Developing a Market for Poetry
Poetry offers a unique and powerful means of expressing oneself and conveying emotion, but it is also a potentially very lucrative form of creative output. With the right approach, you can make a decent living off your own creativity, with readers eager to pay for the quality of your output.
Physical copies of poetry, such as paper booklets or anthologies, make up the bulk of poetry sale. They can be sold in local book stores, local markets, and at events, in person. Online, one might opt to go through larger platforms, such as Amazon and Goodreads, to connect with a much larger audience. However, these do not usually give good margins; such platforms usually take the largest share of profit.
Getting published is both a powerful boost for one’s poetry career and a major source of income. With the rise of e-books, self-publishing has become a much more convenient option. One of the most successful platforms for poets is the American Verse Project. It provides publishing and royalties for accepted entries, and also a great way for poets to connect with each other.
However, although print events might be a great way to promote one’s work, it is not typically a very lucrative option. Without an audience, even if a reading or performance was held in a book store, it would not make much of a difference in terms of revenue. To gain entry into bookstores, one must often already have a track record of selling copies.
A more efficient, if riskier way to make money off poetry is through a patronage system. A number of patrons, ranging from philanthropists to wealthy individual enthusiasts, can fund a poet’s creative output. Patrons receive special-edition prints of poetry, often packaged in a beautiful presentation box and autographed by the author. The amounts paid can be sizable, and depending on the number of poems and the duration of the patronage deal, this form of artistic patronage can be a decent source of income.
Social media can also be utilized to reach a (usually) wider audience, increasing the chances of one’s poetry reaching potential buyers. Many successful poets find an audience through the cultivation of an online presence. The use of hashtags is essential, as well as engaging with virtual communities that intersect with poetry enthusiasts.
Finally, one aspect that should not be overlooked is the contribution of poetry societies and clubs. They represent a great way to reach out to more people and also to gain insights from more experienced poets. Moreover, many such establishments might host readings and recitals as part of their events, and poets can use such platforms to spread their work.
Tap Into Specialized Markets
One of the best ways to increase the chance of earning income from your poetry is to focus on particular audiences. This might entail researching a particular genre or topic and finding and following communities that fit that criteria. For example, a poet interested in exploring the grittier side of life might do well by crafting or designing a series of poems that focus on topics and themes related to street life or gangster cultures. Similarly, a poet specializing in traditional forms may find an audience that prefers classical poems.
Social media can also be extremely useful in this regard by targeting particular groups. Searching for hashtags related to specific genres of poetry, or simply advertising one’s work, may yield a larger audience that is more likely to purchase one’s work. Establishing a presence and reputation in places like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram will raise one’s profile, making it more likely that potential buyers will find and follow you.
Instead of advertising with paid posts, it is possible to get some free publicity by writing guest posts for established bloggers and websites. These guest posts should focus on sharing the poet’s experience and outlook – as opposed to a hard-sell -, as this resonates more with potential buyers.
Maximizing Profits
Creating an original product based on one’s own poetry is a great way to monetize one’s work. This might involve selling printed work, audio versions of the poems, or even the audio recordings of one’s live readings. Repurposing one’s work into other formats is also a great way to increase the value of a poem – an audio version might be 10-20 times more expensive than a PDF of the same poem.
Creating a blog or a website to showcase one’s work and offer it for sale is also an option. With pre-made website templates, and online-payment sites, such as PayPal and Stripe, setting up the technical foundations for the site is quite straightforward.
Seeking Professional Advice
It is also important to get professional advice in the form of industry contacts or copyright lawyers. Having input from professionals with experience in the literary world can help you protect your work and also ensure that you are well-equipped to maximize profits. Additionally, it’s essential to keep in mind that artistic output is a form of intellectual property and as such should be properly protected.
To conclude, there are some more short-term profits that can be derived from poetry: poetry contests, funded poetry competitions, and university writing awards. While these do not constitute a way of making a living, these may offer a one-time infusion of money that can start the building of one’s poetry-making career.
Advertising and Brand Building
If done right, advertising can play a major role in reaching more potential buyers. Developing a ‘brand’ is key. Creating a logo and a website that allows customers to purchase print and digital versions is a fantastic way to make sure that your income stream is both reliable and sizable.
Posting excerpts from poetry on social media, or sharing images of your work with hashtags, is also a great way to create a following or fanbase, who are likely to purchase your work. Additionally, offering discounted rates to first-time buyers or setting up a tiered payment structure based on the number or length of poems helps to establish an audience and adds an extra layer of engagement to boot.
Creating a mailing list is also a great way to stay in touch with those who follow your work. Sending out snippets of a forthcoming poem or anthology, mini-blogs containing the poet’s musings, or just well-times promotional emails can help to keep one’s followers interested and eager to purchase more work.
Promoting and Selling Poetry
One of the best ways to do this is to collaborate with other artists. Writing and performing together is a great way to increase recognition, as is appearing in local events in your area. Collaboration involves more work than solo work, but the reach and scale of exposure it brings can be real advantage.
When it comes down to getting people to see and buy your work, word-of-mouth and personal referrals are the way to go. By engaging with the people who truly appreciate your work, you can turn them into a dedicated core of customers who enthusiastically spread your work. One way of doing this is to offer incentives, discounts, or even gifts to those that have made a purchase, as this encourages others to come forward with requests.
Additionally, it is important to get out of the virtual world and meet face-to-face with potential buyers. Taking part in poetry readings, speaking engagements, and events is vital in order to give potential readers a taste of one’s works and to engage the local audience. Offering exclusive discounts or behind-the-scenes stories can help to stir up interest in one’s poetry.
Reinforcing Reputation and Building Connections
Becoming associated with established poets or well-known personalities can help to leverage one’s work and potential profits. This might involve writing commissions, or compiling tributes or anthologies in collaboration with other authors. Additionally, creating multilingual versions of poems in order to reach a wider, international audience can increase sales.
Poets need to be constantly vigilant in protecting their rights and working with organizations such as the League of Canadian Poets and other creative rights groups can help to ensure that one’s intellectual rights are respected and preserved. Networking with other poets, literary agents, and publishers can also be useful in opening up new avenues of exposure and building a reliable income stream.
In the digital age, it pays to adapt. Poets and writers should make sure to keep up with new channels and forms of communication. Keeping up with the latest trends and developments in poetry, such as poetry slams or workshops, will help to stay in tune with the times and to leverage new sources of income.
