Gathering readers for your poetry can be a difficult task. Private publications are a great way to control the publishing process and to build a readership for yourself. If you want to self-publish your poem, follow these steps.
Step
Method 1 of 4: Prepare Your Poetry
Step 1. Complete the poems that you have selected or collect a package that you have chosen
Before you try to start self-publishing your book, have a finished and polished collection of poetry. If you start worrying about publication details before you've finished writing your book, you won't be able to fully concentrate on either task. Here's how to finish your poetry book:
- Write and revise each poem several times.
- Find the best way to organize poetry in a book. The setting works best if it creates a mood or develops a theme. You don't have to organize your poems by date they were written.
- Ask for feedback from several trusted sources. Make sure that you are not the only person who feels that your job is really done.
- Correct your work. Double check that punctuation, line breaks, and grammar are complete.
Step 2. Consider seeking professional help
If you know you want to publish your book, but you're worried about working on other details, ask an expert for help before taking it to a vendor. Here are some people who might be able to help you finalize the details of the book:
- Consider hiring an editor. A reputable editor can give you invaluable feedback on the quality of your writing.
- Consider hiring an illustrator or designer for your book cover. If you're nervous about making your own book cover, hiring a professional to do it can help make your book look more appealing.
Step 3. Look at the different private publishing methods
Once your book and cover have been completed, look into the different private publishing methods to choose which one seems to work for you. The best method can be determined by how much you are willing to spend, how many readers you want, and how easy the publishing process will be. Here are three of the most popular private publishing methods:
- Digital books (e-books). Self-publishing your book in digital format is cheap, easy and will create a digital copy of your book online for readers to download on different reading devices.
- Print-on-demand (POD) service. Using a POD service or printing on demand is a way to create visually appealing physical copies of your books and sell them on the online marketplace.
- Publish it through a website or blog. Creating a website or blog to publish your poetry is a quick and easy way to reach a large audience without dealing with vendors.
Step 4. Keep your expectations realistic
Private publications are a great way to take the pressure off the publishing process and to make it easier for your work to be accessible to a wider audience. However, this is not a reliable way to get rich quick, especially not in the poetry business sector. Even if you have heard success stories from private publications, this is very rare.
Be prepared to passionately share your work with more people, but don't be disappointed if you don't have as many readers as you'd like
Method 2 of 4: Publish Your Poetry as an E-book
Step 1. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of e-books
There are many advantages to publishing your book as an e-book, but there are also disadvantages. Before you decide to choose this publication method, be aware of its advantages and disadvantages. Some of them:
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Excess:
- Expenses. Publishing an e-book won't cost as much as you write it.
- Potential to earn serious income. If your book becomes a bestseller, you have the potential to make a lot of money. Some direct publishing vendors allow writers to take 60 or even 70 percent of the revenue, so that can add up to a lot of money. However, this is very “rare”, even though you may have read about how much income e-books make.
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Deficiency:
- No ads. You have to do your own marketing. If you have Twitter, Google+ and Facebook with lots of followers, this can be a pretty easy start.
- Competitive price. Some ebooks sell for less than a dollar, so you'll have to sell lots of copies to make an income.
- No physical copies. You will not have the satisfaction of holding a published book in your hands, or having several copies to show people. That said, nothing can stop you from printing books for prosperity.
Step 2. Work out the details
Before you reach out to a vendor, work through some of the details of your book. Here are some things you should know before moving on to the next publishing process:
- Create a cover. You can make your own poetry book cover, or you can hire someone to do it for you or enlist the help of a designer friend.
- Set the price. A good price for a single copy of your book is around $2.99-$9.99. If your book is cheaper, more people will be encouraged to buy it, but if your book is more expensive, you may have fewer buyers but will earn more.
- Decide whether to enable Digital Rights Management (DRM) or not. When you upload your book to a different online seller, you will determine whether to enable DRM or not. Enabling DRM makes piracy less likely, but it also makes it harder for people to read it on different reading devices.
- Write an explanation of your book. Write a few sentences that describe what your book is about, and choose search terms and categories that will help people find your book. If you have trouble doing it yourself, contact a draftsman.
Step 3. Format your book
Format your book to ensure that it will meet the requirements of Kindle, iPad, Nook and other reading devices. You can do it yourself or ask a professional ebook formatter for help.
- Choose whether your book will be available in PDF format, which is the most widely used method, or if you prefer HTML or Windows executable file (EXE) formats.
- Once you've determined the format, convert your Word document into the correct eBook type. Adobe is used to create PDFs, programs like Dreamweaver can help you format your own HTML code, and eBook compilers will convert your EXE files.
Step 4. Choose your online store
Do some research to decide which distributor will suit your needs. Consider how each vendor formats its books, and what revenue rates each vendor provides.
Check several e-books from different vendors to get a feel for which vendor is better and which is right for you
Step 5. Upload your book
Create an account with an online merchant, and upload all the information you've worked with, including the book itself, cover, description, and any other relevant info you need to complete the publishing process.
Each publisher may request slightly different information but the basic process remains the same
Step 6. Publish your book
Once you have uploaded your book and all the necessary information, publish your book. You have control over your online accounts and can publish books, and manage their distribution.
Don't forget to advertise. Online sellers won't advertise it for you, so you should make sure to advertise your book if you want to have a broad readership. You can do this by creating a website, blog or Facebook fan page
Method 3 of 4: Publish Your Book via Print Request Service
Step 1. Understand print on demand (POD) services
This is a service that allows you to send in a digital copy of your book and will print the book. Through this service, you can place your book on the online marketplace of POD services and purchase as many copies as you like. Some vendors even distribute your book to other merchants, which gives your book a chance to reach readers. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of using POD services:
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Excess:
- Has the physical form of a book. Having a book you can hold in your hand can make publishing a book feel more real, and can make it easier to show or give the book to friends or interested people.
- Have vendors working on layout, form and printing. Instead of doing it yourself, you can save time and effort by hiring someone to do it. If you leave this work to the experts, you stand a greater chance of making your book look even more awesome.
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Deficiency:
- You still need to market your book.
- Cost. This option will be more expensive than self-published e-books.
- Limited creative space. While online vendors will have a wider and more varied selection of sizes, targets, and layouts for you to choose from, you'll still encounter their standard shapes and layouts and little room for creativity.
Step 2. Choose a vendor
Before you choose a vendor, do as much research as possible on each vendor to find the most appropriate place to publish your book. If funds are a constraint, focus more on the price of each vendor, but if you're more concerned about product quality, spend more time focusing on the layout and appearance of the book after it's printed.
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If you're struggling to make a decision between one vendor and another, consider creating an account with one vendor and one published book and send yourself one to see how it looks.
Do this without making the book publicly available or creating an ISBN, so if you are not satisfied with the finished product, it will be easier for you to pull the book off the market and try it elsewhere
Step 3. Format the book with the vendor
Each vendor has different formatting requirements, but the basic process of book formatting doesn't vary much. First, create an account with the vendor, and then follow these steps before publishing your book:
- Choose whether it will be in the form of a novel or hardcover.
- Write the title and the author's first and last name.
- Choose the personal settings you want. This can determine whether everyone can see the book in the vendor marketplace, or only you can see it.
- Choose the type of paper you will use.
- Select a paper size.
- Select the type of volume.
- Choose whether the book will be black and white or color.
Step 4. Upload your book with its cover
Once you've decided on the formatting settings for your book, upload a copy of your manuscript. Also upload the cover. If you haven't created a book cover before, most vendors will help you choose a theme and layout for the cover and create one before your book is published.
You can also enlist professional help to create your book cover, or enlist the help of a designer friend
Step 5. Publish your book
Once you have selected your settings and uploaded your book, just press the button which will publish your book. Once the book is published, you can search the online marketplace for vendors and order as many books as you want.
Step 6. Advertise your book
Even if you have your own published book of poetry, your task is not done. If you want to reach a wider audience, whether that's starting with a blog or website, creating a Facebook fan page, emailing your friends and coworkers, or creating a business card to promote your book.
Many vendors will also provide options that will help to promote your book, but you will have to pay for it
Method 4 of 4: Publish Your Poetry Online
Step 1. Publish your poem through the website
You can create a page for your book, or just a page for yourself as a writer, allowing readers to view and maybe even comment on your poetry.
- Choose a simple format. Make sure that your poem looks good online and that line and letter breaks meet your standards.
- You can decide whether each poem will be published in one long page, or if readers can just view the table of contents and click on the poem they want to read.
- Remember that pages are a great medium for advertising. Use your site not only as a venue to showcase your writing, but also as a place to promote your writing.
Step 2. Publish your poem on a blog
A blog gives you the freedom to post individual poems and quickly get feedback from readers, leave comments and make it easy for readers to keep up with your poems by subscribing to your blog feed. You don't need an upfront payment, but it's the easiest way to get feedback from readers.
- Research various blog hosts and choose the one that best fits your needs and budget.
- For a blog, set up your site's appearance, URL, subscription options and, if applicable, web coding rules so that your poems display properly.
- Once you build readership, add ads on your blog if you want a source of income; or, publish your poetry as an e-book or a physical book that can be purchased -- adding value in the case of some sort of compilation may include illustrations and a special introduction from you.
- You can also easily edit the blog, so you can go back and make changes, or maybe even add poetry to your collection.
- Be wary of online reading timeframes. Someone who reads your poetry or blog may not plan to give your work as much time and attention as someone who reads your work in e-books and physical copies. If you feel this time limit is limiting your creativity, avoid using this publication option for your poetry.
Tips
- If you buy a domain name, get private Whols. Otherwise, someone who is interested in your published poetry can see your name, address and phone number.
- Check the copyright regulations in your country. In some countries, you may need to register a copyright to be able to sue someone if someone has pirated your work. However, if your country is protected by the intellectual property of the Berne Convention, your work is already protected by copyright laws.
- The ISBN code is a machine-readable 13-digit number and is usually worth getting especially if you can get one for free or at a discount. Many booksellers and libraries require that the books in their stock have an ISBN, because ISBNs make ordering and shelf-organization easier; no 2 books have the exact same ISBN number. An ISBN also keeps your book listed in places it may otherwise ignore, for example a printed book. Most POD services or e-book sellers will provide you with an ISBN, but if you publish your book completely privately, you will probably get it yourself.
- Let someone proofread your work. No matter how much you check, you may miss something, because you are the creator, and you will read what you mean rather than what you actually wrote.
