Don’t Quit Your Job to Raise a Litmagnby Jane Greern”Poetry is the most overproduced commodity on the market, next to zucchini.”n— Judson Jerome, Writer’s Digestnpoetry columnist since 1960nfLJn^^^^^SnfflM^glnfin^^=^^^^11^;^—–^nKm^Mif^mnll^KM^IrftltM^C^nr^j^oâ„¢nAccording to a 1985 study cited by Writer’s DigestnBooks, 23.3 percent of all people who think ofnthemselves as writers — or “more than two million people”n— write poetry for publication.nIt follows that there are then six million housewives andnhousehusbands, stockbrokers and nurses, college professorsnand ranchers, who write short stories, novels, and, God helpnthem, novelettes.nEight million would-be writers.nThe number of people who make a living writing fictionnor poetry would fit into a phone booth. Along withnhardcover copies of Joyce Carol Gates’s oeuvre.nThe rest of the “poets and other authors of unpopularnliterature,” as Judson Jerome calls them, work at real jobsnand send their spare-time literary efforts tirelessly to literarynor “little” magazine (litmag) editors and independent publishersn(the “small presses”), many of whom pay them inncopies and little else. These publishers are “independent” innthat their choice of material to publish has less to do withnprofit than with a passion for literature or for an idea.n(Hmmmm. Let’s see. J 989 Foet’s Market says that therenare approximately 1,700 publishers of poetry, and J 989nWriter’s Market sports 4,000 listings, some of which acceptnpoetry. So let’s say there are 5,000 markets — mostlynindependent publishers of books or litmags — for our eightnmillion writers. That makes 1,600 writers per market. Anquarterly litmag will publish maybe ten new writers in eachnissue, along with writers it’s published before; that means itn]ane Greer has edited and published Plains Poetry Journalnfor seven years. Her Stronghold Press has published fivenpoetry chapbooks, but is no longer in the book business.n26/CHRONICLESn-^^^^S^^n^^^^^sn^^^^^^En^^^^Hn^^^^^Kni;,X’i^~ – ^’ZX.n^^^mn^Mj^^^^^-^^^nl^^^^SnHn”^^^^^^^p’nnnwould take 160 quartedy issues, or 40 years, for Americannlitmags to publish at least once all the writers writing today.nBy that time, if the trend conhnues, there will be far morenwriters. And the average lifespan of a litmag or independentnpress is generally far shy of 40.)nWhat’s in this for anyone?nThe deep psychic scars faced by independent editors,npublishers, bookkeepers, marketers, subsidizers (usuallynthe same person for any given press), and submittors tonthese markets seem about evenly distributed. People whongather the courage to send a short story or batch of poems tona litmag editor face postage costs (both ways) that can bendebilitating if the sender is broke and his output prodigious.nA lot of money — and worse, a lot of hope — can bensquandered on the wrong markets if the sender doesn’t studynthe listings in places such as Poet’s Market, Writer’s Market,nor The Writer, or if magazines and houses aren’t honest ornclear, in their listings, about what they want. Some independentnpublishers are quite blunt in their listings, and saynthings like “backlogged through January 1990 issue,” “NewnAge or Aquarian, nature and animals (rights/liberation), thenInner or Spiritual Life,” or “the work and ideas of lesbians ofncolor, Jewish lesbians, fat lesbians, lesbians over 50 andnunder 20 years old, physically challenged lesbians, poor andnworking-class lesbians, and lesbians of varying culturalnbackgrounds.” I am not making any of this up. Almost allnsmall publications will suggest that submittors (what a greatnword, from an editorial perspective!) purchase a sample copynor two before submitting anything, in order to learn thenmagazine’s character. This grosses anywhere from $2 to $8nfor the litmag, but is expensive and usually unhelpful for then