you really do hate the da vinci code dontcha hehe.
self publishing, the vanity press side of it i think is based more on ego and need than quality. that said some great poets may self publish. though i'm not sure i know of any. on the flip side i think self pulishing to create hierlooms, coffee table books and presents to loved ones a great thing. chap books as leanne mentioned for self and a few friends are a great way of archiving your poetry. one of the reasons a real life editor works is that often they trash the trash poetry before it gets a chance to breath (though a lot in periodicals etc still gets through the net. the idea of being hard to get published arose because most poets at their best were pretty shitty
now there is no gardener to pluck out the weeds. now when someone says "i'm a published poet" they often mean "i'm a self published poet" though they usually leave the word "self" out of the statement. i wonder why that is.
self publishing, the vanity press side of it i think is based more on ego and need than quality. that said some great poets may self publish. though i'm not sure i know of any. on the flip side i think self pulishing to create hierlooms, coffee table books and presents to loved ones a great thing. chap books as leanne mentioned for self and a few friends are a great way of archiving your poetry. one of the reasons a real life editor works is that often they trash the trash poetry before it gets a chance to breath (though a lot in periodicals etc still gets through the net. the idea of being hard to get published arose because most poets at their best were pretty shitty
now there is no gardener to pluck out the weeds. now when someone says "i'm a published poet" they often mean "i'm a self published poet" though they usually leave the word "self" out of the statement. i wonder why that is.