summertime and the living is....

well, not all that easy. We have two small children and recently moved , so it has been a little stressful here. We are reading mss. during the summer so some quick reminders from Katy Jean May:

Manuscript Considerations
We're currently reading manuscripts as the summer is in full swing. Things to keep in mind if you ever submit a manuscript to a publisher.
1) Be sure you are addressing the correct publisher in your letter and not... the publisher of another company. It seems obvious but it has happened more than once to us.
2) Spell check! And look over your manuscript to see if it's formatted coherently, in the correct order. It doesn't have to be completely tight, but show that you've put effort into the order of your poems and the collection as a whole.
3) Don't say something completely foolish like, "I've created a new form of poetry" when what you've really "created" is concrete poetry. Do a little research. We like innovation, but we have some idea of poetic forms of yore.
4) Look at the website. Buy a book from us maybe. Have some idea of what it is we've already done. Don't send us a 300 page tome; poetic pieces attacking an ethnic or religious group; or a collection written entirely in slang. Take a little time.
5) Don't send your manuscript during the contest season. We provide time lines online. Please check it out before you send. We keep it up-to date... really we do.

and to that I would only add that those of you just finding this blog, it's fairly new and it's nice to hear from you all the same.

till soon

s - a - m