Publish Poetry

Your best bet will be to self-publish or subsidy publish your book.

I do not mean to discourage you, but there is not much of a market for poetry books. Most people who publish poetry are lucky to break even on their books. That does not mean that you should not publish, but do not expect to make a lot of money by publishing poetry.

Self-publishing may be more work that you want to do. There is a lot to learn and do in order to properly publish a book. An easier way to publish is through one of the many subsidy publishers out there, such as iUniverse, Author House or Lulu.

The cost will depend on the number of pages and the nature of the illustrations. (Photos and grayscale may add a little to the cost. Line drawings probably won’t.)

Another possibility is publishing a booklet. You can lay it out yourself in Word or whatever program you normally use, then take a good print out to your local copy shop to be printed and bound.

Do not expect your local book stores to carry your poetry book. You may be able to work with some of them, but most only want to deal with wholesalers and distributors.

Your best bet to sell your poetry is to do readings and sell your book to the audience. Talk to your library, community organizations and other groups about having a reading.

Good luck with your project. Poetry can be hard to sell, but for most poets it is a labor of love. The most important thing is to share your work with others.

Cathy Stucker