Help on How-to publishing?

First step would be looking up some published poets online and see if you can find out which agent and/or publishing house they use. Then look up those agents and publishing houses and read their submissions guidelines. Research thoroughly and find out which ones deal with the type of stuff you are writing.

Their guidelines will tell you how they want to be approached. Some just want you to send a query email asking them to look at some of your works. Others may want it by mail, and they may want a sample. Don't just send your whole collection of poems unless they have answered you and asked to see them- they are too busy to trawl through tons of big manuscripts and it will probably get thrown away. You can write to lots of people at once, try both agents and publishing houses, but make sure you have researched before you do so you're not sending poetry to someone who only handles sci-fi.

Then wait. It might take a long time for your to hear back. You might get some who reject you even without reading any of your work because they already have enough this year or it just doesn't sound like their thing. You might get some that don't like your work. They probably wont give you any specific feedback as to why.

Make sure any samples you send to them are fantastic. They might only look at your work once, so make it count. Revise and polish until it is perfect and make sure it is all set out as the publisher wishes (usually standard font, double spaced, black ink, one side of the page). Don't give them any reason to reject you on a technicality.

There is no reason to mention your age in a query letter but if they like you, you need to tell them. They may be reluctant because of your age- you will not be able to sign contracts and it will require your parents cooperation.

Poetry is notoriously hard to get collections published, simply because it doesn't sell well and so publishers won't make much profit. A good way to start is by submitting to magazines and build up some publishing credits- they are more likely to publish a book from a known poet who has already proven their ability and may already have some fans willing to buy the book. Don't expect to make much money from it, especially at first. You might be better looking at smaller publishing houses which specialise in poetry.

If you don't manage to get published, don't be too disappointed. Just keep polishing your work and sending it to magazines and getting a reputation for yourself. You may be a fantastic poet at fourteen, but I guarantee if you keep working at it, you will be a far better poet by twenty, so keep trying, keep improving yourself and you will get there in the end. You have plenty of time and a good head start on those writers who start as adults.

As for self publishing- If you are hoping to become well known or make money, this is definitely not the way to go. You will usually have to pay up front and you have to do everything yourself. There will be no editor to suggest improvements, no proof reader to catch any typing errors, no marketing manager to put in the book stores. Also, once the work is published no standard publishing house will want to re-publish it (unless you somehow get extremely famous perhaps) so you will have 'used up' some of your work. That said, if you just want a few copies for yourself and friends, you can have a few copies printed by a company like Lulu. They will only charge you for the copies you want (so you can just buy three books if you like, rather than getting a thousand made at a time) and can come back and add to your order at any time. If you keep it private, it wont be classed as published- it's only like printing copies at home- but you can chose to allow anyone surfing lulu to buy it. In this case it is considered published and publishing houses wont touch it. Nice idea for gifts and such but again, don't expect to make a profit, most people don't sell many this way.

Edited to add: people might be able to suggest more specific publishers that deal with your type of work if you post a couple of sample poems

Please don't add your poems here to get critiqued.. wrong forum. It might also be worth it to fix your signature.

Notoriously poems in general don't pay much. They get paid even less than novelists. It might be better to put them on Lulu as a collection than to go the traditional publishing route. It's said you're more likely to lose money sending out submissions of poems than you are to gain any. (This is because of postage--which, if you think about this is pretty sad).

However, if you want to do it just because you want to do it, go through magazines first.

Telling someone you're a writer is like telling them you're an obsessive compulsive bipolar schizophrenic that goes to AA meetings once a week.

I would just like to sorta back up Kimberly Dawn's comment about Lulu. I used lulu and found it very easy to do, and you wont have to make a gamble or anything with the money- its print on demand. I would definately recommend using Lulu, its so easy and quick to use... good luck with your poems and the future!!! :D

(heres the link to the website if youre interested - www.lulu.com )