the jan spot: poetry and the new normal — how to make sure your work finds an audience

by January O’Neil

According to a recent CBS Sunday Morning news report, “In 2009 there were about two billion physical books sold in the United States. Sounds like a lot — but that’s down nearly five percent from 2008. In 2010, that number is expected to drop another two percent.”

The report goes on the assert that there is no better time to be a reader, because of the many ways readers can access books — not only the amount of books available, but by the delivery system itself. Electronic books (e-books), print-on-demand and online/downloadable books are helping to make reading far more accessible than ever before.

But where does that leave poetry, a genre that, by most estimates, has as many readers as it does writers?

Welcome to the new normal.

If we concede that the delivery systems for receiving poetry are expanding, then poets need to respond proactively with new and innovative ways to reach a wider audience.

Fortunately, there are many more ways that you can reach your readers. Whether you are trying to publicize a poetry event or promote your chapbook or new collection, a little marketing never hurt anyone. Here’s a list of basic things you can do — high tech and low tech — to market your poetry.

High Tech:

• Develop a website or start a blog to communicate with your audience directly.
• Create a list of contacts with email addresses. This list may include friends, family, former classmates and booksellers.
• Get involved in social networking: Facebook, Twitter, Red Room, Goodreads and Read Write Poem, to name a few.
• Make your blog posts search-engine friendly by using keywords both in the titles and throughout your story.
• Create a Facebook fan page for your book or event. Speak directly to your audience, and let the word spread virally.
• Join a listserv or two.
• Create a video or audio post for your poem for your blog or website.
• Organize a Skype poetry reading.
• Organize a small group of fellow poets or writers to market work collectively.
• Organize a blog tour.
• Run contests though your blog or Facebook page, and participate in contests that others host. Offer books as prizes. Give away signed copies of your title via Goodreads.

Low Tech:

• Build a media kit featuring cover art, a photo and reviews of the book or project.
• Contact your local newspaper and suggest a possible story angle — an article to coincide with a reading or community event.
• Have postcards made and send them out to your mailing list.
• Build a list of possible reviewers with local, regional and national newspapers, radio and TV stations, alumni magazines, and public radio outlets.
• Post events in the calendar section of your local newspaper and on community websites.
• Hang fliers or posters to promote your reading. Make sure the date, time and location is prominent.
• Contact schools, libraries and community centers to give talks or lectures.
• Check into venues besides bookstores, such as bars, restaurants, retirement homes and hospitals. Underserved groups truly appreciate the outreach.
• If you have friends in other cities, see if you can arrange joint readings, allowing the local poet to draw in the crowd for you.
• Offer a free poetry class at your local library.
• Volunteer within your local arts community.
• Create bookmarks or print poems as take-aways for your readings.
• Create business cards with your contact information and website. Always carry them with you.

We tend not to make waves in the time-honored tradition of poetry. But why not capitalize on tapping into the largest readership possible? Why not try to spread the net across the widest possible audience? Why not poetry — if the goal is to find the widest distribution for the work? It’s clear that the old publishing model is in flux because book publishers and print journals are no longer the only delivery system for poetry. How can writers — the content providers — be on the forefront of this seismic change? I believe expanding the market is key.

Poetry will never be mainstream, nor do we want it to be. But there’s nothing wrong with trying to reach a broader, more diverse readership to support this art that we love.

In the end, poetry is about the writer connecting with the reader. It’s about community. This is your opportunity to share best practices. How do you connect to your audience? What methods for promotion work for you, and what doesn’t work?

January O’Neil’s first poetry collection, Underlife, is available from CavanKerry Press. She is a fellow with Cave Canem poets. January writes at Poet Mom. She was born in February, in case you’re wondering. Her dad just liked the name.