Unique Ways to Make Money Writing Poetry

Poetry, as much as it is loved and revered, is not always the best paying form of writing. When compared to other forms of written work, such as books and freelance article writing, you can find it very difficult to find a market for your work.

When it comes to selling your written work, it all basically revolves around one very important thing: who is your audience, and what are they looking for?

Chapbooks CAN sell and do well – this is becoming truer than ever as people’s lives are busier and more hectic than ever. A book of poetry and verse can be a nice change of pace that allows people to enjoy reading in small bits between their busy schedules.

However, getting a book of poems published is notoriously difficult. Most major publishing houses do not actively solicit poetry submissions. This can mean in order to publish your poems as a book you need to be diligent in researching where to submit your work or consider working with a literary agent to pitch your work on your behalf. Here are unique ways to make money writing poetry.

MAGAZINES AND ANTHOLOGIES

Literary magazines are good for building up your portfolio, and most reputable ones will pay up to $50 per submission or more. If you have a large enough list and are a really skilled poet, this can easily net you around $500 per year or more.

That being said, it’s not enough to make a living alone. Use this option as something to supplement your current income.

This option is the closest to how other kinds of writers make a lot of their money. There are plenty of poetry magazines, literary journals, paying websites, and anthologies welcoming poetry. You’ll have to submit regularly but expect to sell only on occasion. On a per-word basis, poetry pays pretty well. But the market is small, and pretty saturated.

SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS

I will not sugar-coat this. Most people who ask if you can make a living through writing are asking about if you can make money getting published as a poet. My knee-jerk response to this is that it is possible, just exceptionally improbable.

Most poets, even the successful ones, will not make much money from book sales and royalties. Publishers, too, are very unlikely to accept poetry books into their arsenal compared to other options.

This is because poetry anthologies aren’t really as popular or as lucrative as other genres like cookbooks, fiction, or even college textbooks. If you have a poetry following online, this may be a bit different. Even so, most authors will only make about $1000 a year or so from book royalties.

When it comes to selling your written work, it all basically revolves around one very important thing: who is your audience, and what are they looking for?

Shorter form books, such as collections of poems, CAN sell and do well—this is becoming truer than ever as people’s lives are busier and more hectic than ever.

A book of poetry and verse can be a nice change of pace that allows people to enjoy reading in small bits between their busy schedules.

However, getting a book of poems published is notoriously difficult. Most major publishing houses do not actively solicit poetry submissions.

This can mean in order to publish your poems as a book you need to be diligent in researching where to submit your work or consider working with a literary agent to pitch your work on your behalf.

Can you make a living through poetry chapbook sales? Yes! This is where self-publishing comes in. Keep in mind that your self-publishing success as a poet will be directly tied to two things:

• Your appeal and ability to engage audiences.
• Your marketing efforts.

Let’s talk a little about each and how you can increase your chances of sales should you decide to take this route. Book sales can bring in a surprising amount of money, but you’ll have to work for it. Traditional publishing deals for poetry books are pretty rare, but you can always write and self-publish/e-publish several collections of your poetry. By “several,” I mean “at least ten,” so you can benefit from some of the ways Amazon recommends and rates books. This takes effort and some out-of-pocket cost for layout and editing, but can reliably trickle in some payments.

This is an excerpt from my book, Poetprenuer.