This is one of my mid-week missives alerting all to a few of elements of interest:
First, I must once more push for you to not forget this weekends Poetry Society of Virginia annual Poetry Festival in and around Williamsburg and Norge.
Second, I get wind of a return of a virus that SNOPES notes made its initial journey across the digital domain in 2006 and has since resurrected several times and is again doing the rounds (also verified by TRUTH OR FICTION.COM). Be aware of it:
Do not open any message with an attached file called 'Invitation' regardless of who sent it. It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which 'burns' the whole hard disc (C) of your computer!!!! This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. So, If you receive an e-mail called 'invitation', even though sent by a friend. Do not open it!!!
Microsoft has classified it as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where other vital information is kept.
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Now, for those of us looking to get our books or chapbooks published or our CDs recorded, here are two very credible local area resources who are poets themselves...like you and me.
First, a lesson most of us learn when we are ready to field our first book collection of our poems is that the "mainstream" publishers won't even consider anything without a major credential like "Poet Laureate" of a country or a well-known Poet Laureate of a state. Don't kid yourself: the publisher won't even start a print run of fewer than something like 50,000 books. So, if I don't know half of the current population of nationally and internationally known poets (and would be reluctant to buy a $15 or $25 book of verse from an unknown poet even on the national scene), why would I expect anyone but the 50 - 150 poetry fans in the Hampton Roads area to whom I expose to my poems at local readings, to buy a copy of my book for $15? So, it stands that, short of that national-international prominence, no publisher is going to publish 50,000 copies of my book of poems. I will have to go the "small press" route.
I think of two local publishers in particular, each of whom is frequently visible at readings as MC or as a reader of his or her own work, would be happy to bring your book into its public reality:
Michal Mahgerefteh of Poetica Publishing Company has very strong credentials as editor and publisher of the international journal Poetica as well as several books of local poets including the Chesapeake Bay Poets anthology Skipping Stones and books by authors like Daniel Pravda, Jack Callan, Robert E. Young, Frank Kozusko, Frieda W. Landau, and David King, as well as several writers from much farther away than Hampton Roads. www.poeticapublishing.com
Synnika Lofton, under the imprint of his "lables" Guerilla Ignition Records and Guerilla Ignition Publishing, is ready to take you to your next level. I know several poets who are happy to sell CDs of their poetry performed at open mic events or in a studio setting, and not be concerned with a chapbook of their work. In either case (or both), Synnika is ready and eager to help you put your cd or your chapbook into the hands of your fans, listeners, and loved ones. Contact Synnika through Global Poet Network (www.globalpoetnetwork.ning.com) or through his online store www.guerillaignitionsuperstore.com.
These two are not the only game in town, but they both are very good. Several others are active in the Hampton Roads environment; you just need to look around. In any case, you have here two very reliable resources with whom to look into your future. From time to time I expect I will also expose one or two other resources along the way. This is a good place to start.
Now go write your tail off.
Hoo ahhhhhhhhhh
:?)
pete/themindworm
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