Thursday, July 7, 2022 – Friday, September, 30, 2022
Winners Announced:
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
About.
Yecheilyah’s Annual Poetry Contest is an online national and international poetry competition established in 2017 by award-winning author, book blogger, and poet Yecheilyah Ysrayl. The contest’s purpose is to find and celebrate the work of dope poets while raising awareness about the power of poetry.
Now in its 5th year, this is a contest essential for those serious about literary excellence.
We are now open for submissions.
Since 2017, we have hosted this contest right here on the blog. We will continue in the tradition of providing updates, author interviews, and all that jazz.
But as for the rules and guidelines, the contest now has its own website!
We accept poems (written, audio or video) from now through September 30, 2022. Our theme this year is FREEDOM. Head over to the website, subscribe to the list, and email your freedom poem before the deadline.
People don’t tell new Indie Authors that publishing a book does not mean people will buy it. That is why the moment you decide you are writing your book must be the moment you also start building your community.
Building a reader community is important because it is the first step toward getting your book noticed by the people who want to read it.
Put plainly: when you focus on connecting with people, you attract a tribe of people ready and excited to buy your book when it drops.
This is critical for Indie Authors, in particular, who do not always have access to the same kind of exposure as authors who publish with publishing houses or small presses with bigger budgets.
No, people will not buy your book just because you posted the link.
No, people will not buy your book just because you’re their favorite cousin.
And no, people will not buy your book because you tell them to.
Please also consider that even if your favorite cousin does buy your book, it doesn’t guarantee that they will:
Actually read the book
Review the book
Join your email list
Subscribe to your blog
Engage with your social media
Be repeat customers
Your real tribe, primarily strangers interested in what your book is about turned avid readers you have built a relationship with, will move differently than the family members you are begging to buy from you.
Here are some things you can do to help find your tribe :
Share your writing process.
Give updates on where you are in that process (draft, revisions, editing)
Talk about your inspirations and motivations
Talk about your challenges
Post excerpts from the book to social media
Start a blog
Start building your email list
Educate people about the book you are writing
Share the book cover when it’s ready
Talk about life outside of books and writing. What are your other interests?
Talk about your favorite books and authors
I agree. Building community is not about working tirelessly trying to convince people to read your book who would rather spend that $5 at Starbucks. That’s exhausting and is the frustration of many Indie Authors. That’s that pulling teeth part of the game everyone hates. Suppose building your community feels like you are pulling teeth. In that case, it is probably because you are begging people to support you who are not interested. Do them and yourself a favor and let them go in peace.
What it is about, as Jenn stated, is letting the people already interested in your book know it exists.
I am not trying to get people who are not poetry readers to read my poetry book to put this into perspective. That is not to say I won’t convert some people (tee hee). Still, I am looking for people who are already into poetry, black poetry by black women to be precise.
By sharing our likes, dislikes, challenges, and experiences and connecting with people of like mind, we find people with similar interests as our own. Then, we make the added effort to show up in the places where these people may hang out so we can connect with them on or offline. Maybe your tribe is on Facebook a lot. Maybe they are on YouTube, Instagram, Clubhouse, Twitter, and so on.
It’s 2022, and Indie Publishing has come a long way. Gone are the days of posting links to social media hoping someone will bite. This is known as “Hope Marketing,” or the hope for a sale. This doesn’t help us build community, sell books, or establish meaningful relationships.
Focusing on people who are already into what you are writing will have a tribe of people waiting to buy your next book and save you a lot of time and heartache.
Remember, it is much easier to market to an already interested audience than an audience who you have to convince.
And most important of all, have fun!
Connecting with people is not supposed to be tedious. Building a reader community doesn’t have to feel like work. That takes the fun out of it. Just be yourself and share your journey. The people who are meant to be part of that journey will notice.
With yesterday’s social media shenanigans, I want to drop in to give some tidbits about how to join my author list for those of you who might not be subscribed but thought you were.
First, you should know subscribing to this blog is not the same as subscribing to my author email list.
Subscribing to this blog ensures you receive email notifications every time I publish a blog post.
Subscribing to my author list means you receive email notifications whenever I have author news to share for myself and other authors. These emails go out about once or twice a month.
“I Thought I was Already Subscribed But I Don’t Get Your Newsletters”
Due to excessive spam emails and inactivity, I deleted all emails from the first list and started over. If you remember my emails, but noticed they have stopped, it means you are not subscribed to the new list.
Because I want to make sure those who signed up want to sign up, I am not re-subscribing people manually. You must click on the link below to add your email back to the list.
When You Subscribe to my Author List:
You receive a free ecopy of my award-winning poetry collection, I am Soul.
You get first dibs on book reviews and other services I might offer. My review registry is currently closed for 2021, but my email members get the first chance at registering early. I will pick books from authors on my list first.
You get an inside look at what’s going on behind the scenes of my work, a summary of any blog posts you might have missed, and links to writing resources I might have discovered since we last connected.
If anything happens like yesterday’s outage, you are not left in the dark about what’s going on with me or the services I provide.
Click on the link below to connect with me. You will know you did it right when you receive a welcome email.
This year’s theme is love. The difference between this year and our first year is this is not only about self-love or romantic love. You can certainly talk about self-love or the love of your life, but you can also talk about the love for family, the love for a hobby or career path, truth, history, and so on.
The grand prize this year is HUGE, so I am looking for some dopeness. If the poem doesn’t move me, I’m not accepting it, so bring your A-game. This is year four, and we are not accepting anything less than our best so let’s goooo!!
Here is a snippet of a poem from author and poet Jayla John on love. Let it inspire you!
“What love touches heals. What love reaches feels. What love bows to kneels. Love glances at sewage and turns it sacred. Love turns slander into praise. Love is a sacred storyteller. Love destroys all castles, drains all moats, rubbles royalty and thrones. Love answers. Prayers. Poetry. Passion fires. Love revolts. Love constantly births. Lets go. Remembers. Wakes your embers. Love is not romantic blindness. It is searing vision. Love sees. Love kills what is already dying, diseased, polluted, corrupted. Love makes all things new. Love is not in you. You are in love. And all of this is love.” – Jalya John, Author of Freedom.
Submissions Accepted:
Thursday, April 1st – Tuesday, June 1, 2021
*If your poem is ready, go ahead and submit it!*
Winners Announced:Wednesday, September 1st and 6th 2021*
*The 2nd-4th Place Winners are announced 9/1 with the Grand Prize Winner announced on 9/6.
Guidelines
The poems submitted must be original work. This means that the poems must be written by you. If we find a poem that resembles any previously published poem in any way that poet will be disqualified from the competition. Please send the poem as a Word Doc attachment, 12p font with your name on the document.
The poem must not be previously published in a book or anywhere online (including your blog)
The contest will be judged based on writing, style and how closely the poem adheres to the theme. This year’s theme is LOVE. Keep in mind this isn’t limited to romantic type love. You can also write about love for family, love for the creator, love for a passion or hobby, self-love, e.g.
All poets are welcomed to enter regardless of race, religion, political views or location. All poems must be written in English and there will be no shipments of books outside of the U.S. If a poet wins this competition and their residence is outside of the U.S., any prize requiring shipping (if any) will be awarded in digital form. Ex. Ebooks instead of paperbacks.
All poets must be at least 18 years of age to enter.
There is a $5 Entry Fee to enter the competition. This will help go toward the sponsoring of the prizes for the winners (See Below). If you are a member of the email list your fee is waived. If you would like your fee waived, sign up HERE and email your poem to enter. Anyone who subscribes only to unsubscribe before the competition is complete (any time before the winners are announced) will be disqualified for the win. Any subscription that has not been made before 11:59pm EST on June 1st will be disqualified.
Authors of the winning poems grant Yecheilyah of Yecheilyah Books LLC and Literary Korner Publishing the right to publish their winning poem on her blog located at www.thepbsblog.com. Permission is granted upon entry of the contest for publishing to The PBS Blog. The poets retain all rights and copyrights of their own work.
Multiple entries to this contest are allowed. If submitting multiple poems there is a 2-poem max.
Entry is taken as acceptance of ALL of these guidelines.
Or Click on THIS link and subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list.
This will automatically give your name and email address.
*If you are already subscribed to my list you are halfway there! Just email me your poem*
Once you’ve paid the entry fee OR subscribed to the list, please send your poem(s) to yecheilyah@yecheilyahysrayl.com.
Submissions are accepted NOW through June 1st 2021.
Winners are announced September 1st and 6th, 2021 on The PBS Blog and across social media.
Video submissions are welcomed! This is a chance for you to get creative.
Prizes:
2nd, 3rd, 4th Place Prizes
$25 Amazon Giftcard nested inside a specialty gift box. The card has no fees and no expiration date and is redeemable towards millions of items storewide at Amazon.com (ecards for International Winners)
Signed Copy of I am Soul OR My Soul is a Witness + Matching Bookmarks (ecopies for International Winners)
Writing Journal and Diamond Pen
Poem Published to The PBS Blog at thepbsblog.com (exposure to over 3100 subscribers)
Interview on The PBS Blog at thepbsblog.com (exposure to over 3100 subscribers)
Social Media Promotion Across All Platforms (IG, Twitter, FB)
1st Place Winner / The Grand Prize
The first-place winner receives everything under 2-4th place with an exclusive publishing package courtesy of Yecheilyah Books LLC’s publishing arm Literary Korner Publishing. Yes, you heard me right! I will finance the publishing of your next (or first!) poetry ebook. As the grand prize winner, you get the following (in addition to everything else):
Book Cover Design (ebook only)
Copyediting
ISBN Assignment
Digital Format for e-readers such as Kindle
KDP Set-Up
PreOrder Set-Up (Optional)
The most exciting thing about this prize is I will work with you one-on-one every step of the way so you can know what to do the next time you want to publish a book. I am not here to fish for you. I am here to teach you how to fish so you can keep eating.
We are so excited to meet all the amazing poets who will be entering this year’s contest! Prizes include a $50 Barnes and Noble gift-card, promotion, and publishing in our 2nd Edition, 2020 Poet Magazine. Below are some tips and best practices for bettering your chances of winning this contest! (For the video version of this post, go to my IG account and watch the EcTV version!)
Make sure your poem lines up with the theme surrounding one of these words: Strength, Courage, Wisdom, Faith (Read the rules).
To qualify as entry you MUST subscribe to my email list. CLICK HERE to sign up. Then, go ahead and send your poem to yecheilyah@yecheilyahysrayl.com. Don’t rush to write your poem and forget to sign up for the email list. Last year’s winner got her poem in just before the deadline and won the entire competition so take your time and do it right. The best way to remember is to sign up for the email list first and then spend the rest of the time writing your poem. (Read the rules)
Deadline for entry is August 1st. Winners announced November 1st. (Read the rules)
Poems are judged based on ORIGINALITY, style, and how closely it relates to the theme. Poems cannot be previously published in a book or online and plagiarism is cause for immediate elimination.
Pay Attention to the theme: If you submit a poem that is not about Strength, Courage, Wisdom, or Faith in some capacity you put yourself at risk for elimination. Why? Because poems that don’t follow the rules are one of the first to go. My team has to read through a lot of poems and you don’t wanna make it easier for them to disqualify you by not…following the rules.
Please check out this repost from 2019 below. It is about email list, but can apply to blogs and social media just the same.
Let’s address the elephant in the room.
Email Unsubscribes / Unfollows.
They can feel like silent rejections and sometimes confusing because you don’t always know why the person left. Unsubscribes can leave authors feeling abandoned, especially if the person was a long-time member of the list. All kinds of thoughts go through your head.
“What did I do wrong?”
“Am I providing value?”
“Does my writing suck?”
“Do I suck?”
“Did I email too much? Too little? What happened?”
The good news is that it is okay whether someone leaves your email list or your blog. In 2019, we were not taking losses, only lessons, and there are tons of lessons we can learn from email unsubscribes.
This list encourages and motivates you to push past that feeling of confusion and rejection.
Don’t subscribe people to your list without their permission.
Please don’t do this.
There are laws against doing things like this. Never, ever add anyone to anything without that person’s permission. I don’t care if it’s a Facebook group or email list. Get permission first. When you let people subscribe on their own, they can unsubscribe whenever they want and do it all without you being sued.
However, if you subscribe someone without their approval, you can be sure they will unsubscribe.
While there’s nothing wrong with compiling a list of supporters and emailing the old-school way (directly), we live in a different time. You need a track record that shows proof this person agreed to get emails from you. You need permission. Do not grab emails from blogs and websites. Choose an opt-in email form and let people subscribe on their own, or create an opt-in form of your own using google docs but just get permission. Don’t get sued.
Mailchimp
Mailerlite
Convertkit
Don’t take it personally.
If the subscriber was legal, and the person decided to leave, the most important lesson you can learn from this is not to take it personally. It could be because they did it to enter your contest and are no longer interested. It could be because they thought they signed up for something that turned out to be different from their expectations.
People have reasons for subscribing to a list/blog, and only some are clear about that reason. If someone mistakenly thought your list would offer something that it doesn’t, they may unsubscribe because it’s different from what they thought it would be.
It does not mean they are disinterested in you or that you do not have value. Don’t take unsubscribes personally. They are not rejecting you.
Never respond to an unsubscribe.
Resist the inclination to ask people why they left. Do not send them follow-up emails unless they have reached out to you. If they unsubscribed from your main list, they probably want to stop receiving emails from you. Again, don’t take the unsubscribe personally. One apple doesn’t stop no show (and that’s grammatically incorrect on purpose). Just keep grinding.
Quality over Quantity: You don’t have to have a gazillion email list subscribers to be Relevant.
With email lists, remember it’s more about the quality of your team. It’s better to have 30 or 40 committed people who are eager to support your work and read your books than 2,000 who won’t lift a finger to give you so much as a piece of advice. You ask a question and hear crickets. I have only about 172 subscribers to my list, and I am more than okay with this. Of course, I’d like to grow (who wouldn’t?), but I am in no rush. It’s challenging enough managing the people I already have. I’ll wait patiently. Always remember quality over quantity. It’s easier to manage 30 or 50 subscribers than to manage 200 or 300 starting out.
Resist the urge to vent your rage on your favorite social media Platform
Again, don’t take it personally. Email unsubscribes are like bad reviews that only you see. Just as it is not recommended to discuss the bad review, it is also not recommended to discuss the unsubscribe. We are all human but venting about these things on social media makes you look like an amateur. Accept this person has decided they are no longer interested in your content (for whatever reason) and move on. People come in and out of our lives for a reason, and we just have to accept when that season is over. Don‘t make it bigger than it is.
Remove and Renew
Don’t be afraid to lose people. You need to unsubscribe people you see who are no longer interested because there will also be people who won’t unsubscribe. They’ll just ignore you and delete your emails, or they may just ignore it without acting.
In pop culture, we call this Ghosting when someone disappears from your life without a word, leaving you to wonder what happened. It is a form of passive aggressiveness I do not recommend people to do. Communicate like an adult.
It’s a good idea to do a good ole cleansing occasionally. Delete some people. Don’t be so thirsty for high numbers to your own detriment. If they aren’t active, it doesn’t matter, and you are deceiving yourself. Every 2-3 months, I clean my list. I delete people who have yet to be active, have not been opening emails, clicking links, responding to questions, or participating. Their presence is irrelevant. I love them, but my emails are clearly not their cup of tea, and they shouldn’t be forced to drink. They must go.
If they aren’t active, it doesn’t matter that they follow you. Their presence is irrelevant, and you are deceiving yourself.
It takes time.
Writing is a business; like all businesses, it takes trial, error, consistency, and time to build. We may have been born with gifts, but no one knew exactly how to execute them. No one woke up with the skills to hire a team or produce excellent products. Similarly, you only know how to manage an email list through practice and hard work, and people will still unsubscribe.
UPDATE: Sadly, the Six-Figure Chick has passed on since this was first posted.
I used to transcribe to the same practices of some “gurus” who said to only email once a month. While I understand why you wouldn’t want to email too frequently, you must do what works for you. It’s a personal journey first.
So I followed my own path and now email whenever I have news. The truth is, it’s hard to stay connected to anyone you don’t speak to for months at a time. The email list can be an essential source of support if you want it to be. Or, the email list could be another social media account you update to tell people about your new books. *Yawn.*
Truth is, there will always be someone to unsubscribe. The real question is, who cares? People always unsubscribe from our lives, but we can’t stop working just because people leave. People unsubscribing from the list can be a blessing as it teaches us what works, what doesn’t, and how to better connect with our audience.
People unsubscribing is not even the real problem. The real problem is learning to connect with those who genuinely follow us. If we do our jobs well, we don’t have anything to worry about.
One door closes, one door opens.
Every time someone unsubscribes from my list, someone new subscribes. That’s the fun thing about it. When one door closes, another always opens. Just because a few people unsubscribe does not mean more won’t come. I’ve been successful in keeping my numbers steady because I am always blessed with a new person whenever someone else leaves. When unsubscribes do happen, now I just smile, knowing someone new is on their way, and hopefully, they’ll find value where the other person did not. The end of one relationship is the beginning of another.
Helpful Tips:
Ask your people questions to discover what they want.
Let your readers in a bit on who you are. Write stories, give updates not shared anywhere else, showcase your personality, e.g.
If possible, use a domain email address as your from address instead of gmail. Ex: yourname(at)yourdomainname(dot)com.
Reminders:
1. Don‘t take the unsubscribe personally
2. Don‘t subscribe people without their permission
3. Never vent your rage about it on your favorite social media platform
4. Quality over quantity
5. Recognize the growth that comes with removal and renewal
6. Remember that it takes time to build anything of substance
7. and that when one door closes, another always opens
For more email list building tips check out one of the most popular posts on this blog:
REMINDER: POETS WHO ENTERED THIS CONTEST. PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ASAP.CHECK YOUR JUNK AND SPAM FOLDERS. IF YOU’RE USING GMAIL, CHECK THE PROMOTIONS FOLDER. WE NEED THE REQUESTED INFORMATION FROM EVERYONE WHO ENTERED THE CONTEST AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THE FROM NAME IS YECHEILYAH AND THE SUBJECT LINE IS THANK YOU.
THANKS SO MUCH!!
For the rest of you, be sure you are following this blog as well as my other social media accounts for updates on this contest! Your first time here? Not sure what this is all about? Visit the original postHERE.
The PBS Blog 