I remember the first time that I garnered the nerve to make a poetry submission. I was in my mid-30s, and I had been writing poetry for over a decade. I knew that my poetry was good, and hoped that with a poetry submission or two, I could finally see these words in print.

After all, I had a creative writing degree, specializing in poetry, from one of the nation's top universities. I had attended many workshops, and even started a poetry group of my own, which I oversaw. I figured that if anyone was going to have their poetry submission published, it would certainly happen for me.

Unfortunately, the process of poetry submission was not as easy as I had once hoped. I found that many of my friends and colleagues were facing the same rejection. Those who did publish poetry often published it without payment in no-name magazines, and that was after submitting to hundreds of publications.

Successful Poetry Submission

Finally, I decided that I would indeed keep submitting my poetry--but in book form, to the public. After all, the academic accolades didn't mean much more than pretense to me. Once I published my own book of poetry, I was able to market it and put it in the hands of people who enjoyed every word, and were willing to pay a fair price for it.