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Poet Roundtable with
Children's Poets
7.
AOTW: It is well known that poetry does not "sell" as well as other forms of literature. What have you done to promote your work?
Andrea Perry: My own editor at Atheneum said the very same thing to me as she offered me my first contract! But I think that verse is making a comeback. I'm always at my local bookstore checking out the newest (poetry and) picture books and plenty of them are rhymed --- not all well, mind you, but somebody is publishing them! As far as promoting my work, I'm doing book readings and signings at lots of local bookstores, schools, libraries, and arts festivals, and am also shamelessly using my very large family to spread the word in California, Virginia, and Florida.
Ron Koertge: I give readings and run workshops.
Brod Bagert: I believe that it's the job of the poet's of this generation to build the audience for poetry. When I perform my poetry for a particular audience, some members of the audience enjoy the experience and become members of a larger and more lasting audience for poetry in general. I also spend a lot of time teaching children to perform poetry in the hope that the next generation will be rich with poetry performers. I believe the world is becoming a more and more difficult place, I believe the children of this generation will need the power of poetry more than ever before, and I believe they will discover that power in the sound of their own voices. Eventually poetry will "sell." By then I probably will have died poor, but it will have been worth it.
Tony Mitton: I just write it the best I can, whatever the project in hand. Then I try to keep writing things that people will want to read, but that's always a bit of a gamble, and it's best to please oneself in the first instance. I try to get out and perform, when asked, and to do this well. That can help to promote one's work, helping it to sell. I also try to make sure I write to my full range. So not just poetry collections, but other ways of using verse and poetic forms of writing: lyrical picture books, humorous verse narratives, serious narrative retellings in verse, information books in verse for younger children, all the time considering a range of moods, contents and styles. This can help to avoid a "sameness" about one's work, giving readers more to choose from. That said, I believe it's a current fact that prose novels sell best. And I don't do that kind of writing. Poetry and verse is what I love to do and I can't change that, and refuse to choose prose just because it sells best. I've been tempted to write novels in the past, and have begun to do so more than once, but not because it pays better. In the end, my love of lyric and verse get the better of me. And maybe my novels (if I finished them) wouldn't publish, whereas my poetry and verse does. I count myself incredibly blessed actually to make a fair living out of writing verse and poetry, which is generally considered to be almost impossible in the world of adult writing. But I've had to work hard at putting my work about, in order to get it taken.
Maria Testa: A writer friend of mine once said that she "was raised not to be able to promote" her own work. I have the same problem! I also have two little kids (both boys, 5 and 8) and still find myself struggling for time to write. At this stage in my life, I simply cannot take the initiative in promoting my work, but I do tend to be very agreeable when opportunities come to me! Candlewick Press has done a fine job of making my life easier in this regard. I feel well-supported.
April Halprin Wayland: Although I love marketing, I try not to worry about the selling part too much or it can take over my life. I give poetry workshops at schools, teach at UCLA Extension, take long walks, meet with my critique group, volunteer at events to help independent booksellers, update my website and enjoy whatever's coming out of my computer at the moment. I try to stay in the moment (...I try!)
Nikki Grimes: I make it my business to promote the genre, as a whole, not only reading my work to audiences, but introducing them to the work of other poets as well. I do school visits, library talks, speak at conferences, do the occasional bookstore event, and so on. I've also developed idea sheets and poetry prompts for teachers, as well as posting teaching guides on my website. In other words, I do what I can! Most importantly, though, I try to write about issues I feel are relevant to my readers. I try to write poetry they will want to read.
Jane Yolen: Er --- my best-selling books Owl Moon and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight are both poetry, the former unrhymed, the latter bouncy rhyme. Billy Collins' poetry has outsold most modern novels by a great deal. Edna St. Vincent Millay was a mammoth seller --- and she wrote mostly sonnets!
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