| Canadian | ed | eration of Poets |
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Dedicated to uniting people and organizations around the world in the global promotion of poets and poetry |
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Poet Promotion This is where you take a good look at how you can promote yourself. It may sound funny, but that is what you have to do in most cases. Sure some poets, just like some actors, seem to fall right into the successful waters and ride the wave. For the rest of us, we have to work at it. It is a type of job. If you are a poet, and don't have a book, chapbook or anthology to promote yet - then you focus on yourself. You do this by scanning newspaper community sections, local coffee houses, online poetry calendars, and start attending. If they have an open mic section - make sure you get up. You should attend at least one a month if you can. You need to make yourself known by as many local, and poetry sites as you can. For Part II of this, if you already naturally do part I, make sure you are becoming a featured and listed poet. If you are a poet, and have a book or something to market, then you need to do the above, and market your book as well. You do this by talking about your book at every open mic, carry a copy with you, read from it, raffle a copy off to generate interest, arrange readings at a bookstore, or library, anything that gets your book looked at. Then you need to look for sales avenues such as advertising on ezines, newsletters, magazines, anything you can think of that will provide a great value for money. Book ads in Poetry Canada start at just $27.50, and it gets exposure for 4 months. That's value for money! Lastly, you can enter contests, submit your manuscript to publishers, send articles and/or your poetry to magazines, really be proactive in getting your work out there. You will probably have realized by this point, writing is a breeze, getting it paid for, and in the hands of the public, is the hard part. And of course by now, you should have a website that talks about who you are, what you do, your accomplishments - even if they are few and far between, or don't even exist yet, start a section like they are coming soon. Anticipate your success before it happens. If you have no idea how to start a website, you can refer to an earlier lesson, and start a blog - they are free and easy. For an extra tip on how to get your work out there, check out the Poetry Canada published article "The Top 10 things to do with your Poetry". Written by: Tracy Lynn Repchuk Go here to post your lesson results |
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