Edit. And Move. And Check. oh my.
About my blogging, I am absent. It’s not you; it’s me. I live for opportunities to use that line.
Well, technically I’m not absent at this particular moment, as I am typing this new post. However, by the time you read these words I will, once again, be absent. No, I am not mad at you.
I am using my few free minutes in the evenings to compile an anthology of poems I’ve written over past 10 years. I am picky a terminal perfectionist, so not all are making the cut. Probably less than 60 pages.
What I am discovering about this exercise is it’s incredibly fun scary. You see, once I publish my words in book form with an ISBN and you know, page numbers, my words will no longer be malleable. I will have chiseled them into proverbial tablets. So, I am analyzing the words and the format and punctuation and line breaks and the meter and the font and …
I’m an anal analyzer. If you need anything analyzed, I’m your guy. But, not right now. Too busy.
I’m enlisting the assistance of a couple of gullible good friends who naively graciously agreed to review and react to some of what I’m compiling.
At my current pace, the anthology should arrive by June, sometime this summer, just in time for the holidays! Woot, huh?
So, yeah, that’s my excuse story.
I do have a couple of questions for you readers out there:
Should I use my full name (Eric William Booth) or my nickname (doofuss Ric Booth)?
As the author and publisher how strict should the “All rights reserved” paragraph read?
a) No copies without written permission. (buy the book, cheapskate)
b) Copies permitted as long as they are not used for profit (and are used to project the author / poet in a very good, seemingly halo light).
There is no introduction or forward of any kind. Is that a mistake?
Cover: custom designed? plain? photograph of something poetic, like a meter stick or a bald eagle with a Trump hair-piece? Photograph of me with my best fake smile? Sketch of my quill (the keyboard)?
Serif or sans serif?
Name of the book in the page header?
My name in the page header?
Should I bother with copy on the back
See what I mean? Analyzer.
Like this:
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Poetry
All good questions.
-Go with Ric Booth. It fits you. It’s informal. And it’s always made me comfortable. Besides, it’s a good bet your full name will appear in the copyright section — just like “William H. Cosby Jr, Ed.D.” was the executive producer of “The Cosby Show.”
-Pick up a recently published book and see what it has to say about “all rights reserved” and go from there (just remember to include the electronic format). And make sure you make us buy the book.
-No introduction or foward is not a mistake. Let your poetry speak for itself. However, if you should win a pulitzer, see if Wallace Stevens is available to write one for you.
-The quill has been used a million a times; please forget it. A photo of you is a good idea, but not in a “Sears Family Portrait” kind of way. Think more shadows than light. But then, go with an image that fits your work. (Like mine would obviously be a sunrise.)
-Times New Roman. My personal favorite.
-No names on page hearder. Just the page number. With the title of the poem thrown in there somewhere.
-Copy on the back: Yes. Just tell us how long you’ve been writing poetry, where you live, and with whom.
I love how this post was written — looks exactly like my notes.
(And, with all due respect, thanks for not asking me to review or edit!
)
Thank you, Nor. I love my nickname (duh) and times roman, so we have a lot in common!
And my comment needs a little editing.
How kewel is that brotha Ric?!
Praying for you over these next few weeks; may God receive the glory for the story your poetry will tell.
I like Ric Booth too but that is because that is how I’ve always known you. My encouragement would be that if you don’t want it to be formal, don’t be formal if that makes sense?
I think that you could make some allowances in terms of copies; maybe under certain circumstances? I know that would be hard to determine and like Nor said, you may need to do a little more research on that, but as I read that question I thought how God may want to use your poetry in so many different ways; by having a strict copywrite you may be limiting those ways. Pray about it
I think it’s okay not to have an introduction/forward but I thought of one of your posts where you talked about writing to hurt/heal. I wonder if even one sentence pertaining to that would be impactful as an introduction?
I think it would be nice to have a picture that reflects the theme of your writing; whether that’s you or something else.
I don’t have answers for the rest but Nor did a good job of answering them.
I’m so happy for you! Love and blessings!
Thanks, Ayla. Yeah, I’m leaning toward informal. And the copyright thing I hear. I want to permit some level of sharing. Thank you for your thoughts on this!
I suggest looking at several publishers and see what their requirements. Everyone is a bit different. Many want the content they publish to be only featured in theirs, and most have excellent guidelines on what they are looking for.
Thanks for the suggestion, Sylvie.
These are questions I cannot begin to answer.
However it comes, I’ll buy it!
(Okay…I am partial to Ric Booth…the other doesn’t bring to mind the picture I have of you in my mind.)
haha… I’m kinda partial to Ric myself. So to speak. Thanks Michelle.