published in reputable magazines. She's had a lot of success - so has Iolanda Scripca. I think Souper Jack Horne (from England) knows a publisher there. Hope this helps. Very nice to see you back here! Love, Carolyn Login to Reply