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How to Submit

Due to a temporary lack of funding, we will not be able to pay for poetry or fiction until further notice.

 

We do not take copyright to any work by any contributors to this publication, although you grant us the right to use the work in anthologies or promotions. The exception to this is work authored by the publisher, including interviews.

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Please submit your poem or story in the body of your email.

 

If you want to add it as a word or pdf you may, but unless the submission is in the body of the email, it may not be considered for publication. Along with your work of art, short story or poem, please send your full name and return address, as well as the name would like listed for the work, if different.

 


Free Verse Poetry Page

Submission Guidelines

 

The good news is this page is not run by committee. You do not need to impress a host of readers.  You just need to impress me.  What I love in a poem is that it surprises me, moves me, astounds me with the thoughts edged into existence by its words. Publication credits, prizes and awards tell me a great deal and they can certainly be impressive.  With that said, not having publishing credits or prizes takes no one out of the running.   A great poem can come from anywhere and I don’t want to miss a single one.

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What you won't see on our General or Free Verse Page:

Rhyming Poems

Long Poems

Haiku (and other 2-3 line poems)

​​We can’t accept epic poetry (roughly 30 lines tops should do it).

Please send in formal poetry to our formalist/rhyming page editor, Vera.

Please send in haiku poetry to our haiku page editor, Kevin.

We are also always on the look out for great translations, those, you may send to S Ye for the translations page.

And if your work falls into the experimental category, we even have a page for that!

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Send in all manner of poetry.  I am always starved for good poetry.

-Suzanne Robinson

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Note:

We now have an International poetry page, African poetry edited by Tendai Rinos Mwanaka, Asian poetry edited by Rameeza Nasim, and even a page for Sentimental Poetry!

Submit via email only to: betterthanstarbucks2@gmail.com  We ask that you copy your work into the body of your email, as attachments cannot always be opened.

 

We DO accept previously published work.

 

If previously published, make sure you have the rights to it. Most publications do not keep the rights to poetry.  We do not, we retain the right to use them in anthologies or promotional material as we see fit in the future, but we do not retain any copyright to your work.

 

Do tell us where it was previously published so we can credit them. If you self publish it or post it to an open group, we do not consider that published, so no mention need be made.

We do respond to accept or decline submissions. Response time varies from a couple of days to a couple of months. If we publish, we send a notification of publication.

Due to a temporary lack of funding, we will not be able to pay for poetry or fiction until further notice. Our staff donate their time, and, once funding permits, contributors will be paid first.

If you have submitted work, and have not received a response within 60 days, feel free to inquire.

Submit up to 3 poems, one short story or image, or one of each, unless otherwise invited.

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If you are submitting free verse for our General Poetry Page, or a combination of forms, please put Poetry Submission in your email subject line.

If you are submitting flash fiction (under 1000 words) please put Flash Fiction Submission in your email subject line.

If you are submitting a short story, please put Short Story Submission in your email subject line.

(Short stories of over 2000 words will be serialized.)

If you are submitting non fiction or a personal essay please put Non Fiction Submission in your email subject line.

If you are submitting an image, please put Image Submission in your email subject line.

If you are submitting haiku, or other extremely short poems please put Haiku Submission in your email subject line.

If you are submitting formal poetry, or lighthearted verse, including limericks, please put Formal Poetry Submission in your email subject line.

If you are submitting translations of poetry, please put Translations Submission in your email subject line.

If you are submitting experimental poetry, please put Experimental Submission in your email subject line.

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If you are submitting haiku, limericks or other extremely short poems, you may send a half dozen as our Haiku page editor sometimes publishes a block of haiku and short poems together. Our Formalist may choose to do the same occasionally with limericks.

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Please include a short bio with your submission. If you do not include one, and some or all of your work is chosen, it will be published with your name only.

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If we like it, we will publish it. If you are a Nobel laureate and we don't like it, we won't.

(Note: We have yet to reject a Nobel Prize winner)

Send one submission no more often than once every 3 months.

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We rarely publish long  poems (over 50 lines), we do, but rarely. We publish mostly free verse in our main poetry page. We have a soft spot for limericks (and haiku, speaking of short poems). In fact, we have a soft spot for short poems. We will publish longer pieces on occasion.

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We will publish any good short story, that we like. Full length short stories, up to a maximum of 7000 words, will be serialized.

 

In both the poems and the short story, we aren't prudes, but we aren't looking for gratuitous sex, violence or crude language. We will accept any of these things if we feel they are important to the story. We will not publish anything that we think can be construed as hateful.

 

That does not mean you can't tell the story of a terrible event, murder rape, beatings or whatever, but make sure you are not glorifying the evil. We love a good story. We love a great poem. Just make sure you don't give us a reason to not like it.

To our contributors: You are our treasure, the reason Better Than Starbucks exists, and is able to offer so much great poetry, fiction, and more month after month. Occasionally emails go astray, and I encourage anyone who has not received a response from us to email again and inquire. I will do my best to respond to every email personally. Thank you again for trusting us with your work, and we hope you continue enabling us to make this journal an ever better showcase for your writing. Responses regarding acceptance can take a couple of days to a couple of months, depending on the editor (they're amazing too), and volume of submissions in each category. Vera Ignatowitsch, Managing Editor, October 5th, 2017

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