Should I self-publish my poetry book?

January 24, 2015 7:10 AM

I am a well-published poet in journals but have no books out yet. The manuscript I’ve been circulating since 2011 has come very close, though, and has been a finalist in a number of prize contests held by some of the bigger small presses. Almost all of the poems in it have been published individually, and a handful have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. I had been committed to the idea of one of those small presses but am now thinking of self-publishing. More inside.

When I started circulating this book, one of my goals for it and myself involved obtaining a tenure-track job teaching creative writing. These posts require a certain number of books published, and self-published books don’t count towards that. Right now, though, I am on SSDI, and realistically I don’t even know if I will enter the job market again. Therefore, this point could be moot.


I had a moment of self-awareness today about this book. I accepted that I had been hustling it so hard mainly for ego-related reasons: wanting to win a prize and everything that went with it, wanting to belong to certain writing / publishing circles. In short, I would be lying if I said I’d been pursuing traditional publication just because I wanted other people to be able to read this book.


I became aware too that because I haven’t closed the loop on this book (I still tweak it periodically), I do feel energetically held back in some way. I write all the time, but I haven’t actively been working on another full-length manuscript, though I could easily assemble one from things I’ve written. I worry that I may need to cut the cord in order to commit to whatever’s next.



I’ll say that money is not really a factor in this at this point either way. The contests come with $1,000 or $2,000 prize money, which would be nice, but not life-changing. And hopefully print-on-demand costs would be low enough that I could afford to do this on my own. Naturally I don’t have the distribution prowess of a press (and I don’t know how one taps into that), but doing this grass roots has its charms too. And there is an unquantifiable but very real piece too that I love these poems and want to share them.


I’m conflicted now by all the different pieces involved here, all the angles of professionalism and ego and desire to share this work combining. It’d of course be easier if I had some sense of how much longer I’d have to wait for somebody else to pick this book up, but I can’t anticipate when or if that would happen. I realize this all sounds like I’m very much leaning towards self-publishing, but that’s probably because I just started thinking about all this and feeling refreshed by that option. It has been disheartening to keep coming so close in all these other contests, and I’ve been a bit too invested in that. However, it would still be a personal and professional boon to win, and it would mean more promotion for the book.

What do you think you would do in my shoes? And / or what things do I need to consider?

posted by mermaidcafe to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

I self published through Amazon, and I have been happy with the results. I was fortunate enough to have an excellent graphic designer who was able to create an amazing cover for me at a very reasonable price, and that made a huge difference. It also took quite a bit of effort on my part to create the final printable manuscript and the associated e-book format. A lot of work goes into creating a high-quality product, and by self publishing you assume that entire workload. That also includes promotion, if you hope to have any real sales. The actual costs for distributing the book are pretty minimal.

That being said, I would be thrilled beyond belief if my book were to be picked up by a traditional publisher.
posted by Lokheed at 7:33 AM on January 24, 2015

I think it's time to revisit the vision that you have for your life.
I used to want to be the Novelist That Changed The World, and now I'm happily the Self Published Novelist Who Sells A Few Copies Here And There, But Loves Teaching And Doing Readings And Small Book Signings.

Can you see the difference there?

I came THIS CLOSE to being picked up by traditional publishers. My first novel was the finalist for best first novel of the year in a contest by one of those publishers, and even nominated by a major genre group as best first novel of the year.

But I got tired of beating my head against that particular wall.
I have a 2" thick stack of rejection letters from agents and publishers, and I keep them tucked away, like so many skeletons in a closet.

I came to a moment in time where I just wanted to get my work out there no matter what. I wanted to be sharing my characters and stories with others, regardless of the monetary reward.

Have you come to that point yet?
Only you can decide.
Have a Come to Jesus with yourself and only quit when you have come to a decision that gives you peace and comfort.

Should you decide to go with self-publishing, stick with CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing from amazon. You'll be glad you did.
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 8:11 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

You are seeing this as either-or and it isn't. The market for poetry is always slim, but a title can move from self-published on Amazon to a "real" publisher, and this certainly does happen.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:24 AM on January 24, 2015

Best answer: I worry that I may need to cut the cord in order to commit to whatever’s next.

This would be the deciding factor for me. For my own personal creative process, it's so important to take something I made and just say "okay, I'm done with this, it is its own thing and now I can include it on the list of things that I have made and stop worrying about it." If I'm not aggressive about that, I end up fussing over things forever, or leaving them half-finished and never letting them out into the world, which sucks. Four years is a long time to work on anything, and you should feel good about giving yourself the opportunity to turn your creative energies entirely toward something new.

My hope is that when or if you find yourself in a position to apply for creative writing teaching jobs, the narrative of "this book was a finalist for many prizes, and most of the individual poems were published in journals, but after four years of shopping it around I got so sick of waiting to show the book to the world, so I opted to self-publish—and here's what I learned and here's the audience I reached" will be a better narrative than "I haven't published any books." (This may be a slim hope, given how stubborn and backwards university departments can be, especially in their hiring processes, but it's a hope nonetheless!)
posted by aparrish at 8:40 AM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]

It's been a while since I was close to the world of academic poetry, but, in those days, there was a great deal of snobbery related to self-publishing versus academic and other small presses.

I would imagine this is far less the case today than it used to be, but I would also imagine that there might be some old-timers on hiring committees and whatnot that have some residual feelings.

One possible compromise solution: become interested in book arts, then produce a tiny edition of, like, leather-bound books letterpress-printed on handmade paper or something. This kind of self-publishing might not be perceived the same way as the POD kind.
posted by box at 10:55 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

I wrote out a long comment about how I was in the same place in 2009 and ultimately realized that being a poet didn't further my own personal writing goals at all, and how I had to switch genres completely to accomplish what I wanted to in my writing. I think in literary poetry, particularly, other types of writing and professionalization (including self-publishing, but also other, more viable forms of commercial writing) are often denigrated in favor of taking the One True Path of getting your MFA, having unpaid small press publications, winning book contests, and then getting a tenure track job--even though in many ways it's an expensive model that is really predicated on having a safety net of wealth and privilege. So I'd take a long, hard look at yourself and your goals and make sure the genre is really helping you to be the writer you truly want to be.

That said, every time I've been at a juncture where I've pushed a book or a manuscript so far, gotten so close but still nowhere, I have considered self-publishing, waffled, and then realized that the reason no one was saying yes was that it just wasn't good enough yet. A painful lesson, for sure, but it's also an ultimately liberating one. It usually means that I'll be hearing "yes" soon--but on another book completely, written using all of the skills and knowledge and craft that I've developed on the book that's getting rejected. Given what you write here, I think starting over will be really, really good for you. It's a fail better sort of thing, and no one was ever hurt by having too many manuscripts. If you put together a new one, and this is still calling to you, you can always self-publish it then.

But I bet you it won't be. I bet your new thing will be so much stronger that you won't really care about this current manuscript at all.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:21 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also, because it should be said: one book, self-published or not, is very unlikely to get you a tenure track job (you need many more than that!); it's even more unlikely that one self-published poetry manuscript will find mainstream publication or even sell particularly well, though it can be a nice thing to pursue if you want copies to sell at readings. That's the way I'd be looking at the self-publishing option in your position.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:23 AM on January 24, 2015

Self-publishing has turned out to be a life-changing opportunity for me, but I'm coming from a very different market (sci-fi & urban fantasy) and I started with an online following that I could contact directly with some effort. The first book covered the gap from seasonal unemployment; the second book turned my life around.

When I first chewed on self-pubbing, an author friend of mine (who had done it, and who had also just been picked up by a publisher) told me, "Hey, even if you only sell twelve books, that's twelve books you wouldn't have sold if you didn't try anything."

I can tell you that success can really happen. I cannot say that it will happen for you, though, because I'm VERY conscious of how fortunate I've been, and I'm putting out a very different product than poetry. I also didn't start out with any goals in mind other than "I'll give this a shot, maybe I'll make a few bucks, but I just want to find readers." I didn't hold out a lot of hope for this providing enough income to pay the cell phone bill, let alone all my bills.

I can't tell you much about marketing. I dearly wish I could, because I'd be doing it myself and would probably have even more readers. What I can tell you is that if you have any sort of audience that you know you can reach, and who will take the time to buy your e-book for a low price and who will put down some reviews, that initial bump can translate into a LOT of exposure, specifically on Amazon. Once you've got like ten or more reader reviews, other random browsing shoppers will be willing to give you a look.

Also: consider how much you're willing to pay for cover art. That can make the difference between looking professional and not, or between being taken for the right genre or not. You can get good cover art for a few hundred bucks through artists on DeviantArt, though it takes some effort. (I pay a lot more now, but I can afford it now, too.) You may not be in a place where you can afford much, but it's worth it to look and see what you can manage. People will tell you that you can get good cover art for $35; I think they're crazy.

Also, regarding print-on-demand: CreateSpace is a great service. If you're savvy enough that you can do formatting all on your own, then they'll never charge you anything up front. They get their cut from people ordering the book. As the author, you can get copies at a significant discount from the list price (which you set yourself, based on a calculator they have; their costs are all about page count). I generally cough up the few hundred bucks to have them do the formatting work for me, but if you're computer savvy, you can learn how to do it yourself.

Any service that charges you for the privilege of printing on demand is ripping you off. They'll make their money per copy. If they don't offer something specific for that up-front cost (again, like CreateSpace's formatting service), then don't even give them a second thought.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 12:09 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Maybe one aspect of your re-evaluation is to re-evaluate what "cutting the cord" means to you. Because, right now, it sounds like it means acting on the impatience all writers feel re: getting work out there in book form and resigning yourself to a certain form of publication, which doesn't sound altogether good, IMO. If self-publishing is a fallback plan, maybe you should take to heart what Pho B suggested: the MS isn't strong enough yet, which is why it's not getting taken.

"Cutting the cord" can also mean distancing yourself from what you thought this MS would look like. There is no rule saying you can't start on something new, or dash this MS against the wall, pluck from it what works, and put the rest in a drawer. It doesn't mean publishing by any means possible. It means letting go, mentally.

The reason I'm suggesting this is twofold. Firstly, impatience is the enemy of good writing. Impatient writers settle for something other than their goals, and it eats at them. I know several people who've done this, in one form or another, and regretted it.

This has nothing to do with the value of self-publishing. It's a fantastic option for certain writers. It seems to work better for genre writers, money-wise, but hey -- you're a poet. You wouldn't have chosen that route if you were seeking money.

Secondly, if you change your mind and do end up wanting to apply for academic jobs down the line, a self-published MS will not count on your CV. This is unfortunate, but a reality in academia.

Also, if you're not good at self-promotion your book can easily get lost, and not be "out there" much at all. That's the upside of a publisher: they (ideally) promote you.

The suggestion, above, to create some beautiful hand-made chapbooks seems brilliant, to me. You can do some readings and sell your chapbooks at them. You'll be able to publish the pieces in them later, in a collection, if you wish. It'll get your work out into the world.

Don't give up.
posted by Miss T.Horn at 3:06 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]

I wouldn't opt to self-publish since it'll undercut your future academic prospects and because it'll inadvertently delegitimize the work itself. Plus, unless you're a very skilled self-promoter, you'll likely be resigning yourself to a much, much smaller audience than any small press can offer. Instead, I'd like to echo PhoBWanKenobi: it's hard to hear, but your manuscript may not be quite good enough yet. I'm a poet too, and I wish I couldn't empathize so well with this problem, but I can. Three years really isn't a long time to submit a single manuscript; if you've already been a finalist quite a few times, your manuscript may be verrrrry close to finished. Do you have the stomach, or clearheadedness, for one last concerted round of revisions? Specifically, do you have friends or mentors you could ask for feedback about the manuscript as a whole? Even though I've been writing for years, and have an MFA and a handful of post-MFA accolades under my belt, I still can't wrap my head around the arc of my own work. Perhaps you're in the same boat? Also, sometimes book manuscripts that are derived from an MFA thesis can dig in their heels and refuse to evolve; do you feel bound to "honor" your thesis by hewing more closely to it than you should? Finally, regarding moving on, it can be really hard to fully inhabit the voice of a new book, especially after a few years immersed in writing the old one. Publishing will help you move on, but it won't necessarily help you move into a new project.
posted by tapir-whorf at 4:24 PM on January 25, 2015

It so much depends on the genre, some writers even do both traditional & self publishing now. Poetry is different. Especially literary poetry-- total snob affair. Why bother? You've got to spend YEARS getting rejected by editors on whim that a handful of people in the world read. Why not look at up & coming lit mags? A good podcast is from the recent Mpls book convention panel at literary rejections dot com, editor of Tin House basically says he publishes on pure whim. The editors of these lit mags are also writers. If you want to go that route then set goals & keep submitting until you get some notoriety. If you look inside & don't care that much for lit/snob/obscure/academia route then you're free to do what you want. You have the credentials & MFA so self publishing in addition to traditional might be way to go. I love poetry & traditional literary journals but they reject like 99% & it can be depressing. Think about what you really want to do.
posted by litgrl at 8:03 PM on July 19, 2015