In praise of online publication and sticking to one's guns

[sheenaghpugh]

I've got a couple of poems online in the latest edition of Horizon Review and the thought occurs that this is certainly the way to get feedback; post links on FB and Twitter and blow me if comments don't roll in - now with a print mag, you could wait from now to the end of the century for any indication that human eyes had actually seen the thing.

And when you get feedback it can sometimes reinforce your confidence that editors don't always know best. The first of the poems up there, "Extremophile", spent ages looking for a home in a print mag in vain. When that happens, sometimes you start thinking: well, maybe it isn't as good as it should be. But insofar as I ever like mine, I was quite made up with this one and didn't lose faith in it, eventually finding it a home when the discerning Katy Evans-Bush took over as editor of HR. At least half a dozen editors had turned it down first, though. And whaddya know, this is the one that's getting lots of positive feedback from yr actual reader...

Comments

[fantasyenabler.livejournal.com]

Add me to the list of readers who appreciate it more. And I think that's because this line resonated with me: "this urge to cling on in the cracks of the world." To me, it sounds like it addresses the tenacity of all life, even human life, and I have a feeling the editors who turned it down didn't see that. They just saw a poem that was written about a bunch of odd life forms. :)

And I say that having been a reader for a lit journal and having to fight with my fellow students about what we should publish or not. As everyone knows, it's always easy to spot the "bad" stuff; it's the "good" stuff that you end up throwing plants at people's heads about.

now with a print mag, you could wait from now to the end of the century for any indication that human eyes had actually seen the thing.

Yes, thank you for summing up exactly why it's so difficult to make myself submit to print pubs anymore. Once you've been online and tasted the joy of immediate comments, it's hard to go back to whistling in the dark. I think print pubs might actually help themselves if they had some sort of immediate feedback mechanism. I think it's the lack of such a device that helps make them more and more unattractive to both reader and writer alike.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I like both of those, the feel of teeming life even in the remote volcanic depth, and the ephemeral beauty of an ice hotel. I've always longed to stay in one and never will.