The Beauty of Poetry Prizes and Free Submissions

Never again will I quote the person who said something like “Poets are lucky to make 4 cents an hour.”

That’s because one of my poems just won a wonderful cash prize from Franklin-Christoph, maker of fine writing instruments. Sponsoring a poetry contest is an ideal connection for such a company and they do it every year. It seems writers—including poets—and beautiful pens and scripts just go together. The poem is “Endangered Species.” It is about a sea dragon who is endangered, but in more ways than one. Find it at http://budurl.com/FreePoetryContest While you're there, poke around and find the free submission process for your own poem.

The pay was excellent if one considers the hours it took to write that one poem. It is best not to factor in the study time and cost required to develop the craft of poetry. In fact, it is best not to think of poetry and most other arts in terms of income, of fame for that matter.

We all know why we write. We write for the love of it. Those who take it up for any other reason, tire of it and eventually disappear from the writing scene. Gone to better things? I think not. Just to something—whatever that may be—that suits them better. I only hope that whatever that is brings them as much joy as writing brings to me.

I'm including some widgets for some other poetry I've done, the Celebration Series of chapbooks with Magdalena Ball. We're excited about the gift-giving concept for poetry, something in about the same price range as a very nice greeting card and less than a box of fatening chocolates. (-:

-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about it: