Marketing for Poets

Marketing a poetry chapbook or poetry book, isn't easy but it can be done.  You will probably achieve the most success if you can sell them at readings or in person.  Be sure to autograph them if you do! There are things you can do to market your book and sell copies, so don't be afraid to give it a try!

1) Market your chapbook or book online with a featured website or featured page for it on your website,

2) Use social media like Twitter or Tumblr to advertise your book,

3) Ask friends who teach if they can feature your book or chapbook in a class,

4) Do package deals, where you offer another book of poetry as a freebie for purchasing the chapbook or book you are selling,

5) Get your poetry book or chapbook reviewed,

6) Make postcards, bookmarks, or business cards to advertise your book or chapbook with a link to purchase it (or address if you are also selling them offline),

7) Don't be afraid to make your own plan!

There is a limited market for poetry and poetry readers so it may be easy to get discouraged when trying to sell your chapbook or book.   So carry copies of your chapbook or book with you, and keep searching for options to sell your poetry that may come your way!

Poetry in Pictures: poems inspiring pictures

This is not a post on creating Ekphrastic poetry.  I have read some of it. I generally don't write that kind of poetry myself.  It's not that I don't like art.  I do!  I love Modern Art, though.  Usually when I say that, people adjust their view and look at me sideways as if what's the matter with you?  What is the matter with me? 

I don't like everything to "fit" in a box, in a form, in whatever.  With poetry, there is formal poetry and then there's not.

I'm not talking the kind of poems where you take a book for instance and on every 5th page you pull the 11th line, and then pull the 2nd word and then put that all together in a poem.  I'm not sure I'd call that poetry, but a lot of people do.  My favorite kind of poetry that fits into that are the ones called bookshelf poems - you know where you check a stack of books and take words from the spines and create a poem.  I haven't tried it, but I think it's an interesting choice.

My choices when I take pictures could be seen as interesting (ah, different!) as well.  I'm not talking the family vacation pics or the ones where you pose for endless selfies with your friends (Hi, friends!).  I'm talking what you see, your perspective, your eye.

Images as poetry?  Try putting them all together into a collage.  Does each image speak to you?  Can you put one word with each picture?

I find that if I use an image with a poem, the picture doesn't inspire the poem.  For me it's the other way around:  the poem I want to write inspires the pictures.

My favorite kind of pictures to take?  Water pictures!  I love the water.  I've yet to write a water poem, though, except I do tend to write a bit about swimming (love to swim - I put it up there with breathing!)

Take pictures!  Write poems!  And by all means, be inspired!

One of my many water pictures: