[Shaun J. Russell]

Yeah, I recently wrote what I consider to be a very strong sonnet, and I debated whether or not to toss it in the bakeoff ring. Given that only 15% of what was submitted will make it to the adjudication stage, it would probably a faint hope anyhow, but if it did make it to the final ten, then it would limit my publication options fairly dramatically.

Generally speaking, when it comes to the workshop forums, I'm careful to only workshop stuff I'm truly not sure about. Stuff that I think might be good, but not stuff that I immediately think "Oh, this is ready for publication." Different people use the workshops in different ways, of course. Some folks post nearly perfect material (occasionally even posting while the poem in question is in consideration for publication), while others post material that is the proverbial chunk of marble that hides a great work of art. But when it comes to material that is closer to the former, it's worth considering that more and more publications are becoming vigilant about their "first look" requirements. Hopefully not enough to detract from Eratosphere's immense value, but certainly enough to give one pause before workshopping.


P.S.: John, this has been discussed before, but I think it's very worthwhile to revisit from time to time.