A Creative Way to Present Poetry

There's no question that poetry is one of the hardest types of writing to sell and few publishers are willing to take it on. But there are still poets among us; writers who have things on their hearts they need to get out, that they simply want to share. So what to do?

Get creative.

All authors need to do this to sell and promote effectively, but poets even more so probably because their audience is harder to pinpoint. Another challenge in marketing is that poetry is often misunderstood and tough for many readers to appreciate.

Two creative ideas crossed my desk in the last couple of weeks.

The first comes from a publisher and involves an intriguing idea of selling poetry via audio. There's a new website coming too. Read about it at Book Business Magazine


You may have read about the second one because the authors have promoted it for a couple of different holidays this year. Here's the current info:

Award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball have developed a new concept for inexpensive holiday gifts--an idea for poetic greetings apart from greeting cards.

They suggest a real chapbook of poetry and have released the first two in a series in time for the holidays. So far the series includes Cherished Pulse (for anyone you love) with artwork from California artist Vicki Thomas and She Wore Emerald Then (for mothers on your gift list) with photographs by May Lattanzio. New booklets are coming for Father's Day and for Christmas 2010.

The small books, a tradition in the poetry world since Elizabethan times, are priced to compete with greeting cards. The poets' idea is that, in general, cards from the rack seldom say what we'd like and that a small book of poetry would be more thoughtful.

Both Cherished Pulse and She Wore Emerald Then may be ordered from Amazon

Do you write poetry? How have you promoted it?

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett