So you want to learn how to publish poetry. You’ve come to the right place! Learning how to publish poetry (and where to publish poetry) can be a confusing process for the uninitiated. But it doesn’t need to be difficult.
What kind of poet are you? A brooding type who writes about storms and moors and darkness?
Or a romantic who writes about fairytales and heartbreak?
Maybe you’re a nature-lover poet with stacks and stacks of poems about a single flower you walked past a few months ago (don’t at me. It was a great flower.).
No matter the types of poems you write you’re probably super interested in learning how to publish a poem. But what does that mean? How do we know when our poems are ready? And what are the first steps in learning how to publish poetry?
There are so many options for publishing and sharing your poetry, and we will cover them all today in this guide to how to publish poetry successfully. Before we get into the details of how to publish poetry, let’s talk about if it’s difficult – and if it’s worth it for your poems.
Is it hard to learn how to publish poetry?
To be totally honest, it can be hard to get poetry published, considering how competitive the traditional publishing industry is.
Even if your writing is compelling and original and your poems are strong and well-executed, you could go months or years before landing a publication. Publishers – whether they’re publishing houses, journals, online lit mags – typically have two things:
- A very specific idea of what they’re looking to publish
- Way too many submissions
This puts writers at a disadvantage. When publishers can be as picky as they’d like, we’re left to fight with each other to get those coveted spots. It ultimately doesn’t matter how good your poem is if it doesn’t fit into what they were looking to publish.
But don’t let that discourage you!
There are ways to up your chances when learning how to publish poetry. And with enough perseverance, most writers can get published. We’ll cover some tips to help your poem find a home later on, so keep reading.
Is my poetry worth publishing?
It’s all well and good to learn how to publish a poem – but should you? When do you know your poem is ready to be published? This is the question nearly every poet asks themselves, even when they’re far into their writing career. And it’s tough to be sure!
Some good signs your poetry is ready to be published might be:
- If it gets a positive response from readers. (Are you showing your poems to people, even beta readers? You should be!) What kind of feedback are you getting?
- If you are confident in it. There’s a gut feeling that writers eventually develop that helps them realize when a piece is finished. Learn to hear and listen to that voice.
- If it is important to you. Some people write poems just to have written a poem – when the poem has meaning for you is when it might have meaning for someone else.
Essentially, it is worth learning how to publish a poem if you believe it to be!
Where to publish poetry: the different options for sharing your poems
The first step in learning how to publish poetry is deciding where to publish poetry. And there are tons of options.
If you’re going traditional, there are anthologies, literary journals, and online magazines. Some publishers also do social media publications – for example, MicroFlashFic posts micro-stories on their Twitter feed.
You have even more options if self-publishing is on your radar. You can publish your own collection, post poems on a personal website, send them out in a weekly newsletter, etc.
Let’s go into detail on these options and look at tips for how to accomplish them.
Literary journals and magazines
Journals and literary magazines are the most traditional way to learn how to publish poetry. They are known to discuss literary theory and highlight the best works.
One pro of learning how to publish poetry in a journal or magazine is that, because of the high barrier to entry, it does reflect accomplishment. This makes publications a compelling thing to list on resumes, as well as applications to more publications.
It can also give you a personal sense of gratification and accomplishment, which is pretty encouraging!
Another benefit is that traditional outlets sometimes pay per submission – depending on where you publish your poetry.
That can also become the drawback of this poetry publishing option, though.
While you may sometimes receive payment upfront, it is often relatively small and doesn’t allow you to continually make money off that piece of poetry. This is unlike publishing your poetry as a book and self-publishing on platforms that offer continuous book royalties for each copy sold, downloaded, or listened to.
Another con is that the submission and waiting process could take months, and you have a pretty low chance of being accepted. Many writers see this process as a waste of time when learning how to publish poetry.
Anthologies
Submitting your poems to anthologies is a similar process to literary journals when learning how to publish poetry.
A few key differences are that the requirements are much more specific (anthologies typically follow a theme or want specific types of poems). You do stand to earn royalties if accepted, but it depends greatly on the publisher—most choose to pay their contributors once up front, then pocket the royalties for themselves.
Your poetry will likely receive much more attention in anthologies than in a journal.
Anthologies are significantly longer and more focused than a journal or magazine might be, meaning that readers will pay closer attention to your poems, which can be more effective for building your reputation as an author and growing a readership.
Traditionally-published collection
While many people use the terms “collection” and “anthology” interchangeably, there’s actually a significant difference between the two formats when learning how to publish poetry.
An anthology is a collection of authors, while a collection is written by one author.
Regardless of where you publish poetry, traditionally publishing your own collection will be the toughest option on this list. Unless you are an established author or you already have an audience (for example, Gabbie Hanna is a YouTube with multiple published poetry collections), selling a poetry collection to a publisher is a HUGE goal.
Not many can pull it off.
If you choose this path of how to publish poetry, your best bet is to have an impeccably written collection around an incredibly sellable topic. Even then, your chances range from low to none. Obviously, I won’t recommend you try this one.
Where to Publish Poetry: Traditional Publishing Options
When writers ask how to publish poetry, they want specifics. Here are some publishers currently open for poetry submissions.
- AGNI has no requirements for length or writer demographic. There is a $3 submission fee, unless you are submitting by mail (do people do that??).
- Thrush says, “Our taste is eclectic. We want poems that move us, a strong sense of imagery, emotion, with interesting and surprising use of language, words that resonate. We want fresh. We want voice. We want craft.” It is also noted on their submission page that they will not be paying you to publish your piece, which is unfortunately the norm in trad publishing spaces for short works.
- Ghost City Press accepts prose, visual art and photography, reviews, and poetry, as well as specifying the category of “other,” so send them any kind of art you’d like!
- Eunoia Review accepts poetry, fiction, and non-fiction on a rolling basis, meaning you can expect a fairly quick response time.
- Rattle pays writers between $100 and $200 to publish your piece.
- Read Wildness does not offer monetary compensation for publishing rights, but they do nominate for most major writing prizes.
- Frontier Poetry pays between $50 and $100 per poem, and they do not charge reading fees.
- Split Lip pays $75 per poem; submissions are free for Black writers.
Self-published collection
If you’re looking to have complete control of publishing and royalty payments, your best bet for how to publish poetry is going to be self-publishing a collection. Which may leave you thinking, “Okay, yes. But where to self-publish poetry? Isn’t that difficult?”
You can, of course, “self-publish” poems separately by posting them on a blog or site like Medium, but for the most fiscal return on your efforts, you should consider a collection of poems in the form of a book.
You can self-publish your book on multiple platforms, publish as an eBook, and even release an audio version (which could be really impactful for poetry!).
Not only do you control which of your pieces are included, but you control the line editing, formatting, cover aesthetics, and marketing. Not to mention the fact that you keep any money the collection makes rather than letting it funnel into someone else’s pocket.
The downside of this method is that you will be responsible for everything. But there are multiple self-publishing companies, online resources, classes, and individual professionals you can hire to make the process much more manageable.
So don’t let the task of it scare you off! Putting a collection together can be fun, educational, and rewarding.
Related: How Much Do Self-Published Authors Make on Amazon?
Some combination
Personally, I love double-dipping with my writing. I published many short stories and flash fiction traditionally in journals, magazines, and anthologies. Then, I waited for those publishing rights to revert back to me.
Once I had publishing rights, I created and self-published my own collection, which still pays me royalties years later.
Writing can be tricky to make into a living, so getting more mileage out of your work is well worth the effort.
Ultimately, deciding how to publish poetry you write is a personal decision.
How to publish poetry collections in 6 steps
If self-publishing a collection sounds saucy to you, here is a brief step-by-step of how to publish poetry that way:
1. Writing/drafting
When drafting your poetry collection, there are a few things you might want to keep in mind that you wouldn’t necessarily worry about when publishing individual pieces.
Unintentional repetition. Watch for pieces that are too similar – I’ve cut several pieces from collections for this reason. Whether it’s similar lines and imagery, repeated topics, or any other way that they’re intentionally similar.
This is something you don’t have to worry about when you’re learning how to publish poetry pieces individually, but when you group them all together, repetition becomes very obvious and might make your collection seem redundant.
Theme. Ideally, you want your collection to have some kind of theme. It can be a super specific theme or more on the vague side, but themes help to make your collection work as a cohesive piece.
Your theme might be perspective (poems from a mother, an ill person, a member of a certain marginalized group, etc.), location (growing up in the south, travel journal vibes, etc.), or poems that deal with a certain feeling or sentiment. You might even categorize by genre (love poems, optimistic vs pessimistic nihilism, fantasy, etc.).
Having a theme makes writing and marketing much easier to do. It also makes it easier for potential readers to find your collection and know it’s for them.
2. Editing
Editing your poetry collection is the next step to learning how to publish poetry. Editing can include self-edits, beta reader rounds, writing partner critiques, professional editors, etc., but there should be an editing process that takes place before publishing.
3. Interior formatting
A poetry collection is probably one of the most important genres of book to pay attention to the interior formatting. Since poems are so short, you can get very stylistic with the way it’s presented on the page.
When learning how to publish poetry, consider how you use white space, images, and alignment. The design of a poem on a page can add to (or detract from) the value of the piece, so take some time on this step! You might even hire a professional book formatter to design it for you.
4. Cover design
If you hire someone for any step in the self-publishing process, I recommend hiring a book cover designer with current industry knowledge and experience. Your cover is the biggest marketing element of any book, so make sure you’re investing your time and money into a quality, contemporary cover for your collection when learning how to publish poetry.
5. Publishing your poetry
Now the important part in learning how to publish poetry – actually publishing your collection! Where, how, and for how much you sell your book is completely up to you, but I recommend doing research into other works in your genre and around your word count to see how they handle titles, covers, interior design, pricing, and format availability.
For example, if you research your genre and learn that 70% of sales in that genre are through eBook, you’re obviously going to want to make sure that you publish an eBook on Amazon as an option.
Every book, genre, and author is different, so see which formats and venues are best for you.
6. Marketing
Marketing is another crucial bit of being a career author that is unique to each writer. It’s best to plan as much of your pre-order period, book launch, and marketing ahead of time. There are many elements you can utilize to sell more copies, and it will depend on your audience and goals.
A few things to consider:
- Launch team
- Presale giveaways
- Social media posts
- Events and readings
- Newsletter swaps and other collaborations
So what do you think? Do you want to publish poetry in magazines and journals, or do you want full control of the process by publishing it on your own website?
If you have a stack of poems, are you considering publishing your own collection? Use these tips to choose the best option for you, and let us know in a comment when you get your first publication!
And, if you’re still confused about how to publish poetry, reach out to the team at selfpublishing.com. We’re happy to help you self-publish your collection, and have a team of talented book cover designers just waiting to be inspired by your words.