Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

Tally-Ho!

As you’ll recall, my year of blogging for Poetry Has Value reached its end a number of months ago. But that doesn’t mean I can’t continue to share my poetry submission stats with you. So here’s the report for the month of July.

Also, if you’re new to these posts, it may be helpful for you to know that I work very hard to submit my work mainly to paying venues that don’t charge fees for journal/website publication. If you’re similarly looking for paying calls and contests that don’t charge submission fees, you’re always welcome to check my monthly newsletter (and with my weekly “Monday Markets” posts on this blog).

On with the July report:

Venues to Which I Submitted Poetry and Total Poems Submitted: (6) Frontier Poetry (5 poems), Opossum (1 poem), Rivet (5 poems), Ruminate (3 poems), Third Point Press (2 poems for “Skin” issue), Virginia Quarterly Review (4 poems)

Rejections Received: (4) The Cresset, Image, Mortar magazine, The Sun

Acceptances: 0

Publications: 0

Money Spent: $0

Money Earned: $0

July TOTAL: $0

Total Money Spent in 2017: $0

Total Money Earned in 2017: $260

2017 TOTAL: $260

Total Submissions in 2017: 61 “packets”

Total Rejections in 2017: 48

My First Hebrew “Essay”

On Monday, my month-long intensive Hebrew class ended. As part of the concluding session, we were each asked to give a short presentation on the topic of “My Family.” Thus, the title and byline of my brief write-up:

I’m planning to write about the experience of taking this class, too. (That, I hope, will be another essay.) Stay tuned!

August Issue of The Practicing Writer


And, in case you missed it: The August issue of The Practicing Writer went out to subscribers earlier this week. You can also find it online until August 31, when the September issue will post.

4 thoughts on “Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

  1. Gita Baack says:

    I appreciate this advice on poetry. I self published a poetry book at the same time as I published the very expensive non-fiction book. I love them both but am putting all my effort into the non fiction: The Inheritors: Moving Forward from Generational Trauma. My poetry book is Poems of Angst and Awe. I will still take it along to book fairs and book signings. My friends love it.
    I will try some of your strategies and like the advice about not spending any money. I’ve done enough of that already with my hybrid non-fiction published by She Writes Press.
    Best of luck getting rewarded in every way for your writings.
    Gita

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      Thanks, Gita.

  2. Atar Hadari says:

    Hi Erika,

    I enjoyed your making money from poetry AWP post and was mildly shocked by the last item about having to chase magazines up for the money. Not that it hasn’t happened to me but probably not more than once in a couple years.

    I’m not in a position to commission such a thing (!) but if you’re casting about for ideas – I’d love to read your thoughts about the difference in practise between being a short-story writer and a poet.

    All the best,

    Atar

    1. Erika Dreifus says:

      Apologies for the delay, Atar! I’m personally in search of an instructive piece on how one knows whether something should be written as a poem or as prose. But I’m nowhere near writing anything like that myself….

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