barn poem backgrounds

i've done 3 podcast interviews and two written interviews about my book 50 Barn Poems. interest in the book has since waned (which is fine) and back during the promotional cycle/interviewing i generally felt unfocused and uncomfortable about how to talk about the book, what other people might think about what i said about it, etc.

i realized that in some ways i censored myself unnecessarily in fear of what people might think about me or the book, that being honest about it in some way would make people like it, or me, less. so i've decided to write this blog post with some details about the creation/writing/publishing of the book.

1. prior to writing it i had written very little poetry, and almost no 'good' poems, and for a long time considered myself 'someone who wouldn't write poetry'

2. three or four of the barn poems were reworked versions of older poems/short stories/excerpts from other projects that i repurposed for 50 barn poems. i feel like it's obvious which ones they are, if you read it. everything else was written wholesale for the collection

3. it took roughly 7 days to go from settling on the idea for the book (based on a off-handed joke in a group DM) to submitting the final manuscript to clash books. i also submitted it to moloko house and bottlecap press. i had, somehow, forgotten to attach the file when i emailed moloko house, and they were nice in their short correspondence about that, and when i withdrew my submission to them.

4. clash responded within ~3 days, preceded by them following me on twitter. (something similar happened just before i had a story accepted in wigleaf. however, soft skull follows me, and as far as i know, they otherwise don't know/care about me, so this isn't a tried and true gauge of interest, but maybe usually means something). this puts the book at ~10 days to go from vague idea to publishing deal.

5. there was pretty extensive back and forth about the formatting of the text, margins, and fonts, due, i think primarily, to the software leza was using to typeset it and its various presets. this discussion exclusively took place over twitter DM. after a while i 'gave up' on suggesting changes which is why, for example, it does not use hanging indents, but this only impacts ~5-6 lines in the whole book, as most lines are very short. i think this was a bad experience for leza and i feel bad about that, but i think the inside overall looks really good compared to the original versions, and compared to other poetry books on clash.

6. stephin merritt's name was misspelled on both the inside and cover in the original printing. his name is still misspelled, but in a different way, on the back cover (but spelled correctly on the inside) in the second printing. other things are misspelled in the first printing, including daniel bailey's name. i think there's still a typo in one of the poems in both printings that i forgot about and don't really care about. i plan on mailing stephin merritt both copies and apologizing. i hope he thinks it's funny.

7. in terms of other poets on clash, i have no idea what Big Bruiser Dope Boy thinks about the book, or about me. i am intimidated by him and his poetry and i assume he thinks i suck/it sucks. however, BBDB friend requested me on facebook maybe two months ago (i am surprised by how many writers are 'active' on facebook...i don't remember the last time i friend requested someone or posted anything on facebook...i worry this comes off as 'rude', to the people who are active on facebook) so maybe he thinks i'm fine. sam pink said nice/supportive things about it in a twitter DM after i sent him a copy. i should send BBDB a copy i think - i think i didn't originally because of feeling intimidated/self-conscious. i submitted to clash because of sam and BBDB. they both have books on 11:11 now. i don't plan on sending a book to 11:11 but partially out of a desire to not make them think i'm just trying to 'act like i'm at their level and go where they go' which is a fear i have often when it comes to submitting/publishing/promoting, for example, when i had a short story i read on the zero point fiction podcast that was released immediately after bud smith and joey grantham had stories on that podcast, even though i didn't know either of them would have stories on it when i was working on recording my story to send in, which is a complicated thing to think/talk about and i think just me being paranoid/self-conscious.

8. i did not receive an advance, which is fine. the royalty split is good as per the contract, but i don't actually know how much i receive per book. i think i make either $2.49 or $4.98 per normally-priced print version sold, based on receiving a few royalty payments of $4.98/month. i think i've sold maybe 100 copies through clash and maybe 20 copies myself. i haven't done the math. i've given away ~15 copies through barn poem contests, blurber copies, and random people i like/talk to. i have several copies sitting on my bookshelf, but i am kind of afraid of going to the post office during the pandemic.

9. i never really knew, nor have i since learned, the proper/right way to try to get excerpts published in anticipation of/in support of a book release. different magazines seem to have different protocols and categories. i don't really know. i kind of gave up on it.

anyway, i've been continually surprised at the positive response from people and the kind things people say and think about it. i accept that it isn't something that appeals to everyone and i don't feel bad that some people dislike it.

i really appreciate everyone who has read the book, reached out to me about it, recommended it to others, interviewed me about it, reviewed it, or anything else in support of it. i've especially enjoyed talking to people about it inspiring them to try writing poetry or reading more poetry. it feels unreal and i've enjoyed what i've read coming from them. so that's been great. i feel good about it. thanks for reading my blog.