Very few poets ever live off the proceeds from their work. Most poets, even the most widely published, hold other jobs to pay the bills.  If you want money, don’t expect to make it from poetry.

Having said this, it is still a good idea to market your poetry book.   Marketing your poetry can help give your poetry recognition and appreciation from the wider public.  In addition, for most poets, any money earned from the sales of books is appreciated even if it doesn’t pay all the bills. Here are some tips on how to market your poetry book.

1. Readings

Poetry books will sell if you go out and do a lot of readings wherever anyone will listen. 

For example, you can do poetry readings at a local library or coffee shop. You can read your poetry on a street corner with a stack of books on your side.  You can participate in a poetry slam.

John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book says, “The best way to market poetry is to do live readings. Absolutely the best way. Always has been. Likely always will be.”

You might check with your local bookstore or coffeehouse to see if they host readings or other poetry programming.

You can also visit the National Poetry Map on www.poets.org, click on the state you reside, scroll down to “Literary organizations & centers” and “Reading series, conferences, & literary festivals”. Browse the links and any event listings at the bottom of the page to find information about possible events.

You can find poetry slams (a poetry slam is a competition where poets read or recite original work) at www.poetryslam.com.  You can join for $20 and get information on all kinds of poetry slams.

You can organize your own poetry reading.   Here is a good article on how to organize your own poetry reading: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/organiseAReading.do

Some enterprising poets have been known to do quite well going to the subway station with a stack of poetry books and reading their poetry out load to the bustling crowd until all their books have sold.

2.  Online Podcasts and Video

On modern way to “read” your poetry is through the use of podcasts and videos.  Poets, nowadays, often take one of their favorite poems and set it to music and visual art in a short video and post it on various online video sites like www.YouTube.com. 

Check out these videos that are based on a poem:

• The Dash has been viewed more than 30 million times via various websites and books by the author, Linda Ellis, have become very popular:  http://youtu.be/zsY6UrFIsNs
• Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus has had more than 24 million views (note how he promotes his new book in the video): http://youtu.be/1IAhDGYlpqY
• Forgetfulness is an animated video with Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate and one of America’s best-selling poets, reading his poem: http://youtu.be/n-a8ELOVig4
• The Don’t Quit Poem has had more than 4 million views: http://youtu.be/VkCFeNeqyHk
• Taylor Mali on “What Teachers Make” has had over 4 million views.   Taylor Mail is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement: http://youtu.be/RxsOVK4syxU

3.      Social Media

Social media has become a great vehicle for poets to express themselves and become discovered by poetry lovers.  Good poets should use social media to find people who like good poetry.

I recommend that all poetry book authors join Facebook.   Facebook is an ideal forum to share your poetry and to discover new poems.

If you aren’t already familiar with Facebook, please view my article Facebook for Authors – Part 1.  Once on Facebook, you should join one or more of the many groups on Facebook that discuss poetry.  If you don’t know how to find groups, please view this helpful video:  http://youtu.be/9UDE-rOxJ9I.   To expand your network of like minded people on Facebook, please see my article Facebook for Authors – Part II

In addition, I recommend that poets check out these (free) online communities where you can share your poetry:

•  www.poetfreak.com
• www.poetry.com/
• http://allpoetry.com/
• http://www.originalpoetry.com/
• http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/
• http://poemish.com/

4.       Reviews and Awards

Reviews and awards are what separate the recognized poets from the poets who will stay in obscurity. 

To get your poetry out there and get it the recognition it deserves, I recommend you enter as many poetry contests as you can afford and have time for.  Many of the online poet communities I mentioned above have poetry contests.  In addition, here is a list of poetry contests: http://www.fanstory.com/page/poetry_contests/poetry_contests.jsp

Book reviews will also help your marketing efforts.

A review of your new poetry book, or even a positive review of one of your poems, from an independent literary journal will help your reputation and your book sales.  Here is a list of journals that review poetry:  http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/journals-review-poetry

Customer reviews are also important.  No one is going to buy your poetry book off of Amazon if you don’t have any positive customer reviews posted on the site.   Ask your family, friends and colleagues to post reviews of your poetry book on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.  If you have to, pay for reviews but get positive reviews for your poetry book on these major retail sites.

In honor of National Poetry Month, I thought I would publish this list of great poets who self published their books.   This is but a very small list, as thousands of famous poets have self-published.

American poet Walt Whitman self-published many editions of his collected poems, Leaves of Grass (first edition published on July 4, 1855). Leaves of Grass continues to sell thousands of copies each year — almost 120 years after his death!

T.S. Eliot, author of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land, paid for the publication of his first book.

British poet Alexander Pope, author of the satirical mock-epic poems The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad, paid for the publication of his first book.

American poet and short story writer Edgar Allen Poe, author of the poem The Raven and short stories such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher, self-published some of his writings.

English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, author of Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Adonais, and Prometheus Unbound, paid for the publication of his first book.

English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, author of Sonnets from the Portuguese, paid for the publication of her first book.

American poet E. E. Cummings self-published No Thanks, a volume of poetry financed by his mother. On the half-title page, he listed the 13 publishers that had rejected the book, which became one of his classics.

Carl Sandburg self-published poems and essays with the financial assistance of his college professor. His work came to public notice when he began selling to Poetry magazine.

Oscar Wilde self-published a book of poetry in 1881.

If you are thinking about self-publishing your poetry, you’re in good company. If you want to add your name to this list of self-published poets, you should check out Bookstand Publishing’s affordable Paperback Book Publishing Packages.

• Be sure your book is in ONE electronic file.
• Set up your page size. The Directions below are for MS Word 7 and 10
• The most common and most economical trim sizes is 5.25 inches wide x 8.25 inches tall. To format to our other sizes, please change the “PAPER SIZE” per the following instructions. All other adjustments stay the same.
• In MICROSOFT WORD, open a NEW Document and click on PAGE SETUP under PAGE LAYOUT.

• Set your PAPER SIZE to Custom 5.25” x 8.25”.

• Set your MARGINS to Mirror Margins with the Inside Margins being .75″ and the outside margins being .5″. This creates space for the binding of the book. We recommend .7” for the top and bottom margins.

• Format your PARAGRAPHS to FULL Justified and Single Spaced. Indent the first sentence of the paragraph using the SPECIAL box and FIRST LINE by 0.5” as shown below. No spaces between paragraphs.

• You are now ready to put your book into this format. Close your existing book file. With the above described blank document open in Microsoft Word, go to the top Tool Bar; and the INSERT tab. Click OBJECT and then Text From File. Select your book and click INSERT. You have now put your book in the correct basic format.

• If your book is in separate files, for example each chapter in its own file, you must INSERT Chapter One, then place the cursor at the END of Chapter One and INSERT Chapter Two, and so on, into the main book file.

• Once the file has been inserted, view the page size on your as TWO PAGES. This will make the chapter location and the page numbering easier to visualize.

• Body Text should be set to 10 to 12 point Times New Roman text font. Actually, you may use any font you want; however, it is best to use an easy-to-read font. Also, keep the font and the font size consistent for a professional-looking book.
• Page Numbers should be positioned “Bottom of page (Footer)” On an even numbered page, the Page Number should be on the Outside Left. On an odd numbered page, the Page Number should be on the Outside Right.
• To begin page numbering you must first insert a SECTION BREAK on the last page prior to where you want page ONE to begin. In most cases page one is also the first page of Chapter One.
• You want page ONE and all other ODD-NUMBERED pages to be right-hand pages. Page ONE is always an ODD-NUMBERED and RIGHT-HAND page.  When working in Microsoft Word, this can be a bit confusing. A right-hand FACING page may appear on the left side of your screen when you are viewing the document as TWO PAGES. This will become clearer if you put page numbers on the OUTSIDE. Page ONE will then have the page number on the right side of the page, making it a right-hand page. If page ONE is a left-hand page, simply insert a PAGE BREAK before the SECTION BREAK. Remember, you are creating a book, so think as though you had the book lying open in front of you on the table.
• Here is how to set the Page Numbers in MS Word 7 and 10:
  • Go to Insert
  • Go to PAGE NUMBER
  • Go to Bottom of Page
  • Choose a Left Hand Page Number for an Even Numbered Page (For example Plain Number 1)
  • Choose a Right Hand Page Number for an Odd Numbered Page (For example Plain Number 3)

  

• Each chapter should begin on its own RIGHT-HAND page. This often requires adding a blank page at the end of a chapter in order to make the next chapter begin on a RIGHT-HAND page. If you choose not to adhere to the right-hand Chapter starts, however, that is acceptable to us.

For more information on formatting your manuscript for publication you can request a FREE copy of Professional Self Publishing Made Easy published by Bookstand Publishing.  Registering will also give you access to our preformatted MS Word Templates that you can download to your computer.   To register, please go to www.bookstandpublishing.com and fill out your name and email address on our home page.

WHY EDITURZ ARR KNEADED

By Rick Helley, Guest Blogger and Senior Editor at Bookstand Publishing

I came across this rather amusing item on page 12 of the May 7, 2010, issue of The Week magazine:

An Australian publisher has destroyed 7,000 copies of a cookbook after a recipe called for “salt and freshly ground black people.” The recipe, for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto, was meant to call for black pepper, but a typo led a computer spell-checker program to insert the erroneous word.

During my years as a copy editor in the corporate world, some gaffes approaching that one crossed my desk, such as the following:

•  A report discussing diesel emissions from ferryboats in San Francisco Bay included the line, “emissions from the San Francisco fairies.”
• A report on boiler emissions noted, “After eating lunch, the boiler exploded.”
• A company abstract about pollution control touted the firm’s “Population Abatement Systems” — to which I responded, via a note to the author, “Project Manager, Josef Mengele?”

 In addition, about twenty years ago, a newspaper in my city included a recipe for seafood salad calling for shrimp and, among other ingredients, “Crap.”

And, in 2002, the City of Lauderhill, Florida, decided to honor actor James Earl Jones with a commemorative plaque. Someone, however, failed to proofread the plaque, which ended up with the inscription:

Thank You
James Earl Ray
for Keeping the Dream Alive
City of Lauderhill
January 19, 2002

 The lesson here is that grammar checkers and spell checkers, as convenient as they may be at times, are no replacement for human editors and proofreaders.

Photographs and images in your book can help you tell your story and add interest, clarity and excitement to your book. A powerful image on the cover of your book, can do a lot to help sell your book.

However, the laws and regulations for when you can and can’t use a photograph in your book can be confusing and, if you aren’t careful, can get you in trouble.   Here are some simple guidelines to help end the confusion and keep you out of trouble.

Permissions

As a rule, if you didn’t take the picture yourself, you have to have written permission from the copyright holder to use the image in your book. The two exceptions to this are:

• Public Domain:   Under United States copyright law, all images published before January 1, 1923 in the United States are now in the public domain.    Just because something is posted on the World Wide Web does NOT mean it is under public domain.  In fact, most images on the World Wide Web are copyright protected and cannot be used without permission.
• Fair use:  Fair use of a copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.   You can read more about Fair Use here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use   Please keep in mind that if you intend to profit from the sale of your book, the images you use in your book will probably NOT be covered by Fair Use.

Getting Permission

If you have a specific image you want to use, you will need to write a letter or send an email to the person who holds the copyright of the image and ask permission to use the image.  In some cases, the copyright owner of the image will allow you to use the image for free, but in many cases they may request you pay a fee for the right to use it.

There are a number of stock photo sites that will sell you images and the right to use the image in your book for a nominal fee.  My favorite image sites are:

• www.istockphoto.com
• www.Shutterstock.com
• www.Fotosearch.com

This is a FREE stock photo site with over 350,000 images:

• http://www.sxc.hu/

Wikepedia offers a list of image resources for public domain images:

•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.php?curid=63057

Wikepedia is a good spot to search for images as the copyright restrictions on images are clearly labeled and many have been released into the public domain or are available for restricted use.

Images of People

If you took a picture of a group of individuals you may or may not need to get their permission to use the image in your book.

If you are using the image for editorial purposes, it’s usually okay to use them without permission.

If you are using photos with people in them for advertising, you need their permission.  People have the right to profit from their photograph or likeness and this right continues after death and is given to their heirs

Usually, using an image on the cover of your book would be considered an image for advertising purposes (since your cover is used to promote and sell your book) and using an image inside your book would be considered for editorial purposes.  For example, If you have pictures inside your book showing people white water rafting down a river, you will probably not need their permission. If you put that same picture on the cover of your book, however, you should get their permission.

Logos and Brand Names

Be wary of using logos, symbols, brand names, company names, and trademarks in an image.  Even using very old images of a brand name or trademark still in use, can get you in trouble.

Please note that I am not a lawyer and I am not engaged in rendering legal services.  When working with legal issues, or if you have any questions on using a photo in your book, you should always seek experienced, professional counsel.