This excellent article by Susan Rich provides insights and tips on how to best present your chapbook to presses and contests. The article includes ten well-described tips from her personal editing experience, including:

1. Persistence. Persistence. Persistence.
2. Follow the Rules
3. Create a Theme that Provides Coherence
4. Ordering your Manuscript is an Art
5. Know the Press Before You Press Send
6. Think about a Book Doctor or Outside Editor
7. Keep Track of Your Expenses; Start a Poetry Account
8. Research, Research, Research
9. Think About Publishing Creatively
10. Don’t Get Discouraged!

Tips For Publishing Chapbooks and Applying to Residencies – What I’ve Learned As A Judge

Susan Rich is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently, Cloud Pharmacy and The Alchemist's Kitchen, which was a Finalist for the Foreword Prize and the Washington State Book Award. Her other books include Cures Include Travel (2006) and The Cartographer's Tongue / Poems of the World (2000) which won the PEN USA Award for Poetry and the Peace Corps Writers Book Award. She is the recipient of awards from Artist's Trust, 4Culture, The Times Literary Supplement of London, Seattle Mayors Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Fulbright Foundation. Susan’s poems have been published in many journals including: Antioch Review, Gettysburg Review, Harvard Review,and The Southern Review.

Ready to submit your chapbook? Start with my list of NO FEE Chapbook Publishers and other Chapbook Listings.

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