National Poetry Month Day 3 – Indie Publishing Tip #3

Each day this month, I am celebrating Poetry Month by sharing my tips for Indie Publishing, a process I have just completed for the second time.

My third tip for publishing an indie anthology of ekphrastic poetry for middle grade students is to communicate well.

Tip #3 Communicate Well

I’ve prided myself on being a good communicator. For seventeen years, I communicated with various members of my community to provide environmental education. This included students, teachers, members of community organziations to which I belonged like Master Gardener Volunteers, as well as organizations to which I was invited to present.

The only place I was accused of not being a good communicator was the land trust for which I worked – I was told I was not a team player by my boss and therefore, I resigned. I disagreed with their estimation.

But as an indie author and publisher, it is imperative to communicate well.

Okay, well, it’s fine to say that but how do I suggest doing it?

List your submission requirements clearly. I did this with a word doc. I listed the specifics of submitting to the anthology so it could be read and referred to by those who wanted to participate.

The document included things like the number of poems accepted per submission fee. The size and orientation of the photographs that would accompany the poems, and a timeline.

I communicated to each author-photographer when their submssion was accepted and several times after that in the process.

Each got a screen shot of their work and how it would be exhibited on the page in the anthology.

I hired an editor. She and I communicated well about the changes she saw as necessary in the book. I, then, communicated these to most of the authors and by most, I mean over 95% of the authors received an email from me if a change was suggested to their work by the editor.

But, despite regular and clear communication, some need more. Be ready for that. It is time consuming. Let’s just say I learned a great deal about communication during the experience of publishing an indie anthology.

I learned to be firm about how much you will communicate and when it’s been too much.

Personally, I felt I needed to be available to my participants. If they had a question, I needed (and did) to respond. But, there need to be limits and I will make some effort to instill these next time.

Communication demands time and patience, as well as clairty. I will look to improve upon this in the future.

Thanks for reading!