Friday 17 January 2014

Poetry and Money

"There's no money in poetry, but there's no poetry in money, either" wrote Robert Graves. Here are some fairly recent news items about poetry and money

  • Magazines - Iota poetry magazine now charges £1 for online submissions (they print the attachments). Some US mags charge $3. Postal submissions are still an option, though they're more expensive.
    Neon magazine has posted its Submissions Summary for 2013. A 1.9% acceptance rate. About ten percent of submissions came from authors who had supported the magazine in some way – either by subscribing, donating or purchasing a sample copy - though the magazine's free to read online. This success in raising donations offers hope to other magazines.
  • Book Publishers - Eyewear Publishing has suddenly lost its funding. It was receiving £25k/year from an anonymous donor, news which came as a surprize to me. Salt pulled out of single-author poetry books not long ago.
    Fiona Moore in Poetry prizes: the elephant on stage has collected statistics on how "the big five" poetry publishers (Bloodaxe, Cape, Carcanet, Faber and Picador) have dominated the last ten years of shortlists, from 2004 to 2013, for both the TS Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize for Best Collection. She points out that "only 2% of TSE-shortlisted books came from small publishers".
  • Bookshops - When I lived in Nottingham I used to go to Mushroom Bookshop. Five Leaves Bookshop opened in November 2013, run by the eponymous small press, so at least some small press publications are now on sale in a city centre. I'm looking forward to visiting.

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