Help to publish poetry please.?

Question

my husband is an amazing writer, he wants to start a career in writing. and i support him 100%.. i want to suprise him with his book he wrote published, but i need help on doing so. so is there anything that can help me to do so.? like a safe website that wont steal his work and say its there own.? please help, this would mean so much to the both of us.

Answer 1

publishing a book is easy - getting it distributed is another matter. In general, once it's written - it's copyrighted.

Answer 2

there's a book coming out soon called 'poetry market of 2009' or something... im gonna buy it, it lists all the top poetry publishers and says what you need to do to get it published there.

:)

Answer 3

Before you decide to go the self-publishing route, read the warnings about scam artists on Preditors & Editors, or www.absolutewrite.com.

If you still want to do it after that, I have heard good things about using lulu for print-on-demand.

By the way, self-publishing won't help you husband start a career in writing. It's a career in writing when people pay you. For self-publishing, you have to pay them. (And it's an expensive hobby.) To start a career in writing, get a book like Writer's Market and begin sending your work out to reputable magazine and book publishers.

I'm sorry to sound negative, less than 0.001% of poets make a living at it. He's better off expanding to write something else (like non-fiction or novels), or going back to school to get a Phd to teach poetry.

Answer 4

What you want is a bit complicated...in order for a publisher to publish "his" work, "he" has to be involved, so it would no longer be a "surprise".  Also, publishing complete anthologies of one poet's poetry is difficult to do if the poet is not already famous as a poet or some other notable figure (Paris Hilton, Madonna, etc.).  If you simply want to make a hard bound book of his poetry you can certainly use any number of "vanity" presses (that's what the publishers are called who print books of your work at your cost.  

If he's already been published, contact the publisher who published his work and ask if they'd be interested in compiling an anthology of his work.  If, on the other hand, he hasn't really published very much, and you'd like him to "be" published, then you can pick up a copy of "Poets Market" at your local bookstore (if it's not on their shelf, they can probably order it and have it in for you within a week or so).  It comes out every year and contains literally thousands of publishers, what kind of poetry they are looking for, how to submit it, the addresses and points of contacts, letters of introduction, etc.  It is simply the very best source of publishers you'll find on the subject (it's the reason it was created).  Regardless of whether or not you choose to use any of the publishers contained therein, it will provide insights to publishing that are worth the price of the book all by themselves.  One thing you must keep in mind is this: three novels will make more money than three poems...and it takes many, many poems to create an anthology...and most poets don't become famous until after they've died...and the books of poetry that do best contain poems by dead poets.  So, as far as a career in poetry...you need to go into it with open eyes.  

If he enjoys writing, he might find more profitable work by writing novels...where poetic devices often allow the author to create images more vivid than those who write only in prose.  In any event, always keep the day job and use writing as a hobby until it makes more income than the day job...and be prepared for rejection after rejection.  E.A. Poe was nearly unable to find a publisher for his anthology and made next to nothing on it once it was published...it contained some of his more famous poetry...and that's what you're up against: publishers are not in the business for art, they're in it for the profit "and" the art...but without profit there is no art...and an unknown poet is a risk few publishers would risk with an anthology. The more single poems he gets published, the more marketable he'll become.

Just some advice from someone in the business.

Answer 5

Go to www.poetry.com

I have several poems published there and they automatially copyright it for you. You can also try

www.redbubble.com

And set up a free account to display your work. On this site if you pay a small fee, they will help you sell your work, the details are at the site, check it out! Look for byebye on there (That's my user name!). Have fun!

Answer 6

I actually am in the proccess of publishing my very first poetry through a self-publisher.  I decided to go through AuthorHouse, which is a self publishing company.  You do have to pay to get it published but it's a really great experience and the people there are so helpful and great to work with!  

You have choices of different packages and they even offer packages for promoting and marketing your book as well after it's ready for print.

What I really like about AuthorHouse is that it's a print on demand service.  That way you don't have to pay for all these book to be printed and then be stuck trying to sell them.  Instead they only print the books once they've been ordered by book stores/libraries/or people which saves you a lot of money.

If you want to check it out you can go to www.authorhouse.com.  You can also go through different places like wordclay as well.

I hope this helps!  If you want to check out the site that they've helped me with for my book feel free!  

www.poisontomyantidote.com