On publishing poetry...

[JDP]

Hi all, can anyone give me some advice? I have a burgeoning portfolio of poetry (not that big - maybe just a few dozen that I like). What is the best way of getting them published? Is there any way?!? I'm not that au fait with the world of poetry so have no idea - magazines/periodicals? Anthologies? Books? Any and all advice (except that just made up to take the mickey!) is welcome...

Cheers!

[I, Brian]

Poetry is an incredibly niche market - from what I understand it doesn't pay well, and you need to very a good understanding of poetry form and function - rather than simply be creative - to have a chance of getting anything through the door on this one.

If I recall, one of the bigger poetry publishers in the UK is Bloodaxe Books - may be worth checking them out.

[lin robinson]

Somebody once said, "Publishing poetry is like tossing a rose petal into the Grand Canyon and waiting for an echo."

Well, oddly poetry is far from a niche. An extremely wide variety of magazines include poems as sort of filler. New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Outlaw Biker to name three. One of your best bets to sell a poem might actually be to search for the proper market then write a poem about high volume air conditioner contracting or something :-)

As far as books, it's a narrow market but a LOT of publishers have lines of poetry.

It's one of those naturals for self-publishing. And I don't mean Lil Lulu, I mean like running off a small edition on nice paper and fooling around with it. Like having it available for sale when you do readings. Eh????

Poetry is unique in having "chapbooks"...little flyers of a couple of pages. This is considered a legitimate thing in poetry whereas in other markets it would be described as "what the hell is this thing?" Chapbooks are often elaborately produced on deckle-edge paper, with woodcuts, etc. They are cheap enough and non-commercial enough that you can get creative.

There are publishers of chapbooks, though most of them are some guy witha bookstore or an old letterpress. Or somebody like these guys
Spec House of Poetry

But I think it's more fun to roll your own. But then I get a kick out of publishing and prep and stuff.

[lin robinson]

I published several extremely cheap poetry books, pocket sized, 40 pages at various times...usually to sell at readings. (I made a profit on every edition)

At one time I expanded to doing a line of booklets with 5 other poets and they were carried by every independent bookstore in the area.

The same thing was done by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in San Francisco back in the fifties, and he published Howl! and Kerouac and the beats and is now a famous press with wider lines.

City Lights Books

I know a guy who published other poets on little scrolls, to be unrolled to read. Another guy I knew talked the city bus lines into putting up poems with artwork as placards in the buses...PSA's mixed in with their paid ads.
Another couple of friends ran calls for poems and artwork and combined them into a series of chapbook, got a grant to print them.

Poetry really opens up some avenues for publishing because it's so wack anyway you can get away with anything.

[Rik Roots]

There are - literally - thousands of poetry magazines currently publishing poetry both in hardcopy and online. I haven't posted enough times here to be able to include some links, but there are several listing sites on the web giving details on magazine reading periods, submission guidelines (they vary), poetry genres favoured, etc.

The truth is there is no money in poetry for the vast majority of poets - it's a buyers market and even a smallish magazine will be receiving dozens of poems for consideration for each poem they actually publish. If you want to build a reputation as a poet, then you're in for a long, hard slog - publishing poems in magazines to build a portfolio, reading at poetry events (start with open mic spots) for the networking opportunities, etc, etc. You're not likely to be able to snag a publishing contract for a book of poems unless you have some name recognition and a strong list of publishing credits in the magazines. And even when you do, sales of the book are more likely to be in the hundreds rather than the thousands.

If it seems too depressing, or too much like hard work, there's always the self-publishing option - but that doesn't excuse you the work needed to promote yourself and your book.

Whatever you do, do not be suckered by parasites such as poetry.com!

And best of luck with your endeavors!