After the publication of my first poetry book in 2016, I
became very discouraged when I didn’t make a sale, or seem to be able to give
away my poetry for free. I stopped writing
poetry for a long period of time. Last
month, April 2018, I somehow got motivated to write poetry more. I didn’t write a poem everyday, yet the month
of April was still full of poetry.
Submitting Poems for Publication
I discovered many new things about the publication and
marketing of poetry. Back in March, I
had checked out a couple of copies of “Writer’s Digest” and discovered a few
publications that would pay poets for their poems if they were accepted. I made it a goal to write poems that I was
proud of and submit them for publication.
I succeeded in this goal and sent out two poems, one each to the
publications “Contrary” and “Poetry Magazine.”
I probably won’t know until November if they’ve been accepted, and I don’t
have much hope they will be, but I am proud I attempted to at least. I know there still is a chance.
I also joined the Goodreads “Poetry!” Group and entered a
poem for the May contest. I was not a finalist,
so I will share it now:
If I Saw the Perfect Me
Another
Past, an Alternate Dimension.
-Blink-
She has everything I ever wanted.
Eyes
of Ebony, Shimmering Hair in Shades of Gold,
and
Skin like Tanned Cream.
If
only I had fallen in Her Footsteps.
Walk
softly with pitter pattering feet.
Our
destinies tied together.
She
thrums to the heartbeat of Her Love.
Eyes
everchanging as the Ocean,
Eyebrows:
dark drawing perfect curves to Gentle Face.
He
is mine here, this dimension, something we share.
My
love vibrates to my soul.
For
a moment, I stop regretting being Her.
Rubbing
dull brown eyes, I see She’s found a Purpose,
while
I write resumés that blow away
to
crumbling and quitting, never finding purchase,
while
I stand precariously, Her Feet Perfected Toenails,
Rooted
with Joy.
I
hold glittering Fool’s Gold while Hers Sparkling Pure is Solid.
She
bites it with Pristine White Teeth, doesn’t distort.
Biting
mine with stained teeth and too small lips, melts to glop.
Her
green with Luck, me green with Envy.
I
wonder if the Money God is really evil,
or
if it’s just a matter of success.
-Blink-
We both see an Empty Soul, green with decaying,
wearing
poverty as pride. Her eyes also ebony,
but
no life there, orbs glinting of malevolence.
Us
Others release our benevolent breath,
taking
comfort of Our happy dispositions.
Looking
at Another’s problems through a looking glass of speculation,
I
come to the realization:
It
doesn’t matter how magnificent Her life is,
mine
could be as the Other; much worse.
Reviews of Poetry
In
March or April, I also became an Author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15863356.Natasha_Gruss). I’m not sure how I discovered I could do
this. I joined some review groups on Goodreads
this April and exchanged reviews of poetry books. I reviewed and got reviewed by four poets. I didn’t review them, but I also read more
poetry books that were listed for free on Amazon and twitter, just to celebrate
poetry month. I submitted my book, “Un-Clenched
Emotion” to be reviewed on other websites as well.
I
discovered twitter by tweeting my blog posts and promoting my poetry book
(@natasha_gruss). Tweeting, liking, and
retweeting things gained me a lot of twitter followers. If other authors, or poets, (or just
interesting people,) followed me, I followed them back. I did tweet one old haiku of mine, and
someone used it as inspiration to make a haiku page on their website. On twitter, I found a book on marketing and
used that for poetry month.
Amazon, KDP Select, and Giveaways
For
Marketing, I really examined the Amazon page of my book. Doing this, I learned that authors were
allowed to give away their kindle books for free every 90 days. I thought I had unsuccessfully done this one
time, and that I couldn’t do it again. I
was happy I was wrong. When I discovered
I could give away my poetry book away for free again, I decided I would do that
in celebration of poetry month. To do
this, I also figured out how to fix the kindle version of my book. (The
formatting didn’t come out right the first time). It felt good, trying to get my poetry book
out there. I didn’t know when I did my
free promotion before that I could find out if I gave away any books. This time I discovered KDP select makes a
marketing graph of how many books were sold or given away. I was happy six people took advantage of my
giveaway. Amazon’s Author Page (https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01LZE8CKO)
also graphs sales rank and author’s rank.
It only ranks sales, not giveaways, so my free book promotion didn’t
affect rankings at all.
For
the future, I tried to figure out how to help my rankings and studied print
book giveaways. Everyone said Amazon’s
print book giveaways weren’t worth it, but Goodreads was. I bought 6 print books of “Un-Clenched
Emotion” (https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/)
which I hope to give away in the future.
I also wondered if doing a giveaway of an item, like a coffee pot, would
help my Amazon Author ranking, if people were required to follow me as an
Amazon Author. What do you think? If you could follow me for the chance to win
a coffee pot, Edgar Allen Poe mug, dragon stapler, or tea basket; would you do
it? Which thing would you want?
I
am proud of all I did in April to celebrate poetry and learn about the
marketing of it. There is still much
more work to do. There are many more
discoveries I made on marketing and blogging, but too much to write in one
post. I may write about them in the future.
