November Notes
An update from the other side of the screen (Nov 2018)
We’ve just completed another ‘open’ period for new contributors to PoetsUnlimited, and signed up a nice big group of new poets. Welcome aboard to all of you!
I hope you find the experience warm and welcoming, with maybe just a bit of a challenge to keep you striving toward a new level of expression and satisfaction with your poetry.
We have just over 65,000 subscribers now, and our pool of contributing poets is around 900. We only open up for new poets rarely, as the demand is strong, and it’s easier for your humble editor if it’s a contained flurry of work rather than continuous. :) Not everyone is contributing all the time, of course. Some will submit a piece to PU only occasionally, while others get something in almost every day. Some explore a theme for a while, and others find diverse creative forms and styles to exploit.
When I first created PoetsUnlimited I could find no other poetry-only publication on Medium. I’m happy to note that there are now several other fine ones, many of which involve PU contributors on a regular basis. It’s great to see the ecosystem expanding. Medium doesn’t make it easy for us poets – formatting options are very limited. Regardless, we seem to have found a means to get our works to readers, and effectively convey our creative intent.
Our range of poetry is broad, both in perspective and experience. I hear from some of our poets that they started writing with PU and developed their confidence and skills over the course of months and years and found the community supportive, inspirational and encouraging.
We also have a strong group of what I’d consider to be masters of the art, delivering works with great economy of language, crispness of imagery, depth of meaning and innovative perspectives. If you’ve read PU for a while you’ve probably felt that gut-punch of unexpected empathy, or a gasp of perspective like you’ve just crested a mountain trail to see the land fall away in an awesome vista.
Over the course of a month there are about 13,000 “poem-reads” so we’re certainly reaching many eyeballs. I’ll be the first to admit our Guidelines for poets are a bit tedious, but each item exists for a particular reason involving accessibly and care for readers. The underlying intent in the whole thing is to make the publication about the poetry, and to make the reading experience about the poem. Readers can return always knowing that they will have something to read, and not find that several pieces are advertisements or having to skip through a few promotions to find the next piece of fresh poetry.
As Medium has added their premium ‘members only’ features, I’ve asked that poets not submit pieces so-designated to PU. I’d like to keep the publication free-to-view for everyone. Your free-to-view pieces can work as a means to collect new followers, so if you’re hoping for income from your writing you still have a means to benefit from your exposure on PU drawing readers to your pay-to-view work elsewhere.
With the goal of simplicity and focus, we eschew explanations, interpretations, or detailed stories about your inspiration for a piece. Our readers can ponder over a poem, and engage with you if they wish to pull out further details from your piece. A fun item that many have explored is having a link (not an embeded autoplay widget tho’ please) to an audio playback of themselves reading their poem on Soundcloud or elsewhere. It’s an even more personal connection to the poet, and is a fun reminder that there’s a real person penning these pensive poems.
Fundamentally, like songs, or paintings or any other creative endeavour, when a poem connects with a reader and they find their own meaning in it, it is a win-win-win for poet, reader and publication.
Thanks again for participating as a reader or writer. I’m glad to have you along for the adventure.
