What’s Expected of a Poet? About Poetry Book Promotion, what kind of sales numbers to expect, and how much promo is enough?
- At August 28, 2014
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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On Facebook today, Rattle editor and poet Tim Green posted the following:
“In five years, Red Hen Press has sold 105 copies of my book. This doesn’t include my own copies that I’ve sold at readings, around 200, but still—105 copies, despite the fact that it’s a fairly good book, and that I have a fairly large “platform” within the poetry community. More people will read this Facebook post in the next 20 minutes than will have read that book. This is why I don’t get all that jazzed about publishing anymore.
To put it another way: When I think about having published a book, my primary emotion is guilt.”
I’m writing this post as I think there is a big bunch of poets out there who feel exactly like Tim. What, exactly, are reasonable sales expectations for a poetry book? What kind of promotion can your publisher reasonably expect you to do, and what is up to the publisher? What kinds of things are out of the author’s hands totally? I’m going to go into what we can and can’t do, and get really honest about my own experiences.
I hope I am not shocking and crushing any new poet’s dreams here, but Tim’s number, around 300 total sales over five years, is fairly normal for poetry book sales. It’s rare for a poetry book to break 1,000 copies, rarer still to get to 10,000, and only people who win the gigantic prizes and former Poet Laureates make it higher than that. Your Mary Olivers, your Billy Collins, and this month’s Poets & Writers poster lady poet, Louise Gluck, they sell poetry books in numbers that make a profit for non-POD printing runs. The rest of us? Well, it’s more normal to struggle than not to struggle.
As I’m gearing up to promote my 4th (!!) book, I’m wondering about what I’ve learned, how I can apply that, and what is the smartest, least expensive in terms of time, energy, and money path for promoting poetry? (I’ve also got an essay on this very topic in the new 2015 Poet’s Market, if I can shill a bit within an article about shilling…) I’m thinking every book has had different successes. My bestselling book, in case you’re curious, is still my first one – not sure why, if it’s more accessible, closer to the zeitgeist, whatever. All three of my publishers have been small, independent presses without a PR department or much funding for things like ads, tours, etc. I think that’s probably the norm for most poets.
So think in advance about what you’re willing to do, what you can afford to do (traveling for readings can get expensive in a hurry, even if you’re lucky enough to snag a few paid readings), and how much energy you have and for how long you plan to promote your book. I noticed that last year, for instance, was the first year for Unexplained Fevers, and the seventh year for Becoming the Villainess, and Becoming the Villainess still outsold Unexplained Fevers, even though I was actively promoting the new book. There’s something “momentum”-y about poetry book sales, once it starts taking off it starts to have its own life. That’s what you want, FYI, that’s what we get when we’re lucky.
If you teach, if you’re an editor, you may have a better “platform” from which to sell books. But it’s not an automatic thing, you still have to send out your e-mail announcements to your e-mail lists, send out your postcards, go sell books at AWP, set up your readings where you’re pretty sure you have an audience like your hometown, etc. You don’t control the critical reception for your book, either, although you can help send out review copies yourself to interested reviewers, or make sure you provide your publisher a list of likely review places. You may not be able to afford – especially in this economy – a cross-country reading tour. The last two books, I sure couldn’t! But the good news is, maybe now, those things aren’t necessary. Maybe social media and online ads are replacing some of the old-fashioned promotion techniques. I don’t know!
And the bad thing is, the thing that can create the kind of angst Tim talked about, is that no one ever really tells you, “This is enough. You’ve done enough.” Even poets with successful books (or that I consider pretty darn successful) feel that pressure. When do you give yourself a break? In my case, with my second book for instance, She Returns to the Floating World, I was very ill for the main time I should have been promoting the book, like, in the hospital a lot sick, and my publisher, a very sweet and smart woman, also got sick, and passed away very soon after the book came out. It wasn’t my top priority, and it couldn’t be hers, either, quite rightly. So even though I loved that book, and I loved my publisher, I just wasn’t able to do what was necessary to make the book really hit. I feel like I’m still working to get the word out about Unexplained Fevers. I don’t feel like I’ve done enough for that book yet.
I’d love to hear about your experiences and your advice on poetry book sales, promotion, and general feelings of guilt about not doing enough. I was reminded that once, publishers had PR people, they funded tours, they bought ads in big magazines. Now, only the few and far between can afford to do that, and they only do it for a few of their books. So a lot more comes back on us, the writers.
Lesley Wheeler
This is the flip side of what I posted a few days ago: working like hell to get the book out is Part 2, and I increasingly think about Part 1 as writing a book that in its very similes and stanzas shows awareness of its own potential audiences. I’m not saying I do Part 1 successfully!–just that all the good publicity in the world doesn’t matter if the book itself doesn’t rise to meet the occasion. As for Part 2, if I knew the answer, I’d be famous. Certainly you have to be ready to capitalize on lightning strikes, but life does get in the way, as in your illness. My husband had that happen with his last novel–the publisher collapsed, it got put out right before our 6 mo in NZ rather than right after, and the publicity plan dissolved. It’s like a miracle when the word DOES get out, really.
Timothy Green
I just realized that without the context of my comments below that post, this might sound like I’m complaining about the press or lamenting the low sales numbers. To clarify, what I meant was this:
I got sick of promoting the book after a few months, and feel very guilty that I didn’t do more for the sake of the press. I never cared about selling my own poems, and should have realized that without dragging a press into it. The joy is in writing and making a book, and if I do it again, I’m going to save the press the trouble, and just make it print on demand, and sell five copies and be happy.
I didn’t realize how much you have to do, as an author, and how little I could stomach it.
Jeannine Gailey
Lesley, you’re right! When the stars align, things work out.
Jeannine Gailey
And of course we have to write the best book we possibly can. I’ve read and reviewed some fantastic poetry books, however, that had bad sales numbers for whatever reason, and seen great numbers on poetry books I didn’t think were that great.
Jeannine Gailey
Dear Tim, No, I didn’t read your comments that way, and certainly I also do not wish to impugn any of my lovely publishers. (Including, thanks Two Sylvias Press, the folks that just re-launched a second edition of my second book.) It’s tough out there for indie publishers, it’s tough for poetry publishers in particular.
I think, Tim, that a lot of people don’t think ahead of time of what’s required of a writer without major $$ behind their marketing campaign – and to be clear, that’s only a handful of authors, even in the big publishing leagues – and I’m thinking seriously this time about what I can do versus what I can’t, or rather, what is worth investing in, time and money-wise.
Actually, I’d love to hear from publishers about this, too! I wish there was more conversation about this out there in the world. It would help prepare more poets for what’s ahead!
Lesley Wheeler
Yeah! Same here. It just feels better focusing on what I can control–the art of it–versus what I have limited control over, the luck or buzz, as you put it.
Joshua Michael Stewart
When my chapbook “Sink Your Teeth into the Light” was being published I needed a certain amount of pre-order copies sold before it would go to print. Most of my friends are not writers, most of my family don’t even read, so I was so worried about making the quota.
I decided to go trough my facebook friend list, which is over 1,000 and I sent a message one by one, no group emails (Jeannine, did you get my message) to everyone on my friends list.
Now, I say out of 1,000 about 6 wrote me back and told me I was a jerk for even asking them to buy my book, and that they were un-friending me. A couple even told me they’d be more willing to buy my book if I just posted it on my status update.
Well, here is the truth: Before I sent emails out directly to everyone I did post it on my status update A LOT! At least twice a day for years (also for my first chapbook) and I have never had anyone buy any of my chapbooks doing that. I’ve sold a handful (and I mean a handful) at readings, but it was through those direct facebook emails where I’ve sold the most copies of my chapbook.
The lesson here is everyone hates getting a cold call at suppertime from someone trying to sell you something, but there is a reason why companies still do it: it works.
Jeannine Gailey
You know, Joshua, I’m thinking Facebook may be a poor place to promote a book – it might be a good place to make an announcement, and hear from your friends, but not necessarily a good place to make book sales. I’ve had better luck with old-fashioned e-mails and postcards, I think.
Jessie Carty
I think about this a lot, especially this last year when I went down to one car and, therefore, went to very few readings. I actually don’t think the sales of my last book were particularly affected by that because I don’t tend to sell a lot of books at readings, which has always bugged me.
I probably should keep better numbers than I do, but I think the amounts you mentioned are pretty normal. I don’t think any of my chapbooks (outside of “Fat Girl” which seems to have found its own little momentum) has sold more than about 100 copies. I don’t know that my full length collections have done much more although I think my first may have gotten over the 300 mark? I should ask my publisher. I think it helped when a teacher or two decided to use it in their classes. That doesn’t happen a lot, but that can definitely guarantee some sales.
So, why do we keep doing it? It is a puzzle isn’t it? I have about 40 odd poems right now, about 20% published, that I think might be a collection in a year or two (my 4th full length as well!), but I feel some of that guilt Tim mentions when I just don’t feel like putting the book together sometime although I also want the poems out there.
We poets are mental, aren’t we 🙂