The Magic Formula for Poetry Book Sales

The Magic Formula for Poetry Book Sales

So, after the somewhat discouraging information in the last blog post, let’s talk about something slightly more positive – the magic formula for poetry book sales!

And a quick apology – it turns out the “contact” and book purchase forms on my web site have not been working for about four months and because of that, I’ve missed some requests, orders and feedback. For now, there are Paypal links to buy signed copies of my books to replace the forms, and if you need to get in touch with me about anything, just contact me at jeannine dot gailey at live dot com. I hope to have the forms back and working sometime soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!

And, you ask, is there, in fact, a magic formula to selling poetry books? Does it have to do with cults of personality, quality of the book, and how much does the publisher have to do with it? What the hell is a platform? Well, I’ll posit that for a book to succeed, sales-wise, you have to have at least two of the following:

–A publisher with a PR presence and good distribution. I love indie, one-or-two person publisher teams, I do. They have pluck, they care about the work, and they’re lovely to work with, in my experience. But great distribution helps sell books, because if a bookstore can’t order your book for whatever reason, it can’t sell your book, unless it takes consignment, and who has the time going around the country to bookstores consigning your own copies of your books? That’s right, no one. If your publisher can’t get your books on Amazon, whatever you think about Amazon, that’s going to mean lost sales. If your publisher doesn’t have an easy way to purchase books from their web site, that’s going to mean lost sales. Anyway, even in these days of dwindling bookstores, distribution matters. So, look for your publisher’s distribution channels: Ingram, SPD, and Consortium, in that order. Also, does your publisher have a social media presence? Someone dedicated to PR work? After you get an offer on your book, ask about how they plan to help promote it. This only makes sense, as it benefits both parties to sell the most possible copies.

–There are three poets I know personally that have sold over 10,000 books. All three of them, though they are fairly diverse individuals, have a couple of things in common. They each radiate good energy, a kind of open charisma that leaves people, if not slightly in love with them, then at least like they’ve had a nice warm hug. They’re not necessarily better looking than the rest of us, they just have a sense of genuinely caring about you, the other person. If you’ve never met anyone like that, I’m sorry. I don’t think I personally have this kind of charisma, but I think it’s a big plus for book sales.

–Yes, a platform helps. One of my poet friends sold a lot of books at, of all things, medical conferences, where he gave talks about writing in the context of his medical practice. That’s not the kind of thing everyone thinks they have access to, but if you think about it, we all kind of have a space where we’re an expert, a part of a larger community. I have a couple of poetry friends who have had good luck selling their books, for instance, at places like WonderCon. Platforms can come in a lot of shapes and sizes – your job, your hobbies, and even your alumni associations can all be resources for building your audience.

–You were probably going to guess this one LUCK and BUZZ. Luck is: Someone hears your poem on the radio, which you happened to be on because you were in the right place at the right time, and writes your book up in a major newspaper. Someone sees you read and decides to give you two-book contact at Norton or FSG. Your book wins a major award it was a long-shot for. Somehow, you get the all-important BUZZ going, and people are reviewing your book, teaching your book, and buying your book. Hooray! You’ve won Candyland! I mean, Poetryland! Now go do something nice for other writers to balance your karma.

Some of these things are not in our control, and some are. How hard you work to put yourself in the places where you might catch “luck” and “buzz” is up to you, because not every effort is going to result in a book contract, prize, or sales. Working with small indie publishers, as I have, means your book may not have the reach that you hoped for, but working with big publishers can be tough as well (or so I’ve heard) and of course they’re a teensy bit harder to attract the attention of. (They don’t need poetry to boost their company’s sales, let’s just say that.) You can’t really change your whole personality in order to sell a book. But I wanted to give some examples so you didn’t think literally no one sells poetry books – I mean, it does happen from time to time, under the right circumstances, given the right phase of the moon, etc.

Next time I’ll talk a little about ambitions for our poetry, and what they mean for our sales. There are all different types of ambitions, and they are all valid and valuable…and success doesn’t just mean book sales. It can mean a lot of things.