This is not the blog post I started writing this morning – but that turned into a cod philosophical/ psychological discourse that I eventually decided wasn’t going anywhere. So I’ve saved it for another day when I might be able to better whip my thoughts into a proper shape.
Instead, more of straightforward diary entry. This week I’ve been a bit restricted by a sore leg – I’ll spare you the details but just to say I managed to strain a calf muscle a couple of weeks ago and as a consequence I’ve been limping about and avoiding walking any sort of distances. It’s definitely getting better though.
On Thursday I made it into Brighton for the last of my ‘Build your social web presence’ sessions for New Writing South (next course starting September). It’s been really interesting to work with a group of writers on this. Clearly, publishers are putting pressure on authors to share the publicity load and demonstrate their social media reach and influence. I’ve wanting for a while to pull together my interests in social media/ communications and writing/publishing and this is one of the strands that seems to be coming to fruition. I’m also talking to a large children’s publisher at the moment about social media training, and am working with a literary agent to help support their authors in building their online presence.
There’s also a strong possibility of a book on this subject, before the end of the year – I’ll keep you posted.
Something else I’m working on is an up to date list of UK poetry magazines, print and online, together with details of their Twitter & Facebook etc. Although there are a number of lists around, including the excellent Poetry LIbrary list, I’ve found that their Twitter or Facebook accounts aren’t listed, or they’re not always kept up to date – magazines tend to come and go, and I’ve often wasted time by seeking out (and sometimes submitting to) magazines that have clearly gone under but not told anyone. Anyway, it’s a bit of a mammoth task – I’ll post the first draft when it’s ready and hope you can help me by telling me of any you know to be ‘dead’ or others that I’ve haven’t heard of that ought to be included. Then if I can keep it up to date it could be a useful reference.
And last but not least, on Friday I went to see my very funny performance post friend Iona Jette perform her new one-woman show The Orgasm Management Monologue in the Brighton Fringe. I filmed it on a DSLR camera, my first attempt at such a thing and great fun to play with all the gadgetry involved. I’ll post a link to it when it’s up!
Thank you. Everything you posted was about things i am interested in. Particularly the magazines for submissions. Do you have any influence in asking that more of them accept online submissions? I wish.
Thanks so much for the encouragement, Meg. Influence – oh dear, alas no! I’m in favour of online submissions for a fee – in other words, I think magazines could justify asking people to pay to submit online – doesn’t have to be much, say – £1 – but it’s still cheaper than what it costs for a poet to print out the poems, write the letter, send it off with an SAE etc. From the magazine’s point of view, if they read the poems without printing them out they would save time and gain a little income from it. I do think it’s vital to set up an auto responder when accepting online submissions though – so the sender knows they have arrived. Magma are very good at this.
You’re involved with so many interesting projects, Robin and you seem to have made them all happen by yourself. Like Meg, I’ll be reading your posts with interests for further news of all that you mention. Go you!
Thanks so much Josephine! It doesn’t always feel like I’m making much happen, believe me – I have a lot of ideas that I don’t follow through, but sometimes I manage to make contact with others who are good at encouraging me to push on, and keeping this blog going is one of the things that helps a LOT.