sonnet bake-off question
 

The design is so crazy it just might work.

Eyeing the adventure with intrigue, and with a sonnet in my pocket, this bake-off newbie wonders what the winner wins--fame, publication, a book, cash, or some other prize?

John, it is just a friendly contest among peers, with no prizes but the prestige of having been chosen for comment and the knowledge that the comments are uninfluenced by any personal relationship you may have developed with the commenter on the site. If you want impartial reactions (except for the partiality that is part of being human), this is the way to get them. On the other hand, if you prefer to save your poem for a contest in which there are cash prizes, you are free to do so.

Susan

Thanks Susan--if a poem advances, though, is it not tarnished in some way for future publication?

John, if you go to The Distinguished Guest and then select to see all threads since the beginning, you will get all of the entries to old bake-offs, which include the yearly sonnet ones, but also ones on light verse, repeating forms, poem appreciations, etc.

There have been fascinating discussions prompted by the poems in these bake-offs that you may find rewarding.

We have this discussion literally every year. I believe the poems are hidden from search engines so that they can be published. The winning poem may appear in Ablemuse, which is probably why Alex asks that it be unpublished.

That said, a lot of poetry magazine editors lurk on this site, never posting anything, but checking out events like the Sonnet Bake-off for sheer enjoyment. So if your sonnet is chosen as one of the finalists, they may see it without resorting to a search engine.

Still, doesn't the massive, ego-fueling glory of being an Eratosphere Sonnet Bake-off Finalist outweigh the tepid flicker of glory you'd get for plain old publishing? And anyway, aren't there plenty of worthy venues that are happy to reprint good work that has previously appeared elsewhere? So personally, I wouldn't sweat that.

Instead, worry that your sonnet will make it to the finals, only to be blasted by impossibly picky critics who think their own rejected entries were better: "Why is this mediocre thing in the finals? The rhymes are predictable, L3 and L9 are metrically wobbly, and the trope itself is a threadbare idea presented in a pedestrian way...."

Julie! How did you know? It's back to the drawing board for me. You are so picky.