How to Publish a Poetry Book?

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rythmicjea
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How to Publish a Poetry Book?

Post by rythmicjea »

I apologize if this has already been posted. If it has, can you please send me to that thread?

But what resources are good, or what are your own personal suggestions, for how to compile and write a poetry book?

Thanks!

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Post by moderntimes »

Well, as you may guess, poetry publication isn't that huge a market these days.

However I recommend you visit the site of "Preditors and Editors" and check their excellent list of publishers, under the heading "Book Publishers". It will list dozens of publishers and you can scroll down and see which publish poetry.

Then send a query email or letter to those publishers. You should of course include 2 or 3 of your better poems for an example. Try to select poems with a varied rhythm and different motif, so you can show the variety of your writing. You should have about 75-80 poems complete for eventual submission, because that's how many would likely be in a book.

I have a good friend, a retired professor of literature, who's had 8 or 9 volumes of poetry published, so it can be done. You just have to persevere, and of course, be a good poet.
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Post by rythmicjea »

Thank you very much! I plan on posting my poetry in the forums. I don't know how much they are read though... :/
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Post by moderntimes »

Well, you say you want to publish a book of your poetry, maybe using self-publising -- or perhaps get your poetry professionally published by getting a contract with a small publishing company, a "boutique" house?

If so, be wary about posting too much of your poetry for free in any forum. If your poetry is very good, you could be pulling the rug out from under any attempt to have a traditional publisher pick up your volume. This is because if the poems have already been posted free, there's no product to sell. And even though a small boutique publisher won't get a lot of money from your poems, it's unlikely they'd make you an offer if all the poems had previously been posted for free.

Understand, I'm not chiding you at all. If all you want to do is to have folks read your poems, then feel free to post them wherever. Maybe set up a private website and post them there for the enjoyment of others and ask for their feedback. There's nothing wrong with this at all.

However, your initial post deals with getting your poetry published in book form, right? There's 2 ways to do this: 1- self-publish as many folks do, and 2- get offered a modest contract with a legit publisher who will put out your poetry for you, free, in book form. For #2, don't expect to retire on the royalties, ha ha. The publisher will spend a couple hundred bucks to set up your poems in a professional print layout, the post the book's availability on Amazon, in a nice cozy paperback or Kindle or both. You may end up making 2 or 3 bucks per sale of hard copies, a dollar on e-book sales, but at least your poems will have an attractive professional look.

This all depends on how you judge the quality of your own poetry. This is a very difficult challenge, and it's hard to make an objective decision on this. If you're a newbie at writing and you've never had anything sold and published, maybe self publishing is the answer?

To self-publish, you use perhaps the Amazon software package "CreateSpace" and either do it yourself, or pay someone to lay the book out for you in print format. This will cost maybe $100, I'm just guessing, if you pay someone.

Or, if you really think you've got something in your writing, that you're the next TS Eliot (ha ha) then by all means take some time to send queries to professional small publishers who do poetry.

Or, if all you want is to share your poetry, then don't worry about publishing and just post the poems wherever. Later you can then decide to pay for self-publishing. But posting all the poems for free will surely shut the door on selling them to a legit publishing firm.

I faced the same dilemma when I finished my 3rd mystery novel last spring. I decided to go the pro route and so I send numerous queries to professional publishers, trying to "place" my novel. If the list ran out, I could then perhaps go the self pub route. But to my pleasant surprise, a small "boutique" house picked up not just my new book but the 2 previous novels, and so I signed a cozy little 3-book contract.

This is a decision you will need to make. You should have some feedback from good friends whom you trust, right? Maybe a professor whom you studied under? Someone who would look at samples of your poems and give you an honest evaluation as to whether your writing is on a pro level, and if so, you may wish to at least try the pro publisher route first.
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Post by rythmicjea »

Wow... You are a wealth of information! Lol thank you. That's all I can seem to say. :D
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Post by moderntimes »

Thanks, glad to help. I'm about "midway" as a writer -- I've never really made a lot of money on my writing, I'd guess less than $10k my whole life. But I have been published (meaning, selling something for real money) in newspapers and magazines, my articles and book/movie reviews bringing in some handy pocket change.

Now, my 3 mystery novels also being professionally published (meaning, the publisher pays everything and I get royalties).

This doesn't however mean that I'm a pro by any means. When I think "professional writer" I think only of someone who makes an actual living off writing, like a NY Times best selling novelist.

What I DO try to bring to the table, regardless, is a professional attitude toward my writing. I write my novels as if I'm a top dog hotshot, ha ha, and focus my writing as if I would be selling 40,000 copies next week in all the big bookstores. This direction in my thinking keeps my writing at the highest level and I don't take any drop-off in the effort I put into my work.

So I try to convey that sort of professional attitude to others in this forum, because I think that if someone only wants to write, for example, a little short story to amuse his or her friends and email it to them, the writing will suffer accordingly and be less than the best possible.

However, if that person instead writes a short story as if half the world were waiting with baited breath for its release, this channels the writer into a higher level of recognition and the end result is that the story is so much better. Even if only friends read it.

But the decision is yours, and there is nothing wrong with self publishing a small volume of poetry or just posting your poems in the forums. It's okay if that is what you want. If however you aspire to have your poems professionally published, then you should not give them away free, as this will negate any commercial value of your poems and the opportunity to have them published will be lost.

However, if you aren't concerned about this, then I recommend looking into self-publishing. The Amazon software package "CreateSpace" is quite good, and you can fiddle with it on your own, or pay someone else (via Amazon) to set up your poems in a nice, attractive bound volume and have it posted on Amazon for e-book or print sale. I don't think it would cost more than a hundred bucks or so, but I can't speak to that, having never gone the self publishing route. But if you start a thread here about this CreateSpace use, I think you'll get plenty of good advice.

And good luck! I've written a few poems in my day, none published, but it's a unique gift, something I was never able to master. Go for it!
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Post by MsMartha »

rythmicjea wrote:I apologize if this has already been posted. If it has, can you please send me to that thread?

But what resources are good, or what are your own personal suggestions, for how to compile and write a poetry book?

Thanks!

----
Happy Reading!
Lea
If you haven't seen it already, take a look at a magazine called Poets and Writers. It has a lot of information, including the deadlines and information for poetry contests. And I mean real, serious contests--for example, the Academy of American Poets (another great resource, by the way) has a Lenore Marshall poetry prize. It also has information about magazines and book publishers that are looking for poetry. Of course it's hard work, and not everybody wins, but you can find out so much with this magazine!
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Post by moderntimes »

Good advice, Ms -- my knowledge of current poetry sources is scant.
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Post by rythmicjea »

Thank you Ms Martha!
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Post by Vermont Reviews »

Why not self-publish on Amazon or Smashwords.
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Post by MsMartha »

moderntimes wrote:Good advice, Ms -- my knowledge of current poetry sources is scant.
Maybe, but you definitely gave good advice!
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Post by 5ngela »

If only there's self publishing for poetry. I would like to do it. I mean just for fun.
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Post by palilogy »

Okay I have to ask the question since this thread is now dated.
Did you publish your book!!!??
What did you end up doing/deciding/details =)
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