The Colorado Poet, #18, Spring 2012

It’s Not Self-Promotion!

(Bob King)

When I gently chided one Colorado poet, whose poem I’d come across in a magazine, about not letting me/us know, he thanked me and added he “wasn’t very good at self-promotion.” I included the item in “Writing News” on the site but I’d like to say a few words aimed at getting you to let us know your, well, your writing news.

There are several reasons for this, the least of which is self-promotion. One is the general community spirit we can all feel when a colleague has a poem, or book or chapbook, published. People are sometimes surprised at the number of publications referenced and even at the number of published Colorado poets the site represents. So there’s a general public interest as well as a community one.

An added bonus is that some of us--like me--find ideas of where to send poems from the list. I know some of the current magazines, and in some cases which not to send to, but I’m always interested in making a little “find,” like Red-headed Stepchild which only publishes poems that have been rejected by at least ten other magazines (!). I’m sure that every once in a while you read a magazine title in “Writing News” that you hadn’t heard of, and this potential market, if you’ll excuse the word, could be helpful information.

So let me make a plea that ‘we’ in general are interested in where Colorado poets found a place for their work. Please let me know and I’ll assist in recording this information in “Writing News.” (franklinbeth1309@gmail.com)

Remember: It’s not about you—it’s about us.