Don’t Look So (Verb) Tense: Proofreading and Other Best Practices for Submitters
You’re ready to submit. You’ve gotten your poems together. This contest sounds like the perfect fit for your work—you’ve been writing for years but never felt confident enough to share it with anyone—and you can’t wait to hear what the editors have to say about your work. Or, it’s your first time submitting, but all your writer friends talk about it and you’re not totally sure how this whole submissions process works. Or maybe you just went through a breakup and these poems are totally going to embarrass your ex when you get them published. Palette Poetry loves giving emerging writers a platform to speak their truth and we encourage writers from all walks of life to take the plunge.
There are some best practices which will help your readers and editors approach your submissions. Most of our readers are volunteers, and they work hard! Our guidelines are about making their jobs easier. We want to get you a response on your work as quickly as possible, and we want our readers to feel supported. These suggestions will help you prepare your submission so it’s publication ready—and so it will get a fair shot from an unbiased editor who is looking at your work objectively, without distractions or formatting issues, typos, and other easily avoidable proofreading mistakes.
We get it. We’re writers too. And sometimes you just get so excited about a draft that you have to send it out. Or you’re fed up with a poem and you don’t want to look at it anymore so you just submit it without a cursory glance. There’re lots of reasons why there might be small errors in a document and most of them aren’t directly the writer’s fault.
One or two typos is fine, but if there’s a consistent issue, it can become hard to read a submission. It’s difficult to engage with a writer’s work if there are a lot of mistakes or unclear sections or even grammatical mistakes. Writing poetry is subjective, but if it’s not clear what the poet is attempting to convey, this can result in more questions than answers for the editor or reader, distracting from the work itself.
Luckily, this has an easy fix. Proofread your submissions and make sure everything is exactly how you want it. This will show attention to detail and readiness for publication—which is just what we want to see.
Another question is about consistency. Often, writers will use punctuation in one part of a poem but forgo it in another section. There’re lots of reasons why this could happen, but in many cases it can feel inconsistent, or as if the writer isn’t being intentional in the way they are crafting their poem. This kind of control over each and every line takes practice. Inconsistency with capitalization, comma and period placement, and leaving hanging lines (lines with no punctuation at the end) becomes an issue when it appears that the writer isn’t conscious about how they are applying these elements to their work.
We all begin to write from an intuitive place, so this kind of urgency in writing isn’t surprising. But as you continue to grow as a poet, building an awareness of even the smallest elements of your writing will bring your work to the next level.
Following contest guidelines is an important concern and unlike anything previously mentioned, this can directly result in negative outcomes. It’s important to make note of what each contest is specifically looking for in terms of the number of poems submitted and how they are formatted, among other details. Guidelines such as starting each new poem on a new page can vastly help as readers look at your work—it helps us to differentiate between where your poems start and end as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It’s also important to mention font choices here. Please try to choose a simple font like Times New Roman or Garamond when submitting work. As readers who are reading a large number of submissions per day, it’s very helpful to have a clear, well-formatted document that’s easily readable. You’re saving our eyes! Eye strain is real.
It’s important to read over the guidelines carefully, because if you submit work that isn’t appropriate for a particular contest or doesn’t follow guidelines, it’s possible that your submission could be returned unread. To maximize your chances, follow directions—this is another great sign for a potential editor, as it shows that you’re aware of best practices—another great signal that your work is ready to go.
Writing a professional cover letter and bio is the final touch. This can be short and sweet. Introduce yourself quickly and give us useful information about what you’re submitting, such as themes, content tags, and anything we need to know in order to conceptualize the work. Don’t write too much! We want to be prepared to enter your poetic landscape, but we don’t want to be overwhelmed by your life story, which although always fascinating, can distract from the work itself.
Similarly, a good bio lists relevant credentials, any professional experience you have which might be good to know, and maybe one personal detail if you want to share. It shouldn’t be more than a hundred words or so. Thank your reader (they’re working hard!) and you’re all done—ready to submit.
If this seems like a lot of extra work, especially since you’ve already done all the hard stuff—the actual writing—don’t worry! Pretty soon all of these extra steps will be like second nature. The more you practice these skills, the more your work will start to pick up traction with editors, and soon you’ll be racking up the creds.
Further reading:
“Poem,” by Rachel Zucker (poem about writing life)
“so you want to be a writer?” by Charles Bukwoski (poem about being a writer)
Prompt: This is more of a homework assignment than a prompt: write a 500 word bio, a 100 word bio, and a 50 word bio. Different journals will require different versions and it’s good to have extras on hand.