Getting a poem published, and what publishing means
Publishing a poem
To publish a poem is to make it available to the public for the first time, and in practice that means one of four things: a magazine takes it, an anthology takes it, the writer puts it out themselves, or a company charges the writer to print it.
Only the first two involve somebody else choosing the poem, and choosing is the whole of what publication is worth. The word is also broader than most people expect. A poem read once at an open mic has been performed, not published; the same poem posted publicly on an account anyone can see has been published, and a magazine that wants unpublished work will treat it that way.
What publication actually is
Publication is an act of selection plus an act of distribution, and separating the two explains almost every confusion on this subject. Selection is an editor with a limited number of pages deciding this poem and not that one. Distribution is the poem reaching people who did not have to be in the room. A magazine does both. A printer does only the second, whatever it charges. Ways a poem reaches other people sets publication next to the other routes, and Spoken word poetry sits outside this entirely: a poem written to be said out loud can have a full life without ever being printed at all.
Magazine, anthology, self published and vanity press
The magazine, the anthology, the self published pamphlet and the vanity press differ in who selects the work and who pays for the printing, and those two questions sort them completely.
| Route | Who selects the poem | Who pays to print it | What it is worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magazine | An editor, from unsolicited submissions | The magazine | A credit a stranger can verify, and readers |
| Edited anthology | An editor, for a theme or a scheme | The publisher | A credit, a shelf life, and company |
| Self published pamphlet | The writer | The writer | Copies to sell or give away, and control |
| Vanity press | Nobody, since payment is the selection | The writer, often twice | Little, and it can be a cost with no return |
Self publishing is not the same as vanity publishing and it is not a lesser thing. Poets have made their own pamphlets for as long as there have been pamphlets, and a young writer selling a stapled run of 30 at a slam is doing something honest and useful. The line is direction of travel: a self publisher pays a printer for copies they then own, while a vanity press sells the writer the idea of having been chosen. Anthologies goes further into the version of this that targets school age writers.
First rights, and what they mean at fifteen
First rights mean the right to be the first to publish a poem, and they are the main thing a magazine is actually buying. Most literary magazines want previously unpublished work, some will consider work that has appeared elsewhere if it is declared, and a few take reprints on purpose. What counts as previous publication is decided by the magazine, not by the writer, and the modern answer is broad: a post on a public account, a video of a performance, a school website and a competition anthology can all count. Submitting a poem covers how to declare this without losing the submission.
The rights themselves stay with the writer throughout. Copyright arises automatically under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which applies in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Northern Ireland alike, with no register and no minimum age, and the Intellectual Property Office publishes the government guidance on it. What a magazine takes is a licence, normally to publish once, after which the poem is free to be reprinted with an acknowledgement of where it first appeared. Copyright itself can only be transferred in writing and signed, and no reputable magazine asks a 15 year old to do that for a single poem. Where any agreement is signed at all, a publisher acting properly asks a parent or guardian to sign alongside a writer under eighteen, and the rules on when a young person can be held to a contract differ between Scotland, under the Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991, and England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
Publishing a book of poems, and what it costs
Publishing a book of poems is the wrong ambition for most writers under eighteen, and it is the search that brings most of them here. A first collection is normally the work of years and follows a run of magazine credits, because that is how an editor at a poetry press learns the name. The mechanics of doing it yourself are genuinely open: print on demand services will produce a paperback from a file with no upfront print run, and online platforms will host a free digital edition. 3 things are real even so. Design and proofreading, which are what separate a book from a printout. An ISBN, which the United Kingdom agency that issues them charges for, and which a book only needs if shops or libraries are to order it. And legal deposit, which costs nothing and is an obligation: a book published in the United Kingdom must be sent to the British Library, with copies to the other legal deposit libraries on request.
Getting paid is the honest disappointment. Some magazines pay contributors a small fee, many pay in copies of the issue, and a great many pay nothing because they run at a loss on somebody's evenings. Nobody in poetry, at any age, plans an income from single poems. The money that does exist in the field is in commissions, residencies, performance fees, teaching and prizes, and every one of those arrives because of a body of work rather than because of a first publication.
How to recognise a vanity press
A vanity press is recognised by the direction the money runs, and 4 signals settle it quickly. The company approaches the writer rather than the other way round. The acceptance is instant and effusive. The next message concerns a purchase, whether of copies, a hardback edition, a certificate or a place in a second volume. And nobody can name the editor who chose the poem, because no one did. A publisher that pays to print, edits what it prints and sells to readers is a publisher; a company that prints whatever arrives and sells to the writer is a printer with a compliment attached.