on chapbooks

& round-up

Despy Boutris

Jul 05, 2022

∙ Paid

Happy Tuesday!

First, please laugh at my meme:

Despy Boutris @itsdbouts

meme'd myself lol

Now, here’s what I have for you today:

Housekeeping
Call to action
Resources
Chapbook recommendations
Tweets
Submission Opportunities (!)

Housekeeping:

Okay first off:

Look at my cat. I love her more than anything.

dbouts

A post shared by dbouts (@dbouts)

Re: turning 26:

Despy Boutris @itsdbouts

once again i am asking if anyone wants to get married. i lose my healthcare in 19 days

Re: Covid:

Fellow Californians, be careful out there. This variant is extremely contagious and—though tempered by the vaccines—a not at all pleasant experience.

Los Angeles Times @latimes

The number of coronavirus cases reported in California is on the brink of crossing 10 million. A milestone that probably undercounts the total significantly yet still carries an increasing sense of inevitability. latimes.com/california/sto…

Re: the US of A™:

I had the fun experience (/sarcasm) of learning that the shooting in Pennsylvania took place (through Instagram) *while* watching the news talk about the shooting in Illinois that happened earlier in the day. What a great country! (/s)1

Anyways:

Devon Price @drdevonprice

Do not share mass shooters' faces, names, or manifestos. The effect it has on promoting copycats and additional attacks is well well known.

Call to action:

(Today’s is a big one—and may take a few hours, so it might span a number of days!)

Put together a chapbook.

A “chapbook” is a little mini poetry/prose collection: one that generally only spans 15-30 pages, is quick to read, and leaves readers wanting more (hopefully so much so that they’ll buy your full-length book, at some point!).

For a long time, I wasn’t particularly interested in writing chapbooks. They aren’t money makers, and they won’t help qualify you for a professor job in academia, the way full-length books can.

In Poets Market 2016, though, Robert Lee Brewer articulates the benefits of chapbook publication:

While it’s true a chapbook won’t attract big reviews, qualify for major prizes, for find national distribution through chain bookstores, it’s a terrific way for a poet to build an audience (and a reputation) in increments, while developing the kind of publication history that may attract the attention of a book publisher one day.

Indeed, publishing a chapbook has different benefits from publishing a full-length collection. Still, though, it has value—it can help you build an audience; it can be something to sell/give away at readings; and the small amount of money you make from it is at least enough to buy yourself a few burritos. Bless.

Another benefit is it’s a lot less intimidating than putting together a full-length collection. It’s a lot easier to compile 5-20 poems than it is to put together a book that spans at least 50+ pages.