Hi!! I'm so glad I found your account, just wondering if you have any suggestions for how I can start to get my poetry out there even just the littlest bit?
Thank you very much for the kind words.
I started out with this blog. Before I made this account, I hadn’t published my poetry anywhere else. I’d only shown it to some friends. I had shown my work to someone who believed in my creative ability enough to encourage me to get my stuff out there, so I made this blog in an effort to do so. I believe that using the tagging system helped immensely, and if you’re not sure what tags to use when you post your poetry, you can see the ones that I use by going to my blog and clicking on the notes. Use as many as you possibly can, because it will give your work more exposure. I also recommend browsing the poetry tags on tumblr for yourself and building a rapport with other poets, and finding and doing writing challenges or contests that may expose your work to a new audience.
After I gained a bit of a following on this blog, I created my own website which can be found on google with a search of my name. I find that people tend to take you a bit more seriously if you’ve got your own website. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s been my experience. It creates a feeling of professionalism.
Behind the scenes, I’d also done a lot of work compiling my poems into a collection, formatting and editing and creating my book in google docs. Nobody told me this, but a lot of mathematics go into writing a book. If you need help with any of this, don’t hesitate to ask a friend. Once my book was finally finished, I published it through Amazon. Amazon is a somewhat-free publishing option (they do take a fee from any sales or marketing campaigns) and it’s very easy for beginners. I did elect to run a marketing campaign on Amazon as well, which helped advertise my book, but most of my marketing has been through word-of-mouth.
It’s been my experience that word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing tool. Tell your friends to check out your work, send them copies of your book so they can read it themselves and recommend it to others, and do your best to support your fellow artists.
I would also recommend seeking out and joining a local writing or poetry group or club, looking into literary agencies, and reading about and applying for artist residencies. Do what you can to receive the support and creative inspiration that you need. It can be difficult to do it all on your own.
Thank you for the question! I hope this helps.
