Dead Poets Forum Publishing..

So I thought I'd start a new thread on publishing.. I know a few people on here have had the honour of this... and I know many people are concidering self publishing..

I've thought about it... but have held back. I want to hone my craft a bit more and maybe shop a few of my pieces around to publishers for a while first.. I think first impressions carry a lot of weight and I've not had professional critique of my work...

It's easy to fall for all the shining and glowing comments and reviews made by others...and get the big head and immediately go out and self publish...most of those I know who have done this haven't been successful...even those who are extremely talented.

I recently had a review from someone on a certain poetic form piece I had written...he made a comment suggesting a change...pointing out what he thought was a problem...and a suggested rewrite...which is almost always a good thing..but...he didn't know what he was talking about and his rewite was totally outside of the parameters of the form...l thanked him and politely explained my position...no big deal...I went to review one of his pieces and he had self published a book on the form...eeekkk...I read his examples of which he had many...and it was obvious he himself needed a little coaching...I cringe thinking someone will take his examples to heart seeing that he has set himself up as an expert...

This is the kind of thing that stops me..I rather not publish at all, than to put a bunch of s**t poetry out there to haunt me at a later date...and also the people who write none fiction...who is checking their facts?

I went with print-on-demand for my first book. Since then I want to do new things with my books that print-on-demand companies cannot do, so now I'm leaning towards self-publication and magazine publication.