so I know why you clicked on this video
you want to make some money writing
poetry well I'll tell you that money was
actually for my birthday I didn't get
that money writing poetry but what I
will tell you is how you can make some
money writing poetry you're not going to
be this millionaire writing it I'll tell
you that although some people have won
an extensive amount of money we'll get
there but what I can tell you is so far
I've made about three thousand dollars
by writing poetry three thousand dollars
if you also take away the zero take away
another zero at ten dollars take away
twenty and then maybe at five then after
I count all the places I've submitted to
for money maybe I've made about five or
six dollars writing poetry but that's
besides the point there are other ways
that you can gain money and I'm going to
tell you some ways that you can one the
obvious way to win prizes to win
scholarships to win grants basically
submitting your work in order to win a
cash prize some of these cash prizes
range from like one hundred and twenty
thousand dollar check for like a book
prize for one of your one of your best
books or like a fifty thousand dollar
cash prize a thousand dollars fifty
dollars and it gets lower to 200 150
twenty-five and then the lowest I've
heard was maybe about ten dollars from a
poem now the thing is there's this
lottery system a lot of the time or you
got to pay into these things right a lot
of these presses get grants from a
different any A's and the different kind
of funds that they get from different
donors and different colleges and that's
how they end up paying for prizes but
other prizes you get the money from by
actually putting in so like let's say if
there's a thousand people that enter for
this prize or they're expecting a
thousand people to enter and they off
coughed up three dollars right and the
cash prize is $1,000 that thousand
dollars you get from everyone putting in
that money and
$2,000 pays for the publication it pays
to pay the editors to pay the press and
a lot of ways in which that these
companies and these distribution sites
would keep on running their own business
sometimes they won't pay you for a
published poem but they'll pay you with
a contributors copy like I mentioned in
one of my other videos the way I get my
reviews and the way I get my journals
that I'm published in instead of paying
me they'll send me contributor copies
just like they did with dry land Lit in
the same way they did with Naugatuck
River review I don't condone the
practice of giving money to places in
order to receive money but it is hard
out here and there are only so many
prizes and there are other prizes that
you don't really need to pay for in
order to receive them these come in the
ways of different kind of scholarship
funds different stipends for doing some
sort of work to doing some sort of
service in order to get paid for it so
look out for those as well we can also
be paid for your performances you can be
paid to host workshops even get paid for
like talks and panels this doesn't come
before you get published right or before
you have some sort of notoriety in the
performance scene it to get paid to
actually go to places you already have
to have this writers resume developed so
you are you getting publications are you
getting features at readings are you a
public figure in the area do you do
community work with different poets do
you work in schools do you work in
community organizations all of those
things are are going to work in your
favor if you are trying to get paid at a
place to actually go kind of consider
this I always tell my students consider
this kind of like a draft lottery write
the first-round draft pick is always
going to get the biggest signing cheque
is always going to get signed to a
really good team because they have that
skill set right they've played college
or they played this high school game and
eight
velop themselves as this act athlete as
this artist of the body so now what you
need to do you have to develop yourself
as this artist with your art form and
how are you going to make yourself mark
in a bowl you're gonna make yourself
marketable by being out in the public
you can also be an entrepreneur I'm in
my other video I also talked about the
passing out of those literary mixtapes
right so if you have a zine if you have
a chat book if you have an artist book
you can sell these anywhere from like $1
to $10 to $12 when you go to readings so
people have things to take away another
poet on the scene and in the noir
community Jasmine Mane's she actually
has products that you can buy so she has
t-shirts
she has cups and you could buy those of
merchandise to support the poet and it
usually has something to do with their
poetry form mixtape mixtape there's a
poet homie Robert Hilton he's been
teaching in like the north public high
schools for like god knows how long
since like I was a teenager and a lot of
my friends talked about him as a spoken
word artist in his literature classrooms
and I was able to read with him I got
the pleasure to read with him during a
dodj poetry summer reading and Nord
voices I'm going to have the video right
here I also have a video with him if you
guys want to start hearing some other
poets let me know and I'll also start
putting them up on this channel too just
so people could start getting the
exposure of the different communities
that I'm in but yeah really good album
it's fire lastly I'm something that a
deer poetry mentor of mine tells me all
the time
diversify diversify diversify you are a
writer you could write well the thing
that separates a writer from a really
good writer is editing is being able to
sit down with the work and knowing the
craft so if you're a poet
you can probably also write a really
good email you could probably write a
really good story you can probably help
other people edit you can probably help
do resumes make sure that you are making
money with this craft you have as a
writer not just in poetry but
mediums for example I also edit
manuscripts I help people
SAT prep I can help you with an essay I
can do resumes I do just regular copy
editing and those are other services I
provide besides just being this poet
that is kind of witnessing a story for
the community other writers also choose
to write in the different mediums right
so some people could be writing memoirs
short stories other types of prose book
reviews book reviews are absolutely
great this is something that a lot of my
friends and my circle do with one
another even with your even with your
poetry friends if someone gets a book
and you know of this book by the book
support your buddy and also write a
review and send those out to different
magazines and journals because if those
reviews get published your buddy gets a
bit of this boost and when you get that
book your buddy can give you that same
boost so as you can see there are many
different ways that you can make money
some of these are going to be more
consistent than others sometimes you're
gonna hit that one big jackpot sometimes
you're just going to be passing dough
and collecting five dollars here and
there but at the end of the day what
really matters is it the money that
matters is the poet or is it the art
that is getting out there there is
always going to be work for you to get
in different forms but there's always
going to be this work once you clock out
once you get home and you sit in front
of that desk it's great if you'd be able
to combine the two if you'd be able to
do what you love and you can go and you
can travel with your work and share
yourself with others but there's a lot
of work pass to go into that not saying
that you can't be that person but just
know that if you want to you got to put
in the work oh did I miss anything
is there anything that you're still
confused with I'd love to start a
conversation with you like comment and
subscribe below and before I see you in
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educated and I'll see you next time