You call that chaos, Sarah? You should have seen my floor when I was 'tidying' today! My saviour was a huge empty file I discovered and labelled 'Papers to be filed later'. Do let us read some of your poems.

Ah, bless you! I had a few poem in the latest issue of the Pages magazine. I've yet to start on editing individual poems for the 'collection'. I think it's going to be a longer process than I originally imagined. But it's one of my resolutions to try and whip it into shape this year!

Sarah you should have seen my office yesterday! I was surrounded with paper, discs and dogs!

Seriously though, here is an idea for you. Last year myself and a friend of mine decided to put a collection of poems together. As we live bang in the middle of the National Forest we decided to make that our theme.

Our collection is called Sleet, Shoots & Leaves, (I know, I know!). Subtitled - A poetical and seasonal journey through the National Forest. Each poem is illustrated with a photo of one of the places associated with the National Forest at various times of the year.

We published 20 copies through Lulu and gave them to friends and family for Christmas presents. I'm really pleased with the project as it is a wonderful keepsake since I now have a lot of my work safely gathered in as it were!

I've a couple of spare copies which I may try and get the National Forest company interested in.

Couldn't you do something similar based on where you live?

Thanks Sue,

I do have a small folder of local poems but not really enough for a pamphlet at the moment, though this is something I may try in the future.

I did something similar to your venture though with my pamphlet Conception. This was a 44-page pamphlet of pregnancy, birth, toddler poems, which I self-published primarily for my sons' thanksgiving.

I chose to print them myself because I was working to a very short timetable and it gave me the freedom to POD and change as I went along without paying the earth. (With hindsight another time around I would go for the local printers' quotation for 50-100 copies, which was very reasonable and professional). We gave copies to family and guests and I also sold some through local toddlers groups and an independent bookshop. Unfortunately, this was curtailed because our printer packed up, which is kind of ironic cos the theme was infinitely more marketable to the general public (new baby, christening, new mother, mother's day present) than a collection of my more recent and better poems would probably be.

This time, if possible, I want to try and do it properly through a publisher and third party editor, though I know this is going to be difficult and take a lot of time and energy.

Given the National Forest and the discovery centre at measham/ashby, I would definitely try and approach those in charge and see if they're interested in your book (great title!). What about your local tourist offices too? They do reckon local history/landscape projects tend to sell better be easier to market locally, for obvious reasons.

Good luck :-)

I don't know much about poetry publishing but I would have thought that if you can get some individual poems published that would be a point in your favour when approaching a publisher with a collection.
Good luck with it!

That's not chaos, Sarah; it's creative activity. Don't knock it!

Thanks Mary, that's definitely what I shall say to the other half if he moans about the mess!
Linda, you're absolutely right, more small press publications can only do me good. One thing I've realised though is that I also need to try to keep my writing themed (think about collection potential) as I write (and submit individual poems)rather than writing then looking back at 100 odd poems and trying to theme and prefer them! Guess that's what they call the learning curve! Just hope I reach the top of it soon! ;-)