"I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee..."
poetryREpairs v07.04:045
MARTIN JERVIS, based in Leeds, England, has poetry in Orbis, Poetry Salzburg Review (Austria), Outposts, and elsewhere. He sends us a beautifully scientific extended metaphor.
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MARTIN JERVIS
Colourless, Odourless and Tasteless
Colourless, odourless and tasteless
Colourless, odourless and tasteless
Like a nitrogen invasion
You stole my oxygen space
And then pierced the vacuum
That hissed audibly
With the released pressure
Until it equalized
Into a failed osmotic experiment
That was sugar sweet
On one side
And pure water
On the other.
"Poetry endangers the established order in the soul."
JIM WILSON
Literary Agents - How to Get Published!
A literary agent represents writers in addition to their written works to publishers and film producers and assists in the sale as well as contract negotiation. Literary agents often act for novelists, scriptwriters along with important non-fiction authors. They are paid a firm percentage (ten to twenty percent; fifteen percent is customary) of the sales they deal with contracts for their clients.
Authors in many instances use agents for numerous reasons: a couple of talked-of, powerful, and profitable publishing houses do not tolerate unagented submissions. A wise agent knows the business, and may well be a fountain of important profession advice and education. Being a publishable writer doesn't instantly make you an technical adviser on modern publishing contracts and procedures, especially where television, film, or foreign rights are negotiated. Many writers like to have an agent examine such matters. The reasons are varied. Some writers don't want to understand the publishing world and deal with financial discussions.
Literary agencies may perhaps range in size from a single agent who looks after maybe a dozen novelists, to a massive firm with senior partners, sub-agents in addition to clients numbering in the hundreds. Most agencies will limit themselves to certain genres like mystery novels, romance books or business books. Virtually no agents will represent short stories or poetry.
Anyone may perhaps label himself or herself an agent in the book world, and can only legally take up to 20% of the client's fee (15% is the usual).
Genuine agents as well as agencies in the publishing world are not required to be members of the Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR), however most are. Outstanding professional agents almost always learn their trade while working for another agent, however some cross over to agenting following working as editors. It commonly takes a long time for junior employees to be converted into sub-agents along with buy their own string of money making authors. They may ultimately decide to try it on their own and form a new agency, or they may settle down with their old agency to seek a promotion.
Legitimate agents do not bill reading fees, demand retainers, bill writers for the cost of submissions or other operating costs, or otherwise gain wages from any source other than the sales they make on their clients' interest. They moreover will not place their clientele' work with a vanity press or subsidy press. Both these practices may indicate that the writer is dealing with a unreputable agent. A new disputable practice involves referring the author to a so-called "professional editor" or "book doctor" who is in association with the agent. The subsequent edit may or may not be sensible, or of professional quality, and is virtually often pricey.
A customer typically establishes relationships with an agent through querying, although the two may meet at a author's conference, through a competition, or in other ways. A query is an unsolicited proposal for representation. Various agents request different parts in a query packet. It typically begins with a query letter that explains the purpose of the manuscript as well as any writing qualifications of the author.
If an agent likes a work, they will request a partial, which is typically a couple of chapters of your work. Frequently, contracts between agents and clients are simply verbal; though, agents using written contracts will soon be the norm. Routinely, if you get a rejection letter it will be a form letter. You can get a list of over 350 literary agents free at BookPublishingAgent.com/literary-agent.
few poets today enjoy the power of such close description as what MARTIN JERVIS writes. JERVIS' descriptive power derives from close observation and a willing deletion of the unnecessary. Description breathes life into the most mundane happenings. JH, editor.
MARTIN JERVIS
Tree in Memoriam
Swayed uprooted
god blown tree
nature thickened
root stiff it crashed -
toppled in its lampshade years.
The sweat of a soul
searched dumbly
in blue fruit pity
knee deep and ethylated
lying on silk sown grass
mead drunk daisies
yellow eyed at a wake
half buried under dawn
Soaked black
by sooty orphan nights
blinded eyes knotted
swollen with pollen pouches
poisoned by inhaled
nectar yawned widely.
Lids lifted to drug light
seduced by colours
patching frayed edges
wear a many sided euphoria
bottling up memories
in chambers of dark echoes.
