Wednesday, September 06, 2023
Marketing Poetry
This is a very cynical post about marketing poetry. If you can't take my all-encompassing negativity, get out now while the getting's good.
Actually I'm in a pretty good position - my small book (below post) is in the top ten again in Japanese Poetry & Haiku (kindle rating) although, to be honest, paperback sales are grim. Nobody buys poetry. Very few people actually read it. I'm not even sure those are the same people.
But I'll tell you the secret of what limited success I've had. It's kind of like virtually anything nobody would ever want to see. You make friends with them, then, you ask them to read it. If they like you, and they like other stuff you've done or written, they'll agree. It's not because they naturally like poetry or would want to grab poetry off the shelf. The number of people who actually grab poetry off the shelf and buy it is apparently very small. But the number of friends you have that are willing to take your suggestion is large in comparison. That's why I have good ratings.
Really, all is fair in the poetry marketplace. It doesn't matter why they picked up your book and read it. Your overall popularity is based on the number of people who actually read your book, not the degree they liked it, or whether they picked it and bought it off a poetry shelf. If they read it because you asked them to, that counts. Or if they read it because they decided to market their book by reading yours, that counts too. They read it.
Now the problem is here: If the majority of your readers don't like poetry, much less haiku, then you don't really have an audience. And presumably the people out there who do like poetry and haiku, are either skipping over your book, or have never seen it. Now that's a problem because you're really missing a large pool of potential readers. But I'd argue that's really a pretty small pool. I'm missing them, yes, but there aren't that many to begin with.
Do you think the nation has just turned away from poetry? THat we no longer value the artful use of words? I'd guess, yes. It's the way it is, but that's the way it is.
Actually I'm in a pretty good position - my small book (below post) is in the top ten again in Japanese Poetry & Haiku (kindle rating) although, to be honest, paperback sales are grim. Nobody buys poetry. Very few people actually read it. I'm not even sure those are the same people.
But I'll tell you the secret of what limited success I've had. It's kind of like virtually anything nobody would ever want to see. You make friends with them, then, you ask them to read it. If they like you, and they like other stuff you've done or written, they'll agree. It's not because they naturally like poetry or would want to grab poetry off the shelf. The number of people who actually grab poetry off the shelf and buy it is apparently very small. But the number of friends you have that are willing to take your suggestion is large in comparison. That's why I have good ratings.
Really, all is fair in the poetry marketplace. It doesn't matter why they picked up your book and read it. Your overall popularity is based on the number of people who actually read your book, not the degree they liked it, or whether they picked it and bought it off a poetry shelf. If they read it because you asked them to, that counts. Or if they read it because they decided to market their book by reading yours, that counts too. They read it.
Now the problem is here: If the majority of your readers don't like poetry, much less haiku, then you don't really have an audience. And presumably the people out there who do like poetry and haiku, are either skipping over your book, or have never seen it. Now that's a problem because you're really missing a large pool of potential readers. But I'd argue that's really a pretty small pool. I'm missing them, yes, but there aren't that many to begin with.
Do you think the nation has just turned away from poetry? THat we no longer value the artful use of words? I'd guess, yes. It's the way it is, but that's the way it is.
