Young Writers Society

So, one of my friends has drafted a collection of poems that he's written over the past few years (about a couple hundred) and is considering getting it published.

Profit may not be one of his primary motives here but, it is understood that to the publishers it will be, since they can't just operate on loss.

The question is, since poetry doesn't sell as much as novels and all, what do publishers, in general, look for in a poetry collection that makes them consider it for publishing? Also, are there any other not-so-expensive ways to get a poetry collection published without having to compromise on the content?

Any helpful ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

I'm actually not too knowledgeable on getting poetry published by a publisher, but there are a few different ways you could go about getting them published.

Firstly, your friend could submit individual poems to poetry/literature magazines (Readers Digest-like things) that accept submissions. They couldn't submit the full book, but they could get their favourite pieces out one at a time, and gradually. Another way to go about it would be to submit ones that are good, but not their favourite. This way, when you do find a publisher, you'll be able to say that they're already a published poet (this will generally increase interest).

Newspapers will also occasionally take poetry submissions, as will online literature magazines (which are a thing!)

Another option would be to self-publish the entire collection as one volume. To make any profit or get any readers, your friend would have to be proactive about advertising. I personally wouldn't go with this method if I wanted to publish poetry, but if your friend does, make sure that they do a lot of research on advertising self-published works and on self-publishing techniques (there are a lot of online places for it).

Note: There are extremely cheap and extremely pricey ways of self-publishing, so keep an eye out for that!

^ What Isha said.

There is a wonderful thing these days about novels in that because of media, global communication, advertising, and all the other things that we have at our finger tips, modern novelists don't have to wait until they're dead before they get fame.

Well, some do have to wait a while until they're recognised, but modern culture allows fame to spread much faster and for authors to reap the rewards sooner. Think of how long it would have taken Rowling to make her billions if she were publishing a chapter a month via a local magazine press like Dickens had done.

Unfortunately poetry hasn't really evolved much. The internet makes way for people to address a much broader audience, and consumerism leaves a fair few gaps for cheesy birthday-card poets, but to make it big you've got to be famous for something else first (as with Tim Burtons 'Oyster Boy',) or slug it out.

In the latter case Isha has pretty much covered it. It's easier to get published if you're already published, go with the magazines and newspapers, and all the what-not that goes with it. Post stuff online, network, that kind of stuff.

Entering competitions would also be ideal. Winning the bigger ones will not only get an award or two to boast, but will also attract attention from publishers and maybe open the way for more opportunities like live-readings, invitations to events, those kinds of things.

Apart from that, general principles of art apply. Branching in different genres will attract broader audiences and point you in the direction of a space in the market where you can fit. Fan art and fan fiction will gain quick bursts of popularity, and when it comes to self promotion on the internet the number of followers and likes really does matter. Selling out and going with the trend may damage your conscience but it will help in the long run, and provide at least a little funding.

If he just wants a book for himself, or for a few people, just so he can have a proffesionally printed and bound book, there are websites that do that. I'm doing a 20% project in my AP Lang class, and my project is to print a book of my poetry. I don't think I will be trying to get it published immediatley, it's more about the pride in saying I did it. I'm using Blurb.com if he wants to look into that. Even then, if he has a printed book, he can send copies to publishers in an attempt to get published.

As everyone's said, submitting individual poems to get published is a great way of earning credentials, and with those credentials, you can approach small presses to publish your book. I'll disagree with everyone, it's not that poetry isn't thriving or that there isn't much interest in it. It's just that poetry is a different medium from prose. Think about it this way: what's the largest market in prose? It's Fiction,more specifically GENRE fiction (your sci-fi, your fantasy, your romance) and that's what sells in that medium. There's also something called literary fiction, which, if you were to try to get published under *that* genre, you would be undergoing the same process as one would for poetry and as everyone's ^ already mentioned.

Modern poetry is a literary genre, rather than popular mainstream, so getting published in such involves a great deal of time, some know-how, some investment and some skill. If I were your friend, I would start by e-mailing local, or even his favorite poets. He can ask them advice on how to break into the field, and by doing so, get much more in-depth information through a knowledgeable source, but also it's the first step to networking, which is a valuable asset in and of itself.

If your friend wants to know all the info on how to go about publishing individual poems, I recommend getting the poet's market as that literally has all the information that they'll need to know. They're pretty cheap, you can even get it via kindle and it's cheaper. OR some public libraries or universities may have some copies, so it's good to ask around.

Besides self-publishing, a third option is to enter contests as Tenn brilliantly mentions. There are a lot of annual contests where one can submit a chapbook (somewhere between 30-60 pages of poetry) and receive a payout as well as publication. Most contests do require entry fees, though! You can do your own search online to seek out these contests -- or again, the year's Poet's Market will have contests listed there as well.

The fourth option (again -- it's more for already established/published writers) is to seek writing grants to fund your project (such as a collection of poetry).