How to Publish and Sell Poetry

You’ve written some poetry. Maybe you’ve written pages and pages of poetry that is stuffed away in a drawer in your favourite writing desk or stored in a folder on your computer, and you’re wondering what to do with it all. How do you publish poetry? How do you sell it?

You may be thinking there’s only one way to get your poetry published, and that’s by submitting a few sample poems to a literary publisher in the hopes your work will be accepted by them. Well, that’s definitely one way to do it—the long-drawn-out way, hardly the only way. In fact, there’s a much better way.

There is a Market for Your Poetry

There is a larger market for your poems than simply people who read poetry books for the sake of poetry. Just think about all the instances where poetry can be useful: in greeting cards; on motivational artwork for homes or offices; for obituaries; for special event speeches or presentations; et cetera.

Poetry appeals to each reader’s emotions in a different way than fiction and non-fiction does. But how to publish and sell poetry is much the same, believe it or not. If fiction and non-fiction writers can sell thousands of books using the techniques described in this book, then I believe poets can achieve the same. That’s why I’ve written another how-to book just for you. It isn’t a poetry book; it is a business guide to show you how to publish and sell poetry effectively.

“Code is Poetry”

Have you ever seen the “Code is Poetry” tagline on a WordPress blog before? I love Jay Hoffman’s take on how HTML coding resembles poetry in the article hyperlinked just above this line:

The slogan has always been very effective at communicating the approach that WordPress takes, a blend of elegant simplicity and infinite expansion. All that lies behind your WordPress install is bits of code strung together like a symphony. Still, the phrase prompts a deeper look.

I am still no expert, but I have learned the basic principles of code and the process has really opened up for me. I have found more and more that code really does mirror poetry. (Hoffman, 2012)

Well, poets … in this book, you’re going to learn more about WordPress and blogging in general. You’ll see it’s one of the top tools you can use to publish and sell your poetry all over the world.

How to Publish and Sell Poetry Online

Blogging is just the beginning. The best way to sell books of any kind—whether poetry, fiction, or non-fiction books—is to utilize the power of search engine optimization (SEO). If that term is unfamiliar to you, please don’t let it scare you off. I’ll explain what it is to you in layman’s terms as I outline the simple formula you can follow to achieve success online. You may be surprised by just how achievable it is to publish and sell poetry nowadays.