chapbooks

While many may disdain chapbooks for not being "real" books, and therefore not enough to get you a job, the Llama quite likes them. No, she doesn't run out and purchase them in great numbers, but she thinks some of them are quite pretty, especially those put out by The Center for Book Arts (truly, they make the Llama salivate) and the Poetry Society of America (lovely, if a bit on the New York-centric side).

She'd like to publish one, not to receive world-wide acclaim, but so that she can have something nicer to give her grandmother than a big stack of paper when her grandmother asks her to send more poems.

When the Llama finally gets her chapbook manuscript together, she will probably send it to some of the presses listed here on this useful site.

book trailers

why is everybody so crazy about them all of a sudden? where did they come from? do they work?

but however you try to get published...

don't become a bad author.

oh, and while we're on the publishing thing...

Duotrope's Digest. Useful up-to-date info on most every literary magazine out there. They're collecting some interesting user-submitted data on response times, as well.

the CRWROPPS list

If you're having trouble keeping up with all the magazine, chapbook, and book contests, and the calls for submissions for various anthologies, and other publishing types of opportunities, and you're just too dang poor to subscribe to Poets and Writers (plus you find yourself crippled by envy when you look at the people featured inside), I highly recommend joining CRWROPPS, the Creative Writers Opportunities listserv. You can get a daily digest email (or no e-mail at all) with the most recent updates and calls for submissions, and it's set up as a Yahoo group, and quite easy to use. You can also view the archives online for free, anytime.

If you have a call for submissions you'd like posted on CRWROPPS, you can email it to Allison Joseph, the group moderator. But please do not bother her with silly questions about the contests. She does not run them. She just sets up the list out of the goodness of her heart, for the benefit of other writers. Truly wonderful!