I got a cheque in the mail for $50. For a poem that’s about to be published. Guess that makes me a bon-a-fide poet! Unless you count the 75 cents that was my cut when they passed the hat at a poetry reading many years ago, that’s the first time I’ve gotten paid for poetry. I’ve had a few published before, but never for payment.
I don’t write many poems these days, so I don’t really think of myself as a poet. This particular poem was written about 10 years ago. It was accepted for publication about 5 years ago, and since the magazine went on hiatus for a few years (I think they ran out of money – it’s hard to keep literary mags afloat), they only got around to publishing it now.
Clearly, poetry is not a very lucrative business. I won’t quit my day job.
(In case you’re going to ask to see the poem, I can’t show you until it appears in print. It turns out that if something appears on a blog, it is considered “published”. I learned that the hard way when another publication was going to accept a piece I’d written, but they took the time to Google it, found it on my blog, and turned it down because they only accept unpublished work.)
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6 comments:
Hmmpff. That other org could have asked you to remove the post. Sticklers! :)
Well I think that's just great, Heather! Promise, though, that you'll let us read the poem some time, after publication?
So I guess all of us bloggers-for-fun writers are "published authors"? Wow. Cool!
Janet
I agree with Janet. Who knew I'm a published writer as well!!
Congratulations on getting your poem published Heather. That's pretty awesome.
I'm not surprised at all that you're getting published!!
Now I'm going to be dropping your name, hee hee,
"my friend Heather, a published poet, blah blah blah blah"
Oh yes, I just love to drop names (:
hey! that is cool. can't wait to read it.
Congratulations!
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