News! We have three resident artists from different sectors of the arts from
2004 to 2007.

Our Panellists for the TPP 2004 Anthology (Anthology 2) were:

Pete Nightingale, Alan Corkish, Andrew Shiston, Paula Brown, Karl Graham, Yvette Hawkins, Dave Brown, John and Sue Whitmarsh - joint.

Our Panellists for the TPP 2005 Anthology (Anthology 3) were:

Paula Brown, Mike Gibson, Andy Jagger, Alan Corkish, John and Sue Whitmarsh and Carol Thistlethwaite.

Our Panellists for the TPP 2006/7 Anthology (Anthology 4/5) were:

Paula Brown, Mike Gibson, Andy Jagger, Carol Thistlethwaite, Sue Whitmarsh, Stephen Laskey, Andrew Taylor.

Our Panellists for the TPP 2008 Anthology (Anthology 6) are:

Paula Brown, Stephen Laskey, infannity, Celia Naylor, Andrew Hider, Karen Harvey, Paul Bluer.

If you would like to be a panellist for next year's anthology, please say so now! It's first come first served.

Our Financial Statement:

Currently, this organisation does not cover its' costs and our staff (basically Paula & Dave) do not receive a wage. It is a labour of love because we believe it will grow and improve. In the future, we hope to be able to make a statement that we are a non-profit organisation. This means that we aim to pay our staff (and current volunteers) for their work (which is currently a full time job for two people, which is why sometimes things are delayed as ther eis only Paula most of the time!) and pay the poets for their work through our royalty scheme. Any profits for the company will be ploughed back into the business to enable us to continue to provide so many benefits to our community.

0ur Policy of Accepting Work Online:

To clarify: we try to accept all work but it has been proven that offensive language and prejudicial work is not received well. The poets have chosen to keep this as family friendly a site as possible. We do allow strong language if it is in context and if there is any doubt we will be asking the panel to decide on adding a poem or not. This is a very rare occurrence.

We have other titles for erotic/wicked/experimental work but please do not expect such poems to appear on the site or in TPP annual anthologies. Once a poem has been received on to the site we expect the author to be treated with respect. Offensive behaviour towards a poet or his/her style is not tolerated and such comments will be deleted immediately. We take notice of every constructive comment about the work online, positive or negative and will not be harrassed over inclusion/exclusion. This is not the same as censorship. The people decide. It's the People's Poet.

We accept two poems per month from non members but please be aware that these poems may never appear online if they are snapped up in advance for publication by panellists, guest editors of the journals or myself. Please see the journals and themes page for further information. Members have no restrictions on numbers to submit.

Special Layout poems (tabulated/indented) - it would help if they could be be produced in Microsoft Word and saved and submitted as a Web page or as a Pagemaker or Indesign file, or as HTML. Such poems will open in a separate window when they appear on this site. I can add indents myself but it takes so long, that it causes a lot of problems during a site update.

TPP FAQ's

Top Question!
How can I get my first poetry collection published?

At TPP, we are unable to publish single author collections of poetry unless there are special circumstances for a particular project. Please see below under "These projects are:" for those projects. Here I will give some general information about my opinion on how to get published.

Who You Know

It is possible to get a first collection published through literary channels perhaps by producing outstanding work while on a writing course and impressing your tutor enough for them to recommend you to a publisher. It is also possible for you to achieve much the same thing through belonging to a reputable writers' group and putting in a great deal of effort to learn, improve and polish up your work. This could lead to a recommendation to a publisher, which could assist your quest for publication. Either way, writing is a craft which should be nurtured. It's unlikely that you will achieve a first publication collection with a reputable publisher without a great deal of hard work on your own writing and reading a great deal of work from other writers.

Start Small

Another way is through building up a reputation of quality work through working on smaller targets of submitting to various web projects, group anthologies and magazines. The rewards are certainly not financial but you will learn a great deal from listening to Editors of various projects, who are much more likely to give you feedback about your work than a multi-million publisher and it is perfectly possible to see your work in print alongside some of the World's most talented writers. It is also worth visiting local poetry festivals and events as you will learn a great deal from other writers there. Once you have an impressive "CV" of publications, you may either find yourself sought out by a publisher, especially if you have ranked highly in some writing competitions, or you might find that your proposal for a book with a publisher is received more favourably.

Links and forum.

Please feel free to browse our links page and our Publishing links page for information and ideas. Our Forum is also a good place to look for publishing and arts opportunities which have been sent to us. You may find information there about many mailing lists for opportunities from publishers - Spiel is a good one for performance work.

Self Publishing

At TPP/PBP, we can help you to self publish your collection but remember this - writing is a craft and your first collection is unlikely to attract rave reviews. Please don't be disappointed if you find that a critic has slammed your collection or refused to review it but you may find that someone is prepared to go through your work with you and pick out your strong points, to enable you to progress. With digital printing, it's possible to cover your costs of book production quite quickly with local sales and online sales but you will struggle to get your books into chains of shops and they will take a massive discount from you and they will expect you to cover your own postage and delivery costs in getting the books to them. In other words, don't expect to get rich doing this!

Publication of a single author collection by TPP/PBP
These projects are:

Members' single author collections to replace the quarterly magazines. Most of these collections will be sought from the higher-ranking members on the points scheme but there will be occasional surprises from writers outside of the membership to keep things fresh and unpredictable.

Each year (occasionally it will be combined to be a two-year project, as in the case of 06/07) , we elect a People's Poet through the votes received from the back of the previous Annual Anthology. The first year, we held an online vote as we didn't have a book in circulation and John Whitmarsh was the winner. His personal anthology Magic Light has broken even and begun to earn a small amount of revenue. November 2003 saw the election of Alan Corkish and his book Glimpses of Notes is out now. Andrew Taylor was the next to be selected by hs peers and his book is about to be produced. Please see the Hall of Fame page for more information.

We have a membership points scheme. For writers who are members, we give points for every selected poem for our anthologies, competitions and magazines. These points build up to earn publications such as ebooks, then chapbooks, then a personal anthology. This method ensures a quality publication as the writer has proven themselves to be able to write consistantly well enough to impress his or her readership. John Whitmarsh achieved this and we put together a collection about his experiences with the drug Morphine,
Walking With Shadows. I am currently talking with other writers about ebooks and chapbooks which they have earned.

Occasionally, Paula Brown Publishing will offer publication to an author from TPP, who has produced something outstanding. This will also occasionally happen to younger writers from The Budding Poet Website. Works are never published from submissions to Paula Brown Publishing, so please do not submit a manuscript. We simply do not have the funds, staff or time to take on manuscripts from outside of the project boundaries.

We don't have anything at all to do with literary agents, but you can find them online by searching on search engines. I use Google a lot but there are plenty of them around.

How can I get feedback on my poetry from this website?

There are several ways -

• Submissions are sent around the panel and the panellists frequently comment on poetry at that stage..
• The poetry passes on to the website and sometimes site visitors and writers email feedback about a poem.
• The voting slots have a comments box where voters and readers may leave comments about the poetry. You may view this as part of the voting system by clicking the link on the poll results page after you have voted. If comments are ever becoming offensive, we will discontinue this feature and will instead request email comments.
• Please email in your comments about the poll poems - we also count these as part of the voting and the writers value it as feedback.
• You may post poetry on the forum and ask for people to comment.
• You could get to know the writers on email and have a discussion with them about your work and perhaps you could feed back to them about theirs. If you would like to get in touch with any writer, simply email me and I will contact them for you with a request that they contact you themselves if they would like to enter into a discussion.
• Magazine Editors might approach you for a submission to their publications in progress. Readers will select a favourite poem from the magazine to win a free subscription for the author and I often receive email feedback on the poetry in the magazines. This will become an e-magazine feature from Autumn 05.
• Feedback is passed on to the author of the poem unless it's abusive.

Why did you send me a virus-infected e-mail?

There are several viruses that pick up emails from people's computers - emails off sites they've visited -- and put them in the 'From' box so an email that purports to come from us could have come from any infected computer which has browsed our site. There are many other viruses now which can send email looking like it has come from a website that an infected computer has browsed.

Virus information is available via search on Google and other search engines.

Why did you not respond to my chain letter/joke/charity information/tortured and suffering animal pictures from the action group I am involved with/virus warning/cute picture of a puppy I found on the internet/special electronic hug that had to be sent back to me or I wouldn't receive the special treat the email promised?

Need I continue? Please do not send such email to me as I simply can not respond - I spend ages deleting spam and with extra mail added to the problem, I am more likely to accidentally delete an important email. Do not be offended if I don't respond to such email or if I request that you don't send me any more. This is a poetry, art and music organisation and I am only one person. Don't overload me or I might just pack a bag and move to live with a nomadic tribe a million miles away from anyone who has ever heard of the internet!

My poems have not appeared online - why?

This is possibly due to the fact that we have not received them or we may be snowed under with work.

If you do not see your work online within a fortnight or so of submission, please check online to see if there has been some kind of problem. Sometimes this takes a while when we have a lot of work submitted. Note: the forum can be a useful source of information. Once the poem is with the panel, it is added to the database and an excel file is uploaded for you to download and view. Once the poem has been sent round the panel, the poem is marked on the excel file as "c" for current.
Please be careful with the email address. Some people have made a mistake and sent their work to a similar address.

Where can I look to see which books my poems have been accepted for, or where my poems are?

Please download and view the excel file titles list before emailing to ask whether your poem is in a particular book or magazine. If the poem is not listed, we have either not yet received it or it is waiting to be sent around the panel. If it is listed "c" then it is either with the panel, or online.

Our E-mails..

paulabrownpublishing@btinternet.com
submission email link here
or click on an online email link.

Where has my poem gone? It was there yesterday!

Well, this can be a fast moving site, and the poems have to be moved quite quickly to allow everyone space in the voting slots. If you find that your poem has been moved, have a look in the voting slots...and if it is not there, try the titles index worksheet list to see if it has expired (XP) We are unfortunately unable to index titles which have not yet passed through the site or to archive the expired poems any more.

Why was my poem not in the voting slots for a whole week?

Again, due to the amount of submissions we have, we sometimes have to move things on to give everybody a chance.

Currently, I aim to update the two online weekly polls over the weekend. This may move to Friday or Monday, if I have a full weekend or may ocassionally remain the same for 2 weeks if I have other commitments such as a site rebuild or being away from home. Spotlight polls and theme pages will be updated monthly. This schedule often slips when I am busy with print projects, especially if one proves troublesome!

My poems % of votes changed between when I looked at it and the poll results, why was this?

I have to go to the poll and write the results in order to type them on the homepage. If any more votes are cast in this time before I remove the poll, I have no control over that. Also, as there is only one vote allowed per poll, I sometimes have to manually add the votes of other household members sharing the same computer.

Why have I not received my free contributor copy of the most recent book yet?

We can no longer afford to cover postage for free books. We have also found that many people have said that they do not wish to receive a free charity book and would rather pay for it. These points have led us to amend the policy on sending out free issues. Free copies are available on request (email/letter) and either upon collection at an event OR upon receipt of the appropriate postage. £2 for postage across the UK and Europe, £4 for the rest of the World. Postage costs may be paid in English postage stamps, Sterling cheque payable to Paula Brown, Paypal, Money Order or Euro or Sterling Coins taped between a folded piece of card in an envelope.

What kind of book is the Annual Anthology?

The People's Poet Anthologies are approximately A5 in size, and a standard paperback book format. The cover is in colour, and it is usually designed by one of our two graphic designers, unless it is a very small local project, when I sometimes complete the cover myself. Yann, our typesetter is highly experienced and has done a fabulous job on the books we have already printed.

What is a Chap Book?

It's a home produced book of around 50 pages.

They vary in quality (obviously) but ours will have good quality paper and card cover ... some art on the cover, and at 50 pages, it's more than most people offer. Also, we have no advertising on our productions.

It's a step up from a magazine and a way for an author to have a collection of poetry available - just an inbetween stage really, a way for readers to get hold of a collection of work from a writer they enjoy.

What is an E-Book?

It's a book which is published electronically, rather than on paper.

There are several different formats such as word documents, pdf files etc.. some read across 2 pages like a book and some read down the pages like a word document. Our e-books will be available in .pdf format, for which you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software which can be downloaded from www.adobe.com and also as a word document for those who might prefer that. Both types of book may be printed on your home printer if you wish to do so. We will endeavour to keep up with the latest technologies in electronic publishing as this is an area about to expand immensely as new software and hardware becomes available..

The payment method will eventually be via BT Click & Buy eventually which is particularly suited to paying for e-books as it protects an area of a website reserved for paying customers. An account with BT Click & Buy is easy to operate as you are able to pay in a variety of ways, including through Direct Debit and even through your telephone bill with BT! In the meantime, while we are completing the processes involved with setting up the pages..we will continue to use Paypal, Nochex, Postal Orders, Cheques in Sterling and Moneygrams.

Where can I buy further copies?

Orders by post to...
The Peoples Poet
26 Uplands Road, Drayton, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO6 1HS

Cheques payable to Paula Brown please.
This is the best way to buy, direct, as it keeps most of the profits for the writers. The books all have ISBN numbers, and may all be ordered from bookshops, but this will mean that the bookshop has a minimum of 30% profit for each book (sometimes up to 45% ouch!).
Online orders will be accepted as we are members of Paypal.

What is Paypal?

Paypal is a company which provides secure online payment.
Anyone with an email address and a credit card can become a free member to send or receive money online. All payments in Sterling, please. paypal email address: paulabrownpublishing@btinternet.com

Subscribe!

Subscribe to The People's Poet

We are now offering an annual subscription, to enable the poetry to reach a wider audience. After all, the anthology is only so big....
For the UKsubscription, it costs £25.00, subscription for the rest of the world costs £30.00 and for this you will receive 4 quarterly single author collections, a Christmas collection and e-magazines with new poetry previously unseen online on the site. You will also have access to the members area online and you will become part of our publisher points scheme to earn your own publications.

We have cancelled the readership membership.

All prices quoted above include postage.

We will not be hosting any advertising in our journals or books and fund ourselves.
We are Paypal members, so please feel free to pay online. Please email your subscription requirements clearly stating subscription in the subject line, and pay via Paypal, or email for an order form, which you can print, complete and return, or download them below via the links.
Download UK subscription form here
Download World subscription form here
Download our order form here.

Download our summer 06 catalogue here

About The People's Poet

The People's Poet was created to support and publish talented poets, who maybe find it difficult to achieve publication in the UK.

This site is here to give you the chance to comment on and vote for submissions to an annual anthology.

The idea behind the business is to publish an annual anthology at no cost to the author, provide them with a complimentary copy of the book and to pay a royalty fee to contributors, if possible. NB we do charge for postage for your complimentary copy but it is only the cost of postage and packaging - £2 for the UK and Europe, £4 for the rest of the World. You can avoid the postage charge by collecting your book in person at our launch party event for each anthology.

Many publishers in the UK are small press publishers, who offer a copy of the publication in payment for submissions. Other larger publishers accept large anthologies from published poets. And some publishers will publish in an anthology in return for the purchase of an expensive copy of the book.

Here at the People's Poet, we wanted to create a publication, chosen in part by the writers themselves, and offer payment for accepted submissions, as well as a copy of the publication.

The People's Poet will accept postal and email submissions 1st September to June 30th. Preference is via email but we do not exclude anyone without email facilities (it just takes a lot longer for me to type them in myself). Payment will be a % of the profits for that years anthology (should there be any profit - at the moment we aren't even covering our costs), and a copy of the publication that the work appears in.

For example: With Anthology 3, if everyone simply takes their free copy of the anthology, this side of the project will inevitably close because it's extremely difficult for a small publisher to manage the tiny profit margins and massive payment delays from the biggest retail outlets and because the costs of producing a book is in the league of £1000 if there are no major problems (this is therefore, an indication of how much of a prize is on offer for the winner of the title The People's Poet!). Then the contributor copies, legal deposit and review copies cost another £500 and the awards purchase and engraving is another £300. The project is therefore at least £1800 down after contributor copies have been claimed. If contributors each helped to sell ten copies of the book outside of retail shops and discounts, the costs are covered, and there would be a royalty payment in the region of £4 for each poem. It would work out well for those prolific writers, who manage to have around ten poems accepted for the book but it would also encourage people to keep trying.

This is just a general outline of the idea behind the organisation, further details may be read across the website and specific questions will be answered by email.

Each year (unless we have major problems!) we elect a People's Poet and that writer will have their collection of poetry published by ourselves, according to our usual acceptance policy.

More recently, we have been able to support musicians through our AMP project and through collaboration projects. We have recently welcomed a chef on board for his interpretation of our poetry walks and we have been able to offer additional support to artists through workshops, residencies, commissions and exhibition help.

Which events do you run?

We run several events each year - some in connection with Poole Word and Book Festival in Poole, Dorset in October but we run slams and other events for Survivors' Poetry and through the AMP music project throughout the year. Please see our events page. We are also running SOUND Youth Music Festival and 55561 Battle of the Bands for young people and for adults from 2007.

Who runs your events?

We Drive It runs our events. Dave Brown is experienced in planning all kinds of events, especially car shows so we are lucky to be able to make use of his experience, sponsorship and loans for our events.

Competitions!

The People's Poet anthologies will contain competition pages and a voting form at the back. Only people who buy the anthology will be eligible to vote and enter the competitions.The voting form will be for readers to select their "Peoples Poet" for that year. The winner will be presented with a trophy and will have their own anthology published by ourseles. Winners are inducted into our online
Hall Of Fame Please Vote! It is only with your feedback that we will be able to offer this award. Voting forms are in the back of the current year's anthology.

The competitions will be to design a cover for the next anthology and a themed poetry competition. These will be judged by the panel and prizes will be awarded.

Members' contests will be in the members' area from time to time.

Themes

At The People's Poet, we are commited to supporting the poetry of people from all walks of life and sectors of the community. We also wanted to attract different styles of poetry from people with different life experiences to contribute to their writing. We came up with the themed competition to showcase work from different groups and raise the profile of them, or simply to get creative juices flowing by way of encouragement to try new styles. Each month there will be a section of the book dedicated to this particular group's poems or style of poem. Sometimes we have a theme of poetic forms or styles.. a subject or short stories have been used in the past. This is to encourage everyone to try something new and to help everyone share each other's skills in different areas of writing. Winners of the month's section will receive an engraved trophy (see picture below) and publication.

Please see the themes page for the list of themes for each month.