Talent -We started as a writers' group, but discovered that we had the ability to accomplish more. Our editor is a retired English teacher with 30 years of experience teaching poetry and literature on high school and college levels. Another member is a certified landscape artist who can draw pen and ink illustrations to give the journal some artistic flare.Our third member has an amazing talent for proof reading. Poets don't like their work to contain  proofing flaws. Our other member has layout and computer publishing experience and maintains our website
 

Objective - We realized that there are many more talented poets and poems than those who get published and we became a venue for them.
 

Start - We decided  to publish twice a year with some of our own work supplemented by the work of known and local area poets. We featured two guest poets in each issue who we would not jury.  This idea worked well. Those invited by us were delighted by the invitation and by having another Connecticut poetry journal in the making. We began to withdraw our own work as the number of submissions grew. After two years, we no longer needed the support of our guest poets or our own poems.
 

A Publisher - We found a press who was able to photocopy our layout,  trimmed and saddle stitched,  for $2.00 a copy. We sell copies for $5.00 plus S & H. The journal averages 50 pages in length and contains @ 27-30 poets with four to five illustrations. It measures 4.5 W x 8.0 inches H. We have recently completed our thirteenth journal (6 1/2 years)
 

Financing - Each member contributed towards the first publication. Initially, we had 150 copies printed, but decided for present 100 are enough. We sponsored reading for those area poets we published and sold copies to attendees. Financially, we were treading an insecure path and decided to hold a poetry contest with a $10 reading fee once a year. We award $100, $50, and $25  prizes and several honorable mentions. This provides funds to pay most of the yearly publication price.
 

Advertising - by the third year we began to placing ads in Poets and Writers. We built a database of poet names , addresses and email addresses. We email announcements and publication dates, but are careful not to overdo our contact.
 

Subscriptions - To date, we do not accept subscriptions. Subscriptions can be time consuming and require additional expense in contacting for renewal. As the journal is only $10/year, we cannot see any advantage at this time.
 

Poets Pay - Each poet is paid 1 copy if a poem is accepted. Copies are mailed within the continental  U.S. at a cost of @ $.87 per copy. Foreign mailings can be as high as $3.00.
 

Appearance - We continue to improve the looks of the Common Ground Review by using colored covers and heaver pages. Each poem's heading contains the poet's name with a line separating it from the title. The title of the poem is in small caps and we use Times New Roman as a font. Because there tends to be a great amount of text in the table of contents and the Biographical sections, we use Arial Narrow. We now have a pre-printed mailing label containing our return address.
 

Contributors - Poets come from many states, and occasionally a foreign country. We have been getting many submissions from college faculty, and  many submissions are coming from well established poets.
 

Selection of material - Several times during a submission period, the editor brings to our meeting poems that he feels are the best quality. The poems are passed by the remaining three editors who rank and initial them. On a basic level, editors look for grammar and spelling. Next poems are read for sense and originality., then for imagery. Once this has been done, each remaining poem is discussed. At times there are differing opinions which are solved by negotiation. When we have received and accepted enough poems, the layout of the journal begins.
 

Layout - is demanding work.- which poems will be on opposing pages, where a multi-page poem serves best., which poems should be illustrated, which poem should start and end the journal are all considerations.
 

Update  − Common Ground Review has affiliated with Western New England College.  The Spring issue became the official poetry journal of the college under the auspices of the English Department. Sponsorship of the Common Ground Review will allow the editors to upgrade the publication from saddle stitch to perfect binding. They will also be in a position to advertise broadly and  publish more poetry.