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hi everyone I'm shaylen here with Reed Z
today let's talk about poetry so poetry
is having a little bit of a modern
resurgence for the first time in a very
long time if not ever poetry books are
hitting the New York Times bestseller
list more and more people are interested
in publishing poetry poets making use of
social media are able to reach much
larger audiences so if you are a poet
and interested in publishing your poetry
here is a breakdown of what that might
look like so there are four main routes
to look at when publishing your poetry
magazines small presses large presses
and self-publishing let's start with
magazines now we do have a video on
submitting short stories to literary
magazines and it's basically all the
same with poetry if you follow the
guidelines in a video on short fiction
and check individual magazines
requirements for poetry you should be
good just like when you're writing a
short story collection if you're writing
a poetry collection publishing the poems
in magazines and journals is probably
the place where you want to start so no
matter what publishing route you're
taking for your entire book this might
be where you want to start to publish
some of the individual poems publishing
your poetry in journals get your name
out there starts to build a name for
yourself as a poet and makes your poetry
more marketable in yet so the other
three options are for publishing an
entire book of poetry so let's start
with large presses even though the
market for poetry is bigger than it has
been in a very long time there still
isn't a huge market for poetry because
of this large presses probably won't
look at unsolicited manuscripts and
probably won't be interested in poets
who haven't shown a large amount of
success if you have published poetry
before and it's been successful say in
magazines or even in a self-published
book that shows there is an audience for
your poetry or if you have a large
social media presence based around your
poetry that is another way to prove that
there is a market for your poetry and
really that's what you need to show if
you want to work with a large press and
that's that you have a large audience
and you're able to reach them publishing
poetry is even harder than publishing
fiction because there's not as big of an
audience or at least it doesn't seem
like there's as big of an audience so
you really have to show that you have an
audio
they're wanting to read your work and
just like with publishing fiction you
will probably need an agent if you're
going to be working with a large press
however there's another option many
poets go through and that is the small
press because of the reasons I just
talked about a lot of poets get started
with smaller presses many small presses
will read unsolicited manuscripts
meaning you don't need an agent so you
can skip the whole aging teen stage and
just query the presses directly however
just like when querying an agent makes
sure to always check the submission
guidelines although many small presses
will read unsolicited manuscripts that
doesn't mean all of them will another
route is to go through contest a lot of
small presses will hold contests where
the winner gets publication for their
manuscript now with a contest or reading
fee somewhere between ten to thirty
dollars is fairly normal this is fairly
standard across magazines journals and
small presses for their contests but if
you're charged for anything else beyond
that it could be a scam you should only
pay their eating fee and nothing else
now small presses don't have a ton of
resources but there's not a lot of money
in poetry to begin with so if you're in
this to make money poetry might not be
the best form for you but starting with
a small press can be a great route to
establish yourself as an author if you
want to set your sights on working with
a larger press in the future for this
reason you may also want to start with a
chat book that's a small leaflet type
poetry book often less than 40 pages
here's an example of a chat book right
here this is teaching my mother how to
give birth by worse and Shire and as you
can see it's very very tiny it's only 34
pages it's super tiny and there's not
even enough room for the author's name
or the book's title on the spine where
as an example of a full book of poetry
would be something like night sky with
exit wounds by ocean vlog as you can see
it's a little longer this one clocks in
at still only 90 pages poetry books are
not that long but that's kind of the
difference between chat book and poetry
book now the thing about chat books is
that they're very inexpensive to produce
in the past he was actually quite common
for authors to print and bind them
themselves because it wasn't too
difficult you can Google how to make a
chat book and they're relatively easy
ways of doing so just by yourself
without even using a print on demand
service chat book is a way of getting
your poetry out there with very little
investment even if you're working with a
small press a chat book can be a way for
both you and the press with very little
monetary
investment to get your poetry out there
and try to find an audience for it in
order to then publish a longer book of
poetry if your trap book sells well it
can be a way for you to get your name
out there and start paving the route to
a full collection of poetry now what can
you expect if you're working with a
small press you probably won't be
getting a large advance and potentially
won't be getting any advance at all now
the press will arrange things like
formatting and design as well as
distribution and they might help with
some marketing but really not that much
they can help you with some of the
publicity such as arranging a reading or
a book launch but ultimately most of the
marketing is going to be in your hands
since most small presses don't even have
a marketing department now a lot of
small presses are university presses so
they run out of university and these are
often more well funded than independent
small presses so they can also be a
great place to look when you're signing
out your manuscript if you want some
ideas of where to look if you want to
publish with a small press there's a
list of reputable small presses linked
in the description from poets and
writers now that said what about
self-publishing more and more poets are
taking the DIY route and in fact like I
mentioned before there is a long
tradition of poets self-publishing when
poets would literally bind their own
chat books now you can get your own chat
book printed through a print on demand
service and it's really quite easy
basically if you can handle design
formatting and distribution you're
handling all of the responsibilities
that a small press would normally do for
you which you're probably fairly capable
of doing now these are a couple things
to keep in mind if you are
self-publishing poetry books vary a lot
in their trim sizes much more so than
fiction books you find poetry books that
are in some very very strange trim sizes
before you format your book and do all
the design for your book make sure the
trim size you want to use is available
from the print on demand service you
plan on working with although poetry
varies very widely in its trim sizes
print on demand services only have a
limited selection of trim sizes there
are more and more print on demand
services to choose from these days and a
lot of them have the benefit of offering
hard covers however with poetry you
rarely see hard covers poetry usually is
just printed in paperback from its
release date even when published through
a press just because it's so short you
know you're not gonna see this 30
pitchbook in a hardback so that's one
thing you don't really have to worry
about Amazon KDP doesn't offer hardback
and that's a drawback for a lot of
novelists who want hard covers however
it won't really be an issue if you're
writing poetry unless you really have a
vision for your hardcover poetry book
but that's just not really the norm when
it comes to poetry
whether you're self-publishing or
publishing traditionally marketing is
going to be a huge thing for you as any
writer but specifically has pella so
let's talk a little bit about marketing
strategies for poetry now the main one
is social media over the past few years
there has been a huge establishment of
different poets and different poetry
communities across social media
now although a lot of poets who
primarily build their platforms and
they're find their audiences on social
media sometimes get a rep as being
specifically Instagram poets which is
kind of a new form of poetry that has
emerged basically no matter what form of
poetry you write social media can be
used to your advantage I see a lot of
poets who wouldn't really be considered
you know quote unquote Instagram poets
using social media connecting with their
audiences through social media no matter
what form of poetry you write social
media is so so valuable because poetry
is so short you can share entire works
so easily through social media
what other form can you share the entire
piece in a tweet or in one Instagram
post there really aren't that many
that's the advantage of poetry it's kind
of the ideal form for the digital age
and the community is thriving so you
might as well start getting involved now
to connect with other poets as well as
with future readers as well if you can
try to do readings locally is a great
way to connect with other readers and
writers locally and to hopefully sell
some books in the process if you live in
a city with a fairly established
cultural or literary scene it probably
won't be that difficult to get a reading
arranged since a lot of venues host
readings relatively often if that kind
of scene is establishing your city I
live in a city that has a very
well-established long-standing literary
circle and there are poetry readings
weekly if you have a chance to do that
it's a great way to get your poetry out
there as well as to get some reading
experience podcasts are another great
Avenue everybody has a podcast these
days podcast is a great way to do a
reading of your poetry that can reach
more people
just the locals in your area and can
also help promote your work and get your
name out there so that is how to publish
a poetry book thank you so much for
watching if you write poetry let me know
personally I don't really have been
trying to learn how but I'm really so
new at it still that I don't know what
I'm doing but if you are a poet I would
love to hear about it so thank you so
much for watching and remember to
subscribe for new writing editing and
publishing videos every Tuesday and
Friday until next time bye
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