What Amazon's Kindle Means to Self Publishers

I'm a big fan of the Publishing Basics newsletter. This month's issue just landed in my inbox, and one of the stories is about Kindle, Amazon.com's new e-book reader.

Amazon.com is positioning itself to compete with Lulu and other print-on-demand companies, so you should read this article if you're a publisher or self-publisher who uses these services.

--AB

Trends in Publishing

I spend every day reading and writing about the printing industry, so I’ve heard it all from both sides. It’s either “Print is dead,” or “Print will never die.” As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. What prompted this post was an article I saw from the Associated Press about E-Books. What interested me is that the article doesn’t say e-books are great or e-books are bad. It says that e-books are great for some things and not as good for others. For example, one company featured in the article published PDFs of role-playing texts. Why is the format popular for these types of books? Because the print books are thick, heavy tomes that players have to carry them to each game. The books are for reference, so the players need them, but in electronic form, they’re easier to transport.

Print books are a medium. E-books are a medium. Websites are a medium. Billboards are a medium. Television is a medium. CDs are a medium. The lesson here is that each medium has distinct advantages and disadvantages. The success of each medium depends on the kind of content it transmits. Print books and magazines still have advantages over an e-books and magazines and vice versa.

What's This Got to do with Poetry?
I think this discussion is relevant to poetry in a lot of ways. The internet certainly has made it easier to distribute poetry to more people. Digital printing has made it easier for authors to fund their self-publishing efforts. In terms of e-books specifically, I wonder when poetry publishers will start to really take advantage of the technology, by which I mean incorporate it into a viable business model. There are quite a few presses, journals and individuals who offer work electronically, but it's more often out of necessity than conscious strategy.

I wonder if and when, for instance, a publisher will have an ITunes model, where people pay to download their favorite poems. Another characteristic of successful e-books, according to the AP article, is their perceived disposability. Harlequin now sells short stories for 89 cents each. Why can't a publisher or writer do something similar?

--AB

Tynes Published in Tarpaulin Sky

New work by RMP author Jen Tynes appears in the first print issue of Tarpaulin Sky, a literary journal.

--AB

Missouri to Get Poet Laureate

Turns out that Missouri also is getting a poet laureate. Too late for Missourians to apply--the deadline was Dec. 1. For an update, click here.

--AB

Toledo to Get Poet Laureate

The Toledo Free Press reports that Lucas County in Ohio is planning to create an (unpaid) poet laureate position. I know what you're thinking...they didn't have one already? :)

If you live in Toledo, maybe you can throw your hat into the ring. Read about it here.

--AB

Call for Submissions: Poetry Calendar

The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets is accepting submissions for its 2009 Poets' Calendar. Although you need to live in Wisconsin to be considered, there's no reason why you couldn't start a poet's calender in your own state. Here's what you need to do it:

1. Poems
2. A friendly designer
3. Money

You can find lots of calendar printers online who will do the job for you at competitive prices. Here are a few I know about. I'm not endorsing them, but check them out: Some have instant quote calculators so you can get an idea of how much it costs.

1. PrintPlace
2. Printing for Less
3. VistaPrint

If you have questions about why some cost more than others even though they offer the same features, let me know. One piece of advice: Always ask a printer for samples before you commit a job to them. They should happily send you some so you can see examples of their work. If they refuse, don't use them.

--AB

MiPOesias Raises the Bar

I encourage everyone to check out the latest issue of MiPOesias and not just because RMP author Ivy Alvarez' beautiful shining face adorns its pages. You should check it out because it has production values, by which I mean it was designed by someone with talent.

Most literary journals do not look like they are professionally 'designed.' They tend to value page after page of text. Discussions about design revolve around what fonts to use. MiPOesias asks: Why not have photos? Color? Cover lines? Captions? It's designed like a consumer magazine, which I think is great.

Bonus points because the issue is offered as a PDF download OR you can buy a hardcopy at Lulu.com.

--AB

Bredle Published on Sharkforum

RMP author Jason Bredle's poem "Assist Your Boyfriend with His Suffering" is featured on Sharkforum as Poem of the Week.

--AB

Bredle and Tynes to Read Together in Nebraska

RMP authors Jason Bredle and Jen Tynes read on Dec. 1st in Lincoln, Neb. They're joined by author Cynthia Arrieu-King as part of The Clean Part Reading Series held at the Sheldon Art Gallery. For more information, click here.

--AB

Alvarez Reviews MML Bliss

RMP author Ivy Alvarez reviews Moonshine, a chapbook by MML Bliss (published by PressPress). The review is posted at Galatea Resurrects. Click here to read it.

--AB

Brown Published in Salt Lake Tribune

You thought it was a joke, but I really did submit a Jell-O haiku to the Salt Lake Tribune. The results are published in today's edition of the paper. Check it out here. You'll need to scroll down for awhile.

For backstory on how and why I did this, click here.

--AB

Homage to Bredle by J.P. Dancing Bear

One day after Jason Bredle's third appearance on Verse Daily, the web site posted "A Poem Starting With a Line By Jason Bredle," a poem by J.P. Dancing Bear. Check it out here.

--AB

Bredle Published in Verse Daily...Again!

Another poem from Pain Fantasy by Jason Bredle is on Verse Daily--the second one to appear in the past 30 days. That makes three appearances for Bredle on Verse Daily this year.


--AB

I am BEOWULF

Has anyone seen the movie (yet)? It's okay--you can admit it. You wouldn't be alone. It grossed $28 million this weekend, so a fair amount of people ponied up for a ticket.

What I want to know is, why is Beowulf's body hairless? I don't remember reading the part where he takes a moment to wax his pecs.

Anyway, if you thought this was the first time Beowulf has been on screen, think again. Here's a story about some other adaptations.

--AB

Pub Named After Poet Laureate/Hitler Look-Alike

In poetry news this morning, residents of Wirral, U.K., are upset about a pub named after poet laureate John Masefield because he looks like Hitler. Specifically, they're upset about the pub sign, which includes a photograph of Masefield. Click here to read the story.

--AB

My Jell-O Haiku

I've sent my entry to the Jell-O haiku contest. Have you? See the posting below for more details. According to the call for submissions, the haiku can be "silly, funny or sarcastic." Guess which one I went with?

Peach Jell-O salad:
Fresh, fruity, juicy, mouthful
of good memories.

--AB

There's Always Room for Jell-O (Haikus)

The Salt Lake Tribune is holding its first-ever Jell-O haiku contest. The topic is your family's favorite holiday Jell-O salad. You can submit more than one! The winners will be published in the newspaper.

I would love it if we all tried to get Jell-O haikus published in the Salt Lake Tribune. Here's the call for submissions.

--AB

Poetry Mentioned in Esquire Magazine

Author Tyler Smith recommends going to poetry readings (No. 6) on his Summer Program for Writing & Healthy Living, which appears here on Esquire magazine's web site.

--AB

Bredle Published in No Tell Motel

Click here to read "Everything I Know About Philosophy I Learned from KRS-ONE," a poem by Jason Bredle that appears at No Tell Motel.

--AB

Mortal Reviewed in Currajah

A review of Ivy Alvarez' Mortal appears online at Currajah. Here's what reviewer Patricia Prime has to say:

"The achievement of the poems in this collection lies in part in their counterpoising of the profoundly personal with a kind of objectivist impersonality, with the discovery of idioms in which the two can co-exist.

Mortal is a fascinating text containing a fluid sense of time, place, individual and family which generates complexes of meaning and feeling with which most readers will be able to empathise. Alvarez’s use of sentence and paragraph in her prose poems and, elsewhere, her use of stanzas, minimal punctuation, rhythm and assonance, and her ability to use both structures in a very accomplished and meaningful way, make for constantly thought-provoking reading."

To read the entire review, click here.

--AB

Call for Submissions: Ivy Alvarez Guest Edits qarrtsiluni

The November/December of qarrtsiluni, an online literary journal, will be co-edited by RMP author Ivy Alvarez. The theme is Insecta. From the call for submissions:

"For this issue of qarrtsiluni, we are interested in art — poem, painting, story, nonfiction, photograph — inspired by insects. We are equally interested in writing about insects, being just as enamored by Thoreau’s ant battle in Walden as Frost’s butterflies, “Tossed, tangled, whirled and whirled above, / Like a limp rose-wreath in a fairy dance.”

The deadline to submit is December 15. For more info about the journal and how to submit, visit www.qarrtsiluni.com.

--AB

Concelebratory Shoehorn Review Publishes Ivy Alvarez

A poem by RMP author Ivy Alvarez appears in the No. 11 issue of Concelebratory Shoehorn Review. Click here for the site.

--AB

What if? An Idea for Presses

What if a press held a contest, and everyone who entered the contest got to vote on the manuscripts the press received? The manuscript with the most votes is the one that gets published. Only entrants get to vote, so the entrants themselves are the judges, but no one can vote for their own manuscript.

Would that work?

--AB

UPDATE: I'm not as creative as I thought. It looks like this idea is kind of already being done, as reported here in Poets & Writers magazine.

New Press, Same Model

Austin Peay State University has started publishing poetry books by hosting a first-book contest. I'm glad there's another press in the mix, but I wish they'd tried experimenting with a different model. Read about the winners here.

I'm not trying to make fun of Leigh Ann Couch, who was one of the winners (and managing editor of the Sewanee Review) but I thought her quote was a bit funny: “I publish about four poems a year in magazines that maybe a half-percent of Americans even know about,” she says.

Based on the the Census Dept. Population clock, that means roughly 1.5 million Americans know about her poetry. If your audience is that large, Leigh, Red Morning Press would like to talk with you.

--AB

Independent Publishing as Strategy

I’m reading this book called Blue Ocean Strategy. Like most books I read nowadays, it fell in my hands randomly, but ended up speaking to me personally. The premise is that most companies tend to operate like every other company in their industry. They compete for the same customers along narrowly defined lines. Some find a way to break away from the conventional wisdom of their industry and create a “blue ocean” of “uncontested market space.”

The authors offer Cirque de Soleil as an example. In this case, it breaks from the traditional ideas of what circus and/or theater should be like. The result: There’s nothing else quite like it, which makes competing for customers’ attention much easier and more lucrative.

What does this have to do with poetry? A lot, actually. People don’t like to admit this, but book publishing is an industry, and poetry is a part of that. When we started RMP, we looked at the traditional models for starting a poetry press: Hold a contest, apply for grant money, or both.

Within those basic models, the differences between poetry presses are minimal. If you visit most press websites, their mission statements are the same (“We strive to publish the best poetry.”) What does that mean? As a consultant I heard once says, “It doesn’t mean anything. ‘Best’ is a definition only you and god know.”

Some presses try to differentiate themselves by the type of poetry they publish (“We strive to publish the best [experimental, witness, political, women’s, regional] poetry”). The differences are minute, and what’s worse—the strategy is the same. If every press competes using the same strategy, there will only ever be a small handful of presses that succeed.

Blue Ocean Strategy suggests creating new business models that buck conventional wisdom. I personally can’t stand flying Southwest Airlines, but I have to concede their success. Who thought way back when that an airline could get away with not serving a meal or assigning reserved seats? Those amenities were part of a narrow formula that airlines considered necessary to succeed.

When I look at RMP in this context, I’m encouraged. We’ve abandoned most of the conventional thinking that goes into starting a poetry press. I see a lot of advantages in not competing with other presses for contest fees and grant money. It makes us a lot more flexible, and our future is much less dependent on the trends that affect other poetry presses. For instance, if grant money dries up or so many presses are applying for grant money that each press continues to get a smaller piece of the pie—that won’t affect our ability to keep publishing books.

What we haven’t done is turn those advantages into profitability…yet. Living in D.C., we’re surrounded by the history and mythos of the punk rock scene. Independent music labels that exist as standalone companies today started out in basements. I think when you have something like RMP, where there’s nothing to lose by experimenting, you’re more likely to succeed in the long run.

What we haven't done is figure out how to maximize all the advantages of being a truly independent press. The other message in the book is that companies like Cirque de Soleil and Southwest Airlines create models that brought new value to their customers. I’m not sure what that is for a poetry audience. When we figure that out, I think we’ll be set.

--AB

Corrupting the Youth: Part III

Click here to read some feedback about my session at the CMA convention.

--AB

Corrupting the Youth: Recap

Ten minutes before my presentation started at the College Media Advisers convention on Saturday, there were zero people in the room. So I thought, this is going to suck. The hotel is about four blocks from Adams Morgan, which for those of you who’ve never been to D.C., is basically a street lined with bars. So I figured everyone went out late the night before and couldn’t drag themselves out of bed for a morning session. I couldn’t blame them, actually.

Still, nearly 20 people did show up by the time it started. The gist of the session was how to stay involved in the literary community after you get out of school. I used starting RMP as an example of the extreme. You don’t have to start a press to stay active, but it was cool to see that more than a few students in the session wanted to start their own. If you’re interested, here’s some of the content I gave them—a rough description of how much it cost. If you want more detailed information, email me, and I'll send you the specific breakdown of expenses. (Bear in mind, the losses are split three ways, and it’s over three years, so it comes out to about $5,000 each per year. I’ve spent that much money on much less worthwhile things.)

	Revenue	Expenses	Net Loss
2005	$1,191	$8,762	-$7,571
2006	$1,404	$6,442	-$5,038.00
2007	$1,281	$5,000	-$3,791.00
	$3,876	$20,204	-$16,328

As you can see, it is not a money-making venture for us, but as I said in the session, that’s not to say it couldn’t be. If we had a contest, I guarantee we’d be profitable. If we didn’t travel to AWP, we’d be profitable. If we printed the books on demand, we’d be profitable. We just don’t want to do it that way, and we don’t have to, because we have day jobs. It's a liberating feeling--something I hope I communicated during the session.

--AB

Corrupting the Youth

I'm conducting a presentation tomorrow at the College Media Advisor's convention in Washington, DC. The conference is not geared toward advisors, as one might suspect. Instead, it's for students who work on college publications, including newspapers and literary journals.

My presentation, which is titled "Keeping the Dream Alive," is supposed to give students ideas about how to stay involved in the literary scene after they graduate. Starting a press is one way, I guess.

I'll let you know how it goes.

--AB

Gridiron Poets

I don't actually have a comment on this. I just thought you'd like to know that there's a college athletic program that has embraced poets as a mascot.

--AB

How to Win the UK's National Poetry Contest

I thought this was funny. Some "tips" on how to win it all. Click here to read.

--AB

Charles Simic in Wall Street Journal

An article about poet Charles Simic appeared in today's Wall Street Journal.

--AB

Reading Series Turns 25

Anything that last 25 years is pretty remarkable, especially in the world of poetry. This year, the Midwest Poet Series celebrates its silver anniversary. To read about the series and its founder (who kept it going all these years), click here.

--AB

You Could Be Poet Laureate!

If you live in Boston, you could be the city's poet laureate. According to this story in the Boston Globe, the competition is weak. Only a few people have applied for the 2-year job, which pays $2,000 per year and requires you to give a reading or two. The application process is managed by the Office of Arts, Tourism, and Special Events. Click here for the downloadable application form.

--AB

Another Tongue List

Courtesy of John Moore:

73 Things to Do With Your Tongue

1. make trills on a flute
2. make staccato notes on a trumpet
3. pronounce alveolar consonants
4. pronounce velar consonants
5. clean dishes
6. provide sensual pleasure by contact with the outer body of another person
7. be rude to someone
8. help carry out a wine-tasting
9. dislodge stuff from your teeth
10. explore the inside of your mouth for wounds
11. swallowing
12. provide evidence of your health
13. grip food
14. move food around
15. direct spit
16. recognizing the taste of food that's gone off
17. lingual tonsils filter out harmful germs
18. stop saliva dribbling out
19. sculpting ice cream on a cone
20. playing shove football with cherries
21. push food onto the back teeth for grinding
22. saying tongue twisters
23. place in the cheek to say things in a subtly mocking way
24. gauge air temperature
25. find out wind direction
26. convey food items into your mouth
27. when protruding, express eagerness
28. when bitten, stop yourself from saying something stupid
29. sealing envelopes
30. attaching postage stamps
31. cleaning the lenses of spectacles
32. moistening cigarette paper after rolling over tobacco
33. holding it to remain silent
34. aids the prehension of food
35. find out what you're eating
36. when pierced, holding a stud or other adornment
37. when forked, speak dishonestly
38. cleaning fluff out of hard to reach crevices
39. getting sticky stuff off your fingers
40. soothing the pain in your thumb after a blow with a hammer
41. provide sensual pleasure by inserting in another's mouth
42. pass it over your lips to show anticipation
43. stroking your lips to encourage sexual arousal
44. balancing several full wine glasses on it to impress your friends
45. applying it to a part of your boss's anatomy when you're after a raise
46. cleaning your boss's shoes with the same object in mind
47. preening yourself if ever you're asked to do a cat impersonation
48. removing lice etc from your partner when he/she asks you about your animal instincts
49. removing fresh bloodstains from non-porous surfaces
50. removing particles of food from your moustache
51. separating the side of the plastic bags you get in rolls in order to open them
52. temporarily attaching two pieces of paper
53. tut-tutting
54. pronouncing the clicks in African languages
55. microfacial tongue thrusts to show aggression
56. creating works of art as an alternative to finger painting
57. moistening an oboe reed before playing
58. directing the air into a blowpipe
59. wail like Arab women at a funeral or wedding
60. deliver a tongue-lashing
61. annoy someone by tickling them behind the ear
62. picking up toast crumbs off the sheets after breakfast in bed
63. stealing the decoration off the top of a wedding cake
64. temporarily corking a bottle
65. give it to the cat to cheer it up when you want to keep quiet
66. blocking holes on a harmonica to play single notes
67. moisten pages of a book to make them easier to turn
68. opening the window if your hands are full and your nose hurts
69. fold it back to wolf-whistle
70. roll it, make it look like a slug dancing to scare people
71. tickle your upper palette if you are really bored/sexually frustrated
72. stretch your cheek out to pretend you're sucking a boiled sweet
73. catch rain, tears, nose droppings and other falling liquids

Guenette Thankful for Bredle's Poems

Poet Matthew Guenettee blesses Jason Bredle's poems here.

--AB

Bredle on Verse Daily

Verse Daily has posted a poem from RMP author Jason Bredle's Pain Fantasy. Check it out here.

--AB

72 Things to Do With Your Tongue

Compliments of Jason Bredle:

72 Things to Do with Your Tongue

1) Elect a political leader.

2) Decry a political leader.
3) Sign a petition against an action a political leader has recently taken with the environment.

4) Sign a petition against pants.

5) Nod knowingly to a college student canvassing against pants.

6) Take off your pants.

7) Call a friend on the telephone to discuss your mutual hatred of pants.

8) Call a friend on the telephone to discuss your distrust of a political leader.

9) Angrily hang up a telephone and put on pants.

10) Mail a letter to a political leader.

11) Walk about town furiously and with purpose.

12) Forget about love.

13) Remember love.

14) Taste an ice cream sundae.

15) Listen to a friend discuss his recent ordeal with the phone company.

16) Impersonate a snake.

17) Impersonate a lizard.

18) Impersonate a frog.

19) Impersonate a puppy.

20) Impersonate a man walking on the moon.

21) Impersonate a college student angrily canvassing against pants.

22) Audition for the role of Neo-Nazi #1 in a Jerry Bruckheimer production.

23) March into the Gap and tell them exactly how you feel about its new line of pants!

24) Rescue a family from a burning house.

25) Rescue a family from a burning tree house.

26) Rescue a family from a burning houseboat.

27) Watch a total solar eclipse.

28) Win third place in a pie eating contest.

29) Tell a friend you love him or her.

30) Win tickets to a concert after successfully naming a song on a local radio program.

31) Learn to fly a helicopter.

32) Appreciate an opera.

33) Enter a square dancing competition.

33) Enter a break dancing competition.

34) Clean yourself.

35) Earn twenty dollars in a short amount of time.

36) Erect a monument to a political leader.

37) Play a heated game of tic-tac-toe with a friend.

38) Land an airplane.

39) Direct a Broadway musical.

40) Scale a tall building.

41) Judge a beauty contest.

42) Deliver a eulogy.

43) Deliver a package.

44) Deliver a baby.

45) Infuriate a choir.

46) Circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon.

47) Build a model airplane.

48) Become the fastest human alive.

49) Become a political leader and eliminate all pants from existence.

50) Edit a literary quarterly.

51) Signal to someone that he or she may cut in front of you.

45) Signal to someone that he or she may not cut in front of you, and doing so will anger you.

52) Participate in a longest tongue contest.

53) Participate in a shortest tongue contest.

54) Perform a sexual act in a pornographic film.

55) Complete a dissertation.

56) Indicate to a person of the opposite sex that you like him or her.

57) Judge a wet t-shirt contest.

58) Submit an abstract to a medical conference.

59) Perform quadruple bypass surgery.
60) Perform quadruple bypass surgery on a horse.

61) Make a watch.

62) Move scorpions from one box into another on a television program.

63) Lose a quarter of a million dollars playing high stakes blackjack in Vegas.

64) Write a detective novel.

65) Solve a murder.

66) Murder a detective.

67) Save a child from a terrible ferris wheel accident.

68) Direct traffic.

69) Beg a debtor to have mercy and not take your finger.

70) Mourn a recent tragedy and honor those who have died in the tragedy.

71) Make love to the person you love.

72) Lick the person you love's ass.

The Top 10 (Modern) Korean Poets

The list and ranking formats are generally tired. How many ways can you write a magazine or newspaper article about the Top 10 [fill in the blank]? They're especially overdone in lifestyle magazines, where it's considered hack to have a list with less than 50 entries. The result are absurd numbers of mundane things, like "73 Things You Can Do With Your Tongue."

That said, I find rankings and lists useful when they're about a topic I know nothing about. A case in point is this recently published list of Top 10 Modern Korean poets. The rankings don't matter; I find it useful because it's a starting point for exploring the topic. I may discover eventually that I don't agree with the list at all, but without it I'd be overwhelmed by the total number of Korean poets and wouldn't know where to start.

--AB

Build Your Audience One Reader at a Time

Here’s an idea for self-promotion: A couple of writers in Seattle are giving poems away. Each one put up a box by their homes with copies of their poems. Passersby and guests are invited to take one for free. Read more about it here and ask yourself--What if there was a poetry box at every bus stop?

--AB

Poetry Center Gets New Home

One of the largest poetry collections in the world is housed at the U of Arizona Poetry Center, which just moved into a new, larger building. Read about it here.

--AB

Print on Demand: A boon to DIY publishing

In the interview I linked to below, Jen mentions that Horse Less is planning to print books with Lulu, a print-on-demand publishing company. I’ve been meaning to write about POD on this blog for awhile, because it’s a huge issue in the printing industry, especially the book publishing specifically.

First of all, if you are remotely interested in the topic of DIY publishing, you should be reading the newsletter Publishing Basics put out by Ron Pramschufer of RJ Communications. It is the single best resource on independent publishing that I read regularly because of its balance between practical info and birds-eye view of the topic. For instance, here’s a recent article on Amazon.com’s acquisition of iUniverse.

If you want some perspective on the way POD is affecting book publishing, the article is a good place to start (and then read some of the back issues). One of things I’ve taken from my reading on POD and as partner in RMP is that the print-on-demand part of POD is not exactly why it has been a boon to DIY publishers.

Most people assume the reason that print-on-demand removes a huge barrier to independent publishing is because you don’t have to pay for books that don’t get sold. However, that particular cost savings is negligible in my view. Printing 1,000 books up front is not prohibitively expensive. In fact, the unit cost is always lower than if the books are printed on demand. Where I think POD printers have done a great service for DIY publishing is not in the printing but the auxiliary services, such as listing the books on a website, taking care of order processing and mailing the printed book when someone buys them. Those are the most expensive and time consuming parts of running an independent press.

--AB

What's Jen Tynes Watching on TV?

In a recent interview at poetry blog Women on the Web, RMP author Jen Tynes gives a rundown of the things that interest her. She also discusses her role as editor and publisher for horse less press.

--AB

Heron/Girlfriend

Jen Tynes' manuscript Heron/Girlfriend was accepted by Coconut Books. Look for it in spring/summer 2008.

--AB

Upcoming RMP Readings

Mark your calendars!

Thursday, Oct. 4, 7 p.m.
Jason Bredle reads at Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor, Mich.
For more info, click here.

Saturday, Oct 6, 1-5 p.m.
Jen Tynes reads with Elizabeth Robinson, Dan Beachy-Quick, & others TBA
A Swap of Language
Denver, Colorado
For more info, click here.

Friday, Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m.
Jen Tynes reads with w/ Adam Clay & Kate Greenstreet
The New Lakes Reading Series
Missoula, Mont.
For more info, click here.

Tynes Reviews Bredle

Jen Tynes, author of The End of Rude Handles (from Red Morning Press), reviews the newest member of the RMP juggernaut. Click here to check out her thoughts on Pain Fantasy.

--AB

Bookslut Reviews Bredle

To read a recent review of Jason Bredle's first book, Standing in Line for the Beast (New Issues), click here.

--AB

Sean Norton: A Living Writer

Sean Norton recently appeared on T. Hetzel's Living Writers radio show, which is broadcast WCBN 88.3 Ann Arbor. If you missed it, check out the archive on iTunes (9-05-07 episode) by searching Living Writers WCBN.

Bonus: You can still visit this link and listen to an archived appearance from 2005, featuring a reading from Sean from Bad With Faces.

--AB

Order Your Copy of Pain Fantasy

Pain Fantasy by Jason Bredle is now available for purchase at www.redmorningpress.com.

Alvarez Interviewed by Greenstreet

Mortal author Ivy Alvarez was recently interviewed by Kate Greenstreet as part of a series that features first-book authors. Check it out here.

--AB

Pain Fantasy--Not Exactly On Schedule

Pain Fantasy is scheduled to be printed and shipped on August 9. It's about two weeks behind when we hoped to have it, but our contribution to our printer's annual revenue is less than one-thousandth of one percent, so they kind of fit us in where they can.

--AB

Pain Fantasy at Printer

Pain Fantasy, by Jason Bredle, is currently going through preflight at our printer. It should be printed, shipped and received by us in the next 3 to 4 weeks maximum.

--AB

Pain Fantasy Update

The Library of Congress Cataloging in Publishing Data for Pain Fantasy arrived today:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bredle, Jason.
Pain fantasy / Jason Bredle. -- 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-9764439-3-3
I. Title.
PS3602.R435P35 2007
811'.6--dc22

All that's left to do is prepare the files for the printer. A friend of mine graciously does that for free, but we do it on her schedule, so hopefully we'll get with her next week and have the book off to the printer pronto!

--AB

Bredle Reads This Weekend

Jason Bredle reads Saturday, June 9th at Lumbart 2007, an event sponsored by The Splat Flats. For more info, click here.

Important Notice Regarding Manuscript Submissions

Please forgive us. We are backlogged with submissions. As of the end of this week, we will stop accepting submissions until we are all caught up. For those of you who sent manuscripts a looooong time ago, we plan to be caught up by the beginning of July.

--AB

Ivy Alvarez Reading and a New "Tinyside"

If you find yourself in Dublin on June 17, be sure to stop by The Original Print Gallery at 4 Temple Bar from 7-10pm for "A Painted Fillí: An Evening of Music and Spoken Word" -- among the artists performing their work will be our own Ivy Alvarez, who'll read from Mortal.

Also, Big Game Books has recently released a "tinyside" (which Ivy tells me is "like a cross between a broadside and a chapbook, only smaller") by Ivy titled One Dozen Poison Hay(na)ku -- that's the good news. The bad news is that it's already sold out! Still, swing by Big Game's site to admire what look to be really cool little books.

-- Chris

Bredle Interviewed on Living Writers

Jason Bredle sits down with T. Hetzel on WCBN Ann Arbor's Living Writers Show this Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. EST.

Click here to get the internet feed.

While you're there, check out the archives for an interview with Sean Norton.

--AB

Ivy Alvarez Reviewed in Galatea Resurrects #6

Not one, but two reveiws for Mortal appear in a recent issue of Galatea Resurects.

Ernesto Priego says, "The poems in Mortal grow in the reader like teeth, they break the skin, grow inwards before finally seeking an exit out of the body, through the mouth, to become expression, to grind and bite in survival and in love, in sex and in everything which is pleasurable. To read Priego's entire review, click here.

Jeannine Hall Gailey says, "Alongside poems of mothers giving birth, a daughter struggling to come to terms with her mother’s breast cancer, and the fragile lives of flowers and insects, these mythological poems evoke a mournful and timeless struggle with mortality." To read Gailey's entire review, click here.

--AB

Free Poetry: Digital Recordings of Contemporary Poets

The AP reports that "Professors at the University of Pennsylvania are offering recordings of contemporary poets’ work to the public through an online audio archive of digital downloads, without charges or fees." To read all about it, click here.

--AB

Tynes Reads on Thursday at Symposium Books

Flim Forum Press presents
Oh One Arrow

Thursday, May 10th
6pm

Symposium Books
240 Westminster Street
Providence, RI

w/ readings by:

Matthew Klane
Adam Golaski
Lori Anderson Moseman
John Cotter
Jen Tynes

flimforum.blogspot.com
symposiumbooks.com

*

Flim Forum Press is a new press interested in poetry
that postulates then questions the idea of the poem
as experiment, poetry that builds and develops (forms)
original logics/grammars, poetry that dissolves to
redefine the lines between sense and nonsense, process
and product, sight, sound, and semantic.

Oh One Arrow, the first Flim anthology, includes
work by: Brandon Shimoda, Thom Donovan, Jonathan Minton,
Adam Golaski, Lori Anderson Moseman, Katie Kemple, Christopher
Fritton, Eric Gelsinger, John Cotter, Jacqueline Lyons, Jeff Paris,
Michael Ives, Jaime Corbacho, Matthew Klane, Pierre Joris, and Aaron
Lowinger. Cover art by Luke Daly.

Flim Forum Press is currently accepting submissions
for a second anthology.

Visit:
flimforum.blogspot.com
for more information,
or query:
klane@flimforum.com

Bredle Poems on Sharkforum.org

Read a few of Jason's poems recently posted on Sharkforum.org.

--AB

Mississippians Love To Look for Poems

Mississippi has some poetry-loving citizens, according to a Yahoo! announcement that state residents conduct more online searches for poems than any other. It also turns out that Mississippians search for more love poems than any other states.

New Mexico ranked second. To find out who made it in the top 10, click here.

--AB

Tynes Reviewed in GutCult

Jim Toweill writes: "Jen Tynes' book-length poem The End of Rude Handles explores a gothic world of spatial binaries, mediations between interior and exterior experiences, of networks of becoming that inhabit ambulatory flesh."

Read Toweill's entire review in a recent issue of GutCult.

To buy the book, visit the Red Morning Press website.

--AB

Poetic Journeys at UConn

The Poetic Journeys program at UConn has been going on since 2000 and allows students' work to be displayed on placards installed on buses. To read about it, click here.

--AB

David Halberstam on Poetry

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist David Hablerstam died yesterday in a car crash. He's best known for his reporting on the Vietnam War, but he also happened to be very interested in poetry. Right before he died, Halberstam attended the Poetry & the Creative Mind benefit, which raises money for National Poetry Month. The Daily Intelligencer has an interview with him from that night that includes his thoughts on poetry. To read it, click here.

--AB

Body Blazon Poetry

Two writers combined dissection and poetry into a play called Corpus Delicti: Just Desserts. You can read about the play and the history of body blazons (poems that focus on specific parts of the body) by clicking here.

The article cites this poem as an example of a body blazon:

Mary's Ghost
by Thomas Hood

T'was in the middle of the night
To sleep young William tried
When Mary's ghost came stealing in
And stood by his bedside

Oh William dear, oh William dear,
My rest eternal ceases
For alas my everlasting peace
Is broken into pieces.

I thought the end of all my cares
would end with my last minute
But when I came to my last home
I didn't stay long in it

The body snatchers they have come
and made a snatch of me
Oh it's very hard those kind of men
won't let a body be.

The arm that used to take your arm
Is took by Dr. Weiss
And both my legs have gone
To walk the hospital at Guys.

As for my feet, my little feet
You used to call so pretty
There's one I know, in Bedford Row
The other's in the city.

I vowed that you should have my hand
and fate gave no denial
You find it there at Dr. Bell's
in spiritus and a vial.

I can't tell where my head is at
but Dr. Carpo can
As for my truck it's all packed up
to go by Pickford's van

I wish you'd go to Mr. P.
and save me such a ride
For I don't half like the outside place
he's picked for my inside.

The cock it crows, I must be gone
Dear William we must part
I'll be yours in death although
Sir Ashley has my heart.

Don't go to weep upon my grave
And think that there I'll be
For they haven't left an atom there
Of my Anatomy.

--AB

Virginia Tech Shootings and Poetry

Nikki Giovanni had Cho Seung-Hui in a creative writing class at Virginia Tech two years before he went on his killing spree. Read about it here.

--AB

Pultizer Goes to Trethewey

The winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry goes to Natasha Trethewey for "Native Guard." Here's a report from the Washington Post:

POETRY: "Native Guard," by Natasha Trethewey.

Trethewey, a creative writing professor at Emory University, imagined the life of a former slave stationed at a fort off the coast of Gulfport, Miss., a former Union prison housing Confederate prisoners. The slave was charged with writing letters home for illiterate POWs and fellow soldiers. Trethewey, a Gulfport native who was a daughter of a black woman and white man, said she used the racial legacy of the Civil War to honor her mother and her personal history.

--AB

DIY Publishing: Makeready

When we started this blog, I intended to write more about the publishing process than I have. If you have any questions about the process of starting your own press let me know. If you have questions about the printing process specifically, it’s a point of pride that I be able to answer them. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find someone who does. Demystifying the printing process is something I think will help DIY publishers, because once you know what it takes to print a book, doing it yourself doesn’t seem so hard.

Today’s topic: Makeready

Let’s say you get a quote from at printer for 500 books and 1,000 books. Let’s say the printer comes back to you and says they’ll print 500 books for $1,500 and 1,000 books for $2,000. Why does it cost relatively so little to print the extra 500 books?

One huge reason for the difference is the concept of “makeready.” Makeready is all the time and steps a printer takes to get the job set up and running. This includes getting the correct paper and printing plates on the press. Once that’s done, the pressman will start running the press, but the initial copies are waste (particularly on color jobs like book covers).

The reason is that when the paper starts running through the press and ink is applied, it takes time for the pressman to adjust ink levels to match the proof that the client (you) have approved. These “makeready” copies aren’t counted as part of your order. You typically never see them, but they are factored into the printer’s cost of doing business.

Once the ink levels are up and the order is being printed, the quantity is a small cost for the printer. The presses run so quickly that it could take only minutes to print an extra 500 copies. The bulk of the cost is incurred by the printer up front, during makeready, and, except for paper costs, not so much during the actual printing.

The concept of makeready has a number of consequences for DIY publishers. For example, you can design a print job to run on your printer’s particular presses so you optimize factors like makeready. Or you can design a print job and then find the printer with the best equipment for that job. Not all presses run the same jobs equally, and not all printers are created equal.

The reason I thought about makereadies is because you rarely see the copies, but a printer my employer uses to print brochures recently sent us some with our regular job order. He probably did it by accident because makeready copies are generally unusable. They often look washed out, streaky and non-vibrant. For book publishers, this is mostly an issue with color covers, but even the black and white body of your books should have strong, crisp ink coverage.

--AB

Poetry is for Babies

As I haven't posted anything here (or updated the RMP site) in weeks, I figured I'd post a photo of my excuse, Amelia, who was born on March 26th and has been keeping me from entering REM sleep since.

Web site updates are coming, I promise -- not least among them the long-awaited preview of Mortal. We're also (hopefully) going to be switching servers soon and updating our catalog to allow for a more shopping-cart-like experience.

--Chris

Bredlemania

If you haven't done it yet, go buy a copy of Jason Bredle's "Standing in Line for the Beast," put out by New Issues Press earlier this year.

Pain Fantasy, to be published by us imminently, will be Jason's second book. Check here often for updates.

--AB

Yo Yo Yo, Whassup Cloud?

Welcome to the intersection of marketing and poetry. A British town decided to center its marketing campaign on William Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud," but the actual poem wasn't good enough, so a rap version was rendered. Naturally.

Click here to read the story.
Click here to watch the actual music video.

--AB

Against National Poetry Month

Every story has (at least) two sides, doesn't it? Here's an essay by Charles Bernstein, published in 1999 called "Against National Poetry Month As Such." He argues that it promotes bland poetry.

Personally, I think he's overreacting. Even if you accept that National Poetry Month doesn't effectively support poetry, the idea that it actively hurts the genre is a stretch. In this essay, I think National Poetry Month is just a starting point for Bernstein, an excuse to criticize poetry that he doesn't like. What do you think?

--AB

Update to Murderer Identified in Poem

In an earlier post, I linked to the story about an anonymous poet who allegedly knows the identity of a local murderer and revealed as much in a poem he plastered on telephone poles around town. Police haven't been able to find or convince the poet to come forward with the murderer's identity, presumably because he's afraid of retribution. Read the latest update here.

Here's a writing exercise: Write a poem in which the speaker of your poem witnessed a murder but is afraid to reveal the identity of the killer.

--AB

More Poetry News

Click on the links to read the latest news about

1) Art Exhibit Dedicated to the Worst Scottish Poet Ever

2) New Film About Life of Dylan Thomas

3) Owner of Prescott Street Press Dies at 90

--AB

Those Wacky Canadians

Two Canadian poets face off in some sort of winner-takes-all poetry "battle," conceived and implemented by the local governments. It's Vancouver vs. Owen Sound in Round 1. Read about it here.

--AB

Poetry Foundation--At It Again

Some recent news from the Poetry Foundation: Joint readings featuring U.S. and British Poet Laureates. Read about it here.

The one in Washington, DC take place on May 10. Anyone want to go?

--AB

NaPoWriMo

Write a (draft of a) poem a day for the duration of National Poetry Month. All the cool kids are doing it. Learn more about it here.

--AB

Getting an MFA to Pay for Itself

In case you want to see what kind of writing gigs an MFA will get you, here are two wildly different magazine stories I’ve written recently. One is for my regular employer, and the other is a freelance column I do monthly.

On Tap: “Party Crasher: St. Patrick’s Day 2007”
Print Solutions: “Health Care Forms Undergo Revision"

P.S. If you’re having a party and live in the D.C. area, email me so I can crash it :)

--AB

Move Over American Idol! Here Comes Poetry!

The next big thing in the Middle East are poetry talent contests, broadcast on TV a la American Idol-style, where audience members vote for their favorite poetry recitation. Read about it here.

How would this work in the United States? Which B- or C-list celebrity would host? Any suggestions? Maybe we should put together a pitch for Fox.

--AB

A Company Called Poet(TM)

If you're a dry mill ethanol producer that wanted to name your company "Poet," it's too late. The company formerly known as Broin trademarked that shit, so you're out of luck.

I thought some of you might get a kick out of this story about the company naming itself Poet. I didn't actually read much of the article, so if anyone finds the rationale behind the name-change, please eduate me.

--AB

Apparently, It's a Controversey

The Boston City Council is debating whether or not to have a Poet Laureate. It's an age-old story: Should money and resources be used to support poetry when crime, drugs, etc. are more pressing problems? The city responds by promising that only private funding will support the laureate. What do you think? Who's right? Is this a newsworthy issue? Click here to read the story, then give us your comments.

--AB

Alleged Murderer Identified in Poem

Someone who allegedly knows the identity of a killer in Somerset, England, has posted a poem on street lamps and bus shelters. Police are looking for the poet, whose verse already led them to what might be the murder weapon. The poetry is bad, but the story is good, so check it out here.

--AB

Contest Shenanigans

Ugh! We'll never have a contest, if for no other reason than to avoid the hassle of administering one. I don't care how much money they bring in, contests take too much energy to run.

Just reading this story in P&W tired me out. The spotlight is on Tupelo Press and its contest shenanigans. (I call them shenanigans, but read the story and decide for yourself.)

--AB

Final Jeopardy

I watched a re-run of Jeopardy during lunch today. The Final Jeopardy category was "Poets."

The clue was something like "In 2005, a Library of Congress exhibit on this poet included a display called 'Wound Dresser.'"

If you know the answer, be the first to put it in the comments below, and we'll send you a free copy of Sean, Jen or Ivy's book.

--AB

Poetry of the Middle East

PBS broadcast two segments last week--one on Israeli poetry and one on Palestinian poetry. Not sure if the archives are up yet, but here's a link to some additional content.

--AB

Viva Las Vegas

There were no posts for awhile, because I just returned from four days in Las Vegas. A friend of mine got married there. Here's a recap of the weekend:

Mean time waiting for luggage at bag claim: 30 minutes
Gross earnings from gambling (poker): $75
Gross losses from gambling (slots): $30
Average margaritas per hour: 3.5
Number of poems read by me: 0

The wedding was nice, a blend of African and Japanese traditions to reflect the bride and groom's heritage. To make this relate somehow to poetry, I was going to include a blessing from Ghana that was part of the ceremony, but I forgot to get a copy of it. Instead, here's a poem by Lynn Emanuel called "Inventing Father in Las Vegas."

--AB

Speaking of Trademarks (and Copyrights)

We decided early on with Red Morning Press that the copyrights of a work would remain with our authors. That's rarely (if ever) an option with the huge publishing conglomerates. We assume that if we do a good job of caring for our authors, they'll want to publish with us again. If they suddenly become famous and their books are in hyper-demand, they have the option to get another press to publish it. If you believe, as we do, that the copyrights are the most valuable asset an author owns, then it's hard to swallow that so many authors give them away for virtually nothing.

The relationship between copyright/trademark/patent laws and creativity is something that fascinates me. On one hand, the laws can be overly protective. On the other, they can be the only protection an artist has. One deviation from the often black-and-white discussions about copyright--especially as they pertain to music--can be found at the Creative Commons web site. The idea here is that you can share some of your rights without giving them all away.

--AB

Poetry: Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hand(TM)

This new web site features a "game" where you can write poems using trademarked advertising slogans. Visitors can vote for their favorite ones. If anyone tries it, email us the result.

--AB

Did Poetry Win the Lottery: Part II

In an earlier post, I linked to the New Yorker article about the Poetry Foundation. A response to that article appeared recently in the New York Times. What are your thoughts?

--AB

[Edit -- I'm bored this morning and figured I'd weigh in... I’m embarrassed to admit I just read the first article Andy posted, so now at least I know what everybody at AWP was talking about. But frankly, I’m not sure I see what all the controversy is about. Poetry got a lot of money, and it now wants to spend lots of it in silly ways to try to make poetry more appealing to ordinary people. Let me look into my crystal ball for a second… oh, ok, it’s a spectacular failure.

I mean, it’s no secret that poetry ain’t popular. It was once, sure, but that was when people who were educated were actually taught how to engage with a poem. I think back to my K-12 education, and I remember only one class in which we were taught to read and write poems: It was in first or second grade, in a “gifted and talented” class, and I was encouraged to write little poems about things like dinosaurs and ghosts.

And there was one day when we were taught about simile. I wrote a poem called “Winter,” in which I said something like “it tastes like chocolate cake, sounds [or looks?] like the ocean.” The cake thing was because my birthday is in December (I guess I should have known my audience and said “tastes like candy canes”); I don’t remember what was going on with the ocean part, but I know I was mocked mercilessly by a neighbor kid, who was not in said GT class. Even years later, when I bumped into the guy, he said something like, “Hey, remember when you wrote a poem about how winter tasted like cake? That was so gay.”

So there you have it. I was given an introduction on how to read and write poems by a teacher who knew how to read and write poems. He was not. I stayed interested in poetry. I think it’s safe to say he’s not a fan. Getting a poem or an essay on poetry placed in Maxim isn’t going to change his mind, unless maybe it’s tattooed on Fergie, who is fergalicious.

You know, that's not a bad idea. Note to self: draft grant proposal and perform legal research on avoiding restraining orders.

This (the poetry thing, not Fergie) is something I was talking about with some folks at AWP. If they want to make poetry more popular, they should spend the money paying me a salary in the low six figures (I’ve got law school loans, you know) to travel the country and teach first and second graders how to read and write little poems. Or hire someone else to do it and pay them less; I know plenty of good writers cheaper than me who would probably do a great job teaching the kiddies (that is, not opening with, “Do you like iambs, Jimmy?” or otherwise turning poems into the literary equivalent of brussel sprouts).

But that’s, as far as I can tell, not what they’re doing, and I’m not too upset about it. Based on what I’ve now read, the Poetry Foundation is a little like Richard Pryor in Brewster’s Millions, in which Pryor’s character inherits millions and has to spend it all in a week without accumulating any assets. So he buys icebergs that are going to melt and million-dollar stamps, which he then uses to mail postcards. In the end, it’s their money. If they want to spend it giving awards for funny poems, I guess that’s fine by me. I'm way more annoyed by the New Yorker's process for selecting its poems, though I guess I really shouldn't be.

Now I’d better get back to my latest poetry manuscript, A Polack Walks Into a Bar // (ouch).

- Chris]

The Poetry Series on PBS

It's a rainy, gray day in Washington, DC. I'm trying to keep motivated at work, so like everyone else, I take mini-breaks here and there and check out all the Web sites and blogs that I like to read.

Today I finally visited PBS' Online News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. Our good friend Tom works for the show, and one of his responsibilities is to generate content for the program's Poetry Series web site.

--AB

Email Submissions--Good and Bad (But Mostly Good)

When we started, we didn't accept email submissions. I don't know why. Most other presses didn't, so we just adopted the practice.

Then someone sent an email and scolded us for being behind the times. The arguments for having email submissions made sense--less paper, easier to handle, etc.--so we made it happen.

It wasn't too long after that we realized what a hassle it was for us to accept paper submissions at all. With CP in a different state, transferring manuscripts cost us time and money. So we formally eliminated mail submissions, and overall it has been a good thing.

One side benefit that I didn't think about at the time is that it expands our pool of potential writers. For example, I wonder if Ivy would have sent us her manuscript if she had to mail a hard copy. We get manuscripts from people all over the world now, because emailing a manuscript from overseas cost the same as emailing it from the United States.

One downside to email is that it when you send an email from our server, you're never sure it's going to reach its destination. I guess that's true of a mailed letter also. Anyway, I'm sharing all this because I am still getting inquiries about manuscripts that we rejected months ago. The short answer to all these inquiries: If you submitted your manuscript before November 2006, then we won't be publishing it at this time. If you submitted it after November 2006, then expect to hear from us soon, one way or another.

--AB

Mayhem Poets

The group that proposed a Slam poetry venue/restaurant as part of Microsoft's Ultimate Challenge small business idea contest actually won. The award is $100,000 in startup capital and a rent-free property for a year.

--AB

Reading at Ada Books

If you're in Providence next weekend, check out "The Publicly Complex Reading Series," featuring Kate Schapira and Jen Tynes.

The reading is on Friday, March 16th at Ada Books (2 Dean Street, Providence, RI). It starts at 6:00 p.m.

Have a drink. Buy a book.

--AB

Poetry Paper Towel Dispenser and Other News

Click here to read an interesting story about a woman who invented a poetry paper towel dispenser as a public art project.

Click here to read about Slamchops, a restaurant/slam poetry venue concept that three Rutgers' students entered in Microsoft's ideaWins contest (registration required).

Click here to read about a teacher who is on administrative leave for teaching a poem that some parents deemed offensive. The poem is unidentified in the story.

--AB

AWP Recap

Overview
I didn’t go to any sessions, seminars, presentations, panels--whatever you call them. So if that's what you want to hear about, you’ll have to ask someone else. I spent the entire time at the bookfair--at our table or looking at other tables. Dennis went to a reading by George Mason University’s MFA poetry faculty. All of them were teachers of ours, except one who replaced Carolyn Forche after we left. Chris went to a session that featured a panel of literary agents. Most of the audience consisted of fiction writers, I guess, so I don't know if he found it worthwhile or not. Maybe he and Dennis will report to you in a post (hint, hint).

Bookfair (and Books I Bought)
The bookfair was pretty solid. Last year, the convention center in Austin was too big. The booths were too spread out, and our booth was in a shitty spot along the edge of the room, far away from the entrance, so fewer people made it over to us. This year was better. The room was smaller, so the aisles were more densely packed with people. As with every year, the room is usually full before, between and after sessions. We were positioned next to Richard Peabody's booth and across from The Chattahoochee Review. Thanks to their crew for letting us eat their brownies (the regular kind).

I spent more money buying books than buying booze this year. That's obviously not true, but you get the idea. Books I bought:

1. Bone Pagoda by Susan Tichy (Ahsahta Press)
2. Reliquaries by Eric Pankey (Ausable Press)
3. Talk Shows by Monica de la Torre (Switchback Books)
4. A bunch of chapbooks (Ocutpus Books)

I've read about half of Bone Pagoda so far. Susan was a teacher of ours at George Mason U, so I've been looking forward to her book coming out. Eric also was a teacher of ours, so that's another one I'm looking forward to reading.

I'm really interested in Talk Shows, because I'm excited about Switchback Books. When we met Brandi Homan in Austin last year, she was an attendee. Now Brandi and friends are exhibitors at the bookfair with their very own press.

The last thing I wanted to buy before I left was a chapbook by Jen and co-author Erika Howsare published by Octupus Books. I went to their table to buy it and came away with eight chapbooks instead. They all looked so good that I had to have them. Something I noticed at AWP (let’s call it a trend) is that a lot of people bought chapbooks. We had some of horse less press’ chapbooks on our table, and a few of Ivy’s and one of Jason’s—people were consistently drawn to them. I started seeing them everywhere. It made me wonder whether we should have been a chapbook publisher :)

More to come...

--AB

AWP Reading with Jen and Jason

Jen and Jason both read at Django Cafe in Atlanta during at an event hosted by the women at Switchback Books.

The off-site readings are one of my favorite things about AWP. They're always more social and energetic than the keynote readings at the actual conference center. (Probably because you're within easy reach of a beer.) I'm glad that Switchback invited Jen and Jason to be part of their reading.

--AB

RMP at AWP

Here's something to look at until we start posting some actual comments about AWP:

Except for the talented Miss Ivy Alvarez, (who lives in Wales), here's the entire RMP crew at AWP in Atlanta. Clockwise, from Jen, are Jason, Chris, Dennis, Sean and me.

--AB

Bad With Hasselhoff

As promised.

If we ever release BWF in Germany, I think we'll have to go with this one. I'm pretty sure we can get the Hoff to give us permission in exchange for a warm bowl of soup or an enthusiastic compliment ("You should totally be in the Checkpoint Charlie museum, Hoff! Your voice helped bring down that wall!").

Actually, I really do like this cover. Really.

-- Chris

Back from AWP

Over the next few days, we'll post some photos and thoughts on AWP. I'd start with the photos today, but I left my camera at home. Besides, the downside of being on the road so long is that we all have to play catch up. I returned to an inbox with 180 unread emails (but only 1 voicemail--what's that tell you about how people communicate these days?) and a few fires to put out at work.

Speaking of fires, on the drive back from Atlanta, we saw a car burst into flames. It was parked on the side of the road, and someone was still in the car! A bunch of cars pulled over, and we called 911, but I'm not sure what happened after that.

--AB

Review of Jen's Book on CutBank's Blog

Jen's book recently was reviewed on CutBank Poetry's blog. Check it out...

--AB

Post Card Printing

Speaking of post cards, we had ours printed at www.clubflyers.com. They'll print 5,000 post cards with full-color on both sides for under $200. That's a great deal.

A lot of online printing companies will offer one product at ridiculously low prices as a loss leader, hoping you'll like the quality and service so much that you'll buy other products, like business cards, brochures, etc. from them. You could do that, or you could shop around and find the printers that use business cards, etc., instead of post cards as loss leaders and get great pricing on those products.

Here's a list of just a few online printing companies I know about that specialize in small orders. I can't speak specifically about all these companies, except to say that people I know have used them for various projects and been satisfied with their work:

1. www.postcardpress.com
2. www.48hourprint.com
3. www.mimeo.com
4. www.vistaprint.com

--AB

No Contests, No Reading Fees, No Excuses

Here's a copy of the post card we're distributing at AWP and elsewhere. It looks blue on my browser, but the actual card is red and black. The other side has more copy on the back, but it's too light and obscure to read on my browser. It says "Red Morning Press will never fund itself through contests or reading fees./ Truly independent publishing demands it./ If you believe in the mission, then buy a book.../...or start your own press./ Ask us how."

If you want some to distribute, email me and we'll mail you some.

The longer we run RMP, the more convinced I am that writers should take a serious look at self-publishing. We receive so many manuscripts that deserve to be published, but we simply can't publish them all. It's a shame that those authors will have to keep searching for a publisher or hoping to win a contest. One of the messages we wanted to communicate on the post card is that if anyone wants to self-publish or start their own press, we're here to help. If you want tips or advice on navigating the process, we're more than willing to share what we've learned.

--AB

Self-publishing Resource

If you're thinking about self-publishing, I recommend this site, which is maintained by a company called RJ Communications. More specifically, I recommend their newsletter, Publishing Basics, which you can sign up for by clicking here.

The information is extremely practical. When CP, DC and I first talked about starting the Press, one of the hardest things to find out was how much it would cost to print a book. The pricing I researched was all over the map. But I had been getting the newsletter, and one of the articles (very timely) was basically a matrix showing how much it cost to print a book according to quantities, type of printing (offset versus digital), etc.

Now I work for a magazine that covers the printing industry, and all that information is second nature, but at the time, it was a critical resource, because the printing cost for us is the greatest expense, and we couldn't budget realistically until we knew what it would be.

--AB

Did Poetry Win the Lottery?

Check out this piece in the New Yorker about the massive amount of money that the Poetry Foundation has and how they're spending it. Here's the Poetry Foundation's response.

To summarize: The Poetry Foundation has a shit-ton of money, way more money than you ever thought poetry would attract. They are using it to publish Poetry, syndicate Ted Koosier's newspaper column, buy an office building, maintain a web site, promote poetry to nationally circulated consumer magazines, etc. A lot of people in the poetry community are annoyed, pissed or outright angry at the way the money is being spent, primarily because the Poetry Foundation takes a "do it our way/go-it-alone" approach rather than redistributing the money to the scores of independent publishers and artists who could use it.

My opinion: I'm not speaking for Dennis and Chris, but my general attitude is "Who cares?" The New Yorker sets up the story as a confrontation--People who favor the Poetry Foundation must believe in A, B, C. People who disagree with the Poetry Foundation must believe in X, Y, Z.

That's a convenient story-telling device, but it misses the point. Both sides have merit. Both sides have weaknesses. Both sides also have proponents with self-serving agendas, so they benefit by dismissing each other outright.

One joy of running Red Morning Press is that our merits and weaknesses don't matter that much. We all have jobs outside poetry, so what other publishers and poets think about our mission, our aesthetic, our fashion sense, whatever--it doesn't really concern us. We're going to publish poetry we regardless of how much money the Poetry Foundation spends or how much people rail against it.

As long as we can afford it, no one can really stop us from putting good books into the world. That's one of the reasons I encourage poets I meet to think about self-publishing. It's not that difficult or expensive, and the freedom to do it the way you want is priceless.

--AB

DC's Literary Tradition

If you were wondering whether Washington, DC and its Metro area have a literary tradition, Washingtonian magazine provides a very, very, very short and incomplete answer to that question (featuring Charles Wright).

--AB

The RMP Newsletter's Demise

When we started the press, one of our "great" ideas was to start a newsletter. We thought it'd be an easy way to keep in touch with the people who wanted us to keep in touch.

But it never took off. People didn't really sign up for it, and maintaining a clean email list was a pain in the ass. The need to communicate still existed, so that's what led us to blogging. The instant we think of something or make a decision, it can be recorded, and it's instantly available for anyone that wants to read about it.

So after AWP this year, say goodbye to the newsletter. And check back here to learn about our next project: The RMP Poetry Round.