A few words for first-time poetry book authors

I have an ambitious, smart, hard-working writer friend who just launched her first poetry book. She is very anxious that it does well, and I remember feeling like that too, when my first book came out. A types especially have this problem. The thing is, that anxiety doesn’t always serve you well in the nerve-wracking ride of first book launches.

So, here are a few words of advice – and please, if you have observations or tips that might make someone’s first-book journey a little easier,  leave them in the comments!

—Any reading where you sell books is a good reading. In the course of publishing three books of poetry, I’ve literally done hundreds of readings. Some great, some not as great. Over the years, I’ve learned to be thankful if 1. no one falls asleep or walks out 2. more than six people show up and 3. I sell any books at all. Readings are hard and take a lot of emotional and physical energy, but not every reading pays off. You kind of learn as you go there are good days for reading and bad ones and sometimes you don’t have control over it (one example of a bad one: the day Obama visits your town and all traffic to your reading locale is blocked. That was my second book’s launch. Hooray!) Bars are typically louder than say, a bookstore, and more likely to have rowdy locals not as interested in poetry (but I once did a reading at a wine bar where a completely sauced woman bought everyone’s books and gave us hugs! So, you never know!) Bookstores if they haven’t done promo are more likely to be quiet, but also more likely to be…empty.

—Just like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy told you – Don’t panic. Most books of poetry, I’ve said on the blog before, don’t even sell 1,000 copies. I’ve learned that 98 percent of books don’t sell 1,000 copies, overall. So don’t feel bad if you’re not selling out the hundred books you bought from your publisher right away. It takes time for poetry books to gather steam, along with word of mouth, good reviews, good readings, etc. “Buzz” matters, but for poetry books, it’s more of a slow-but-steady buzz that helps you in the long run. And no one gets rich from their poetry book royalties, not even Billy Collins. (Even he keeps doing readings for golf course time and free wine, I have it on good authority!)

—There are a lot of books out there, and when you’re a new author, making yours stand out is tough. This isn’t meant to discourage people, but there are tons of books being published every year – poets, check out Open Books in Seattle to get a sense of how many poetry books are out there – and it’s hard to make noise when everyone is shouting, so to speak, and some of those people are winning Pulitzer Prizes. The best advice I have for that is to find your target audience and try to communicate with those guys. If you’re got a book about airline pilots, go to airline pilot web sites and events, etc. The problem is, when you’re a new author, no one knows about you yet – it’s sort of the nature of the beast. Yes, I advise people to get a good basic web site, start a blog, get on Facebook and twitter and Tumblr and as many of those things as you personally can stand, but you are still building a presence, an audience, so remember to have patience. The readers will come, eventually. Building an audience is long game, not a short one.

—Do What You’re Best At. Some people are terrific at giving readings and workshops, interacting and glad-handing, but not everyone is. Some people are good at pithy remarks on twitter; I’m not really one of them, but I’m still on twitter. Find the thing you’re best at, and shine there. If this means going and speaking to Chamber of Commerce groups or senior centers or high schools, if this means writing kick-ass articles on the topic your book happens to be about and getting the published, if this means posting YouTube videos about your book…I mean, find and exploit your own talents. Sometimes this means you have to find your talents, but I bet you already know where you’re really blessed.

—Don’t take it personally. Even your friends and family are going to forget about your book, even if you sent them an e-mail and a postcard about it. You and your book aren’t the center of other people’s universes. People will forget about your readings, they’ll write bad reviews of your book on Amazon (yup, my first book, which is my most popular, also has my only one-star Amazon review – and whattya gonna do?) I remember a friend who was angry when her book got four stars instead of five on Goodreads. I mean, that’s going to happen, especially as your book gets picked up by non-friends and family. You kind of have to let it go. You can’t let it personally disappoint you or you’re going to get bitter and you need that energy to write your next book!

—You’re going to write again. So, get on with it. This book will probably not be your one and only, right? So even in the middle of your book tours and promotional work, remember to keep writing and keep sending out your work. Plus, that’ll give you more energy to deal with bad reviews and readings where three people attend, because you’ll be like, “Sure, this is hard, but wait til my next book!” It’s all about the work, your attitude, and your energy. Always be thinking about the next great thing you’re going to write.