Lesson 3: The Business Side of Things
Record-Keeping
Good record-keeping will make your work easier. If you are going to have any success with publishing your poetry, you’ll be submitting a lot of work and receiving a lot of responses. Writing for publication is a business, and successful businesses need to be organized.
Tracking submissions
The best way to keep track of your submissions is with a simple spreadsheet. I like to use Microsoft Excel, but you can do this in any software you prefer, or you can simply draw a chart by hand on a sheet of paper. The benefit to doing it on the computer is that it will be easy to make changes or update information. If you keep records on your computer, be sure to make a backup copy on disk.
Information you will want to track includes the publisher, the piece(s) submitted, and the date submitted. You may also want to include the estimated response time, if available. When you receive a reply, indicate the date of the reply, if the piece was accepted or rejected, and if accepted, when it will appear in print. I also color-code the information so I can see at a glance whether something has been accepted, rejected, or is still awaiting a response.
Tracking publication credits
You can use a separate spreadsheet to track publication credits, or you can just keep all information on one sheet. List the name of the publication, the issue in which your work appeared, and the name(s) of the pieces published. In a file folder labeled with the name of each publication, keep a copy of the letter you receive informing you that your poem will be published and a copy of the publication when your work appears.
Rejections
If you submit many poems, you’ll get lots of rejection letters. It’s a fact of life for any writer. You’ll want to keep track of which publishers reject which poems. If the editor tells you why your work was rejected, make note of that. You may want to submit other work to them in the future, and that will be valuable information to have.
There are a few other methods you can use. You can keep a separate sheet of paper with the title of each poem at the top. Each time the piece is published, fill in all the relevant information. You can keep a copy of the poem along with this record. One writer I know keeps copies of his published work in a large three-ring binder. The important thing is to find a system that works for you.
Tax records
Any money you earn from your writing is considered income and must be reported on your taxes, so you’ll want to keep accurate records of any payments received. The easiest way to do this is to simply make a photocopy of each check you receive. Keep these in one file folder so you’ll have them handy at tax time.
Check with your accountant or tax preparer for more information or tips about keeping tax records.
