Question: "a colleague here in the library who wrote some poems and I’m trying to
help him get copyrighted and perhaps published. Where did you go to get
your book of poems printed, bound and copyrighted?"
As far as copyrights, once someone writes something it is copyrighted automatically.
With
that said, poems should never be sent out with any copyright symbol. No
one will publish it as it is copyrighted. Editors who publish always
want first rights to publish, then the rights revert back to the writer.
In
the poetry world, one should send poems out to different lit mags
first. Then with a number of poems published in different lit mags, a
poet can choose to have a chapbook or book published. I highly recommend
going for a chapbook first, as you can use those poems in a full-length
book. So it is like triple-dipping!
Here
are links to great articles about the publishing world. One more
suggestion is to attend AWP when it is in Kansas City in 2021! It is the writers conference!
If
you are talking about self-publishing, I recommend using Kindle Direct
Publishing. Again, no need to apply for copyright, and it appears on
amazon.com. Plus, you order copies at a cost and earn money for sales
through amazon. It is another way to go.
Oh, to answer your question: I
sent my poems out to different literary magazines, then published
through different presses. Fast-Food Sonnets was published through Coal
City Press in Lawrence. Like the link said, I did
not have to pay to be published, received a few free copies, and buy my
books at a discount.
Woodley Press is on Washburn's campus, too:
http://woodleypress.org/
I hope this helps!
Overall publishing:
https://www.pw.org/content/publishing_book
https://www.pw.org/content/publishing_book
Lit mag sources:
https://www.newpages.com/magazines/undergrad-lit-mags
https://www.pw.org/literary_magazines/all
https://entropymag.org/category/where-to-submit/
https://www.pw.org/literary_magazines/all
https://entropymag.org/category/where-to-submit/
AWP:
