That was Fun

Let’s not do that again.

Recently another writer asked me about my now out of print poetry boo Gasoline Heart.

image description: a brightly colored photo of round fuchsia sequins with yellow text that reads: Gasoline Heart Shannon Barber. This is the cover of my poetry book.

First let’s talk about the writing. My poetry book was written mainly while I was waiting for buses on my phone using a notepad app. I have long used writing poems as a way of relaxation or warm up. I did not set out to write a poetry book at all. I wrote a bunch of poems and my editor had previously reached out to tell me if I did the thing, she wanted the thing.

And thus the thing was born all wee and pink and shiny.

Second. As I was getting to the birthday of my book I did what folks tell authors to do. And yes, this is going to get bitter because I am. I reached out to a total of 30 literary magazines who had posted asking for work to review. I sent those emails as well as emails to people who’d expressed interest in reviewing my work. One person responded but never posted the review. In the whole of 2018, I was not able to get a single nibble of interest.

In the lit world, I did the things. I sent polite submission emails with poems from the book. Not one got accepted. My spreadsheet for most of the few poems I used for submissions/promotions show that on average each poem got rejected 10–15 times. Most mags said they didn’t publish “personal” poetry but did just not mine. That’s fine.