One thing I’ve been discovering as I’ve started submitting things to places that might want to publish them is that there is actually a “market” for reprints.
Back when I was reading The 1995 Writer’s Market to find places to send things I think it was just common knowledge that the only way you were getting something reprinted is if you sold out of the first edition. Meaning, nobody wanted to publish something that had already been published somewhere else. And because you didn’t have The Internet and digital-only publishing, there was a significantly smaller pool of potential places to get that all-important initial printing.
Now, through technology, there are a lot more outlets and also a lot more writers. So on the one hand there’s more stuff available, but that also means there’s more to keep up with. Plus, there’s a higher chance that the people reading it on Platform B may be different from those reading it on Platform A, with no overlap. In that case, you’re not cannibalizing your readership on Platform A, you’re presenting it to a new audience on Platform B. Hence, reprints.
I am really tempted right now to go off on a tangent about Netflix and Prime Video and the whole theaters vs. streaming vs. Blu-ray discussion, because I think it’s fascinating.
But I’ll get to the point. Fellow Substack writer Laura Katz publishes a regular themed issue of her publication, “A Light Within,” titled “The Rejection Collection”. It’s a place for poetry that was rejected or perhaps hasn’t had much engagement. This month’s theme was “beginnings”, focusing on work done by writers at the very start of their writing journeys. She graciously accepted a poem I’d written towards the very start of this blog—technically “published” here on the blog, but it’s one that I’m honestly very proud of, and wish it would get out to more people.
Check it out here: Beginnings: Rejection Collection, Volume 3
While you’re here and we’re talking about ancient history, why not check out some of these “old chestnuts?”
(I don’t know why I read that in Conan O’Brien’s voice)
- fall – a seasonally-appropriate poem with a folkloric twist
- cozy – close to being seasonally-appropriate and actually it got pretty good engagement, but I like it so here it is again
- Cool Band Names: A List – I forgot I had this! I used to update it semi-regularly! (yes, it is awesome having enough content that you kind of forget that something exists)
- Not From Here – a children’s story that includes a neat little song. I intend to record it one of these days, but you can certainly make up your own melody
- Slush Puppie – a 3-part serial about shopping malls, time travel, nostalgia, and the smell of salted nuts
That seems like a good note to leave on. On which to leave. Leave on which to do so. Leave on a good note.
-jr
