Publishing
There are many more presses - of course. These are some which might otherwise escape your notice. They are mainly specialist presses: some of them publish poetry exclusively. If you are interested in commercial publishers or large educational publishers their contact details can easily be found on the net and you don't need me to point them out to you. Look at the Scams and Ripoffs post.
AB
Ahadada Books - 'finely crafted limited editions'
CDEFG
Cornford Press - Comes out of Tasmania. No longer publishes, but still has a backlist.
H
eHarlequin - Romance
IJ
IP (Interactive Publications). Publishes in book and digital forms. Based in Brisbane, Qld
KLMNO
Kardoorair Press Poetry and education publisher based in Armidale, NSW. Has the excellent good sense to publish me, as does Interactive, and PressPress. What a coincidence that they are all listed here.
PQ
Paper Bark Press - Robert Adamson's press.
papertiger media has expanded from its original role as a publishing vehicle for their annual poetry CDROM, to publishing poetry and art on the web and in print.
Pardalote Press Poetry press with good production values, out of Tasmania.
PressPress Possibly the smallest publisher in the known universe. Publishes small poetry chapbooks only. Based in Australia.
Paroxysm Press says about itself: “Paroxysm Press rose from the gutter of the Australian music scene in 98’. It’s been fighting tooth and nail ever since to publish the type of hard edge, honest and high impact writing we all love and live for ourselves.”
R
Rubicon Press is a small Canadian poetry chapbook publisher. Go to their site for subscription and purchase details. Do not send ms by email. Snail mail to: Rubicon Press, Suite 304, 10750-78 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6E 1P.
S
Small Change Press run by Graham Nunn. Based in Brisbane, it publishes poetry chapbooks.
TUVWXYZ
Transita - contemporary women's fiction based in the UK.
Agents
For a list of agents, go to the Australian Literary Agents Association site. It has useful material on finding an agent, various literary contacts (including manuscript assessment services) and a list of members. A useful and informative site for very new writers to those who have been around for a while. This American site has some useful information on it as well: Agent Query.
And you've got to go and visit this blog: Miss Snark, the literary agent - all manner of useful advice, with humour and grace. She no longer adds to this blog, alas, but there are many useful items there: in summary, read the instructions, try not to be an idiot. Fair enough.
Go to the Australian Society of Authors page also lists another half dozen Australian agents.
RejectionsThe general rule is: people who publish stuff, don't have to like your stuff and don't have to publish it if they don't want to.
Mostly they'll be kind, but the various words of rejection ('not enough space on our list', 'unable to offer at this time' etc) add up to the same thing: 'Nope'. Be angry, get drunk, get over it; then have a look at this blog: Slushkiller on Making Light or if you want to indulge go to the Rejection Collection. Once you've got over that, see what can happen to you if you get too many rejections.
I've got to say, though, that the best rejection (of a poem) I ever had consisted of a carefully typed (yes) form where the boxes reading 'Wrong shoe size' and 'Wrong type of fish' had been carefully xed in. I laughed for days.
Self-publishing
Anyone can self-publish. It's easy to do, although not necessarily a good thing to do.
'Publishing' is changing big time. Not everybody likes it; not everyone embraces it. We are in the middle of a revolution and it will be some time before the dust settles and the new form/s of publishing are accepted, commonplace or used at all.
My prediction, for what it is worth, is that some sectors of publishing will remain hardcopy because some sectors want a beautiful artefact, but most will go digital and that we will probably be walking around with an all-purpose electronic device (somewhere between a computer and an iPhone but more interactive than a Kindle) and we'll store our lovely books there. Remember how we used to store music?
It is possible to publish and ebook, or some version of an ebook, very very quickly. This is fine if you want to give a publication away - for example you might be very happy to do this is you have just written a family history.
If you're publishing through a blog or site (or even through something like googledocs) the process is instant - though you might have an audience of one. There are many creative geniuses out there, not just you. Some have taken this route though and succeeded. Have a look at this article Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature.
If you have enough money you can self-publish in hardcopy (ie produce traditional books) - selling and distribution are the difficult areas however. You might consider the many small publishers listed above. You might also want to see if your manuscript is a total dog before you inflict in on the public or publishers. PressPress has a manuscript assessment service if you want to go that route. You could think of getting a mentor and or editor to help you.
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