PoetsUnlimited Editor’s Update (May 2017)

A few words on the publication and welcoming of new poets.

A quick posting regarding the recent ‘open’ period for new contributors which has closed. It was open from May 10 to 18, and there was a strong showing of new contributors.

The result of new participant deluge is that new poems are flooding in too, so the daily poems tend to max out the 25-item limit of the daily feature page each day. This will probably continue for a week or three. So new poems submitted, if they are accepted for publication, may sometimes take a day or two before they appear to our reading audience.

If you’re a contributing poet, please be patient. If your poem is accepted it will show up, if it’s declined for any reason, you’ll have a (private) note about that too. No poem submitted is ignored or unceremoniously dismissed.

If you attempted to join PoetsUnlimited by filling out the application form, you got a note acknowledging your request. If you didn’t get any feedback in the application process you were probably one of the very few who did not fill out the simple three question form properly. All applicants needed to do is put in a Medium name, and a sample poem from Medium. (An optional question asked if you wished to participate in a possible further publication and soliciting an email address if you said yes. )

There were just a few forms missing either the name or the sample poem on Medium. In such a case it’s tough to give feedback without anything to tack a comment onto.

Sorry if you had problems with using the signup form. It seems pretty clear, but I recognize that computer-based things can be hard for some folks. You can certainly try again in future if you can work out the basics of Medium in the mean time. Given the eager participation, this allows us to ensure that participants have Medium mostly figured out, and don’t need too much hand-holding. It’d be hard to provide support to the many hundreds of poets in the group.

A few applicants submitted sample poetry that was more distant from our style requirements, so another publication is probably a better fit for you. If you also produce other work that is more close to our definition of poetry, feel free to apply again in future with such a sample.

We’re a bit weird for a publication in that we welcome all comers who are generating what we’d define as poetry, regardless of skill and experience. Thus we have a range of content offered up daily. Part of the fun is watching contributors evolve and improve as they participate.

We also have many very strong poets that inspire and engage us all. Don’t hesitate to “clap for” or even better add an encouraging note to a poem you like (just highlight a bit of text for the option to reveal itself). Telling the poet that a piece particularly pleased or grabbed you is a very-welcome reward for their efforts.

Our Contributor Guidelines are a bit long, but each item is in there for a reason. Keeping our format and style squarely focussed on the poetry helps retain readers who know there are no long bios, promotions, videos or distractions on the site, just the poems. The structure of Medium lets your fans find your bio and more of your work pretty easily, so we can off-load all that to the background system.

Thanks to all participants — poets and readers.