FAQ About
Rattlesnake Review
 1. How hard is it to get
into RR?
What’s your
rejection rate?
Our acceptance
rate is very, very high. RPress is founded on hearing as many
poetic voices as possible, at all levels—though we do have a
Northern California bias, if any.
2. Why no
cover letter or
bio?
I don’t care what
you’ve done. That was then, this is now.
3. Why no simultaneous
submissions or
previously-published work?
Potential snafus
or stepping on the toes of other editors. Some of us are picky
about such things, others aren’t. I am. I also want to be
credited if you publish your poem in the Snake and then
in some other venue. Please let the world know I found your poem
first!
4. Do you prefer e-mail submissions or
snail?
I prefer e-mail,
by far; I really like the cheapness and speed of it, even
though I realize it can garble poetry or make subtle changes
that are hard to catch. I have no problem with attachments,
which are more reliable. If you do send your poems by regular
mail, please include an e-mail address (if you have one) so I
can talk to you without snailing. (I hate the phone, by
the way, and love e-mail, where I can get my thoughts
together better.)
5. What if I snail without an SASE?
Winter downpour—
even the snake
needs a raincoat.
—adapted from Basho |
You won’t get
your poems back. But no, I don’t throw such submissions in the
trash, the way some editors do. We’re all picky in our own (some
would say, peculiar) ways.
6. What kind of work do you like?
All
kinds—really!—formal, lyric, non-lyric, language, humorous,
concrete—pretty much anything done with care. The Snake
thrives on a wide variety of poetry; “eclectic” is an
understatement. Beginners are more welcome here than in most
journals, by the way. And no, we don’t just use poems
about snakes!
In terms of articles, we have resident columnists who provide
material for each issue, but other articles are welcome, too.
Query first. We almost always have room for more reviews (of
books, workshops and various events) and interviews; the other
stuff can be more tricky, depending on what we’re working on. We
also occasionally publish articles about subjects that are
somewhat peripheral to poetry, such as Tim Foster’s eulogy for
Comicbook Writer Will Eisner. Again, ask first, before you put
energy into a direction we don’t want to go.
In terms of artwork and photography, we have room for ‘most
anything, and nudity is okay. Probably. Complicated, full-page
color artwork might have to be discussed, though, given our
creaky budget…
7. What kind of work don’t you
like?
Pieces that are
more than an 8.5X11” page long, or are hard to publish for some
reason—lines too wide, e.g., or effects that depend on fonts I
don’t have. We do publish the occasional naughty word, but try
to keep that to a low roar, and if you send an obscene picture,
it better have a good point. And I try not to include misogyny,
though that can be hard to define. I hate it when my own
work is rejected, so if I reject you, you have every right to
know the reason why—ask! And no, I don’t send back “suggestions”
as to how you can “improve” your work. I take it or I don’t.
Somebody else may like it just the way it is; keep trying!
8. Any other suggestions for
submitters?
Pretty much what I just said—keep
trying! Big journals, little journals, good journals, bad
journals, small presses and big, shiny ones. It is, as my friend
Carol Frith says, a numbers game. But it also takes grit (and
time, and organization) to be rejected and to bounce that
submission right back (the sooner, the better) to another
market.
And please present your work in as professional a way as
possible: names/addresses on everything, follow the
guidelines, don’t wheedle—and send your submissions in one
packet—not one poem today, one tomorrow, and daily letters about
things such as
oh-by-the-way-could-you-please-change-that-comma-on-page-67… And
editors really do prefer to receive more than one poem; we all
like choices.
If you send editors one clean, organized, finished product that
is a Sunday-go-to-meetin’,
patent-leather-shoes-and-bow-tie-shiny-ready-to-rock&roll-package,
you’ll have a much better chance of winning any wrangler’s
heart. |
