How to Get Your Poetry Book Self-Published: A Step-by-Step Guide

by Michael Lazar PR Expert

If you’re a poet, you might feel left behind in the self-publishing world. With so many self-publishing platforms  on the market today, poets can feel left out, as what is trending is usually fiction, especially speculative fiction. So how do you get your poetry book published online?

If you’re ready to go beyond just posting your poems on Instagram or Twitter and publish an actual book of poetry yourself, we’ve got some solutions for you! We’ll help you go from randomly scattered poetry to a polished, publishable collection in no time.

Step one: Create a collection

The first step of any poetry publishing journey is to create a collection, even if all your poems are neatly organized in folders on your computer.

Like a short story collection, a book of poetry needs a theme. For instance, my first book  of poetry was love poems, while my second book was mental health poetry. Giving your collection a cohesive theme will make your book seem much more professional than a bunch of random poems thrown together in a book.

If you’re new to the genre and don’t have a lot written, brainstorm some possible themes you’d like to write about, and start creating a specific collection just for publishing

Step Two: Decide on book length

Once you have your collections grouped together, then decide how long you want your book to be. There are a couple of options here.

Chapbooks, which are a small collection of poetry, run around ten to thirty poems. While handmade chapbooks are popular, digital chapbooks are definitely gaining ground in the poetry community. A chapbook is a great way to dip your toe into the publishing world, especially if you are just starting out and don’t have tons of poems written, or a full-length book seems daunting.

A poetry collection for a full-length book is about 100-200 poems. This is a great option if you have a lot of poems already written, or you want to go big or go home.

Step Three: Create your manuscript

It goes without saying that if your poems are handwritten, they’ll need to be typed. If you aren’t a fast typist and have a little extra cash, you can hire typists on Upwork very cheaply. Otherwise, creating a manuscript is as easy and copying and pasting into Docs or Word.

To save you some headaches later, be sure to only put one poem per page when you’re creating your manuscript. Use a common font like Times New Roman or Arial, as these upload into most publishing platforms better without formatting issues.

Step Four: Edit your poems

Once you’ve got your poetry manuscript together, you’ll need to go through a few rounds of edits. After you edit yourself a few times, have a couple of writer friends read through your manuscript.

If you don’t have anyone you know who can read your work, you can seek out other writers on social media, hire an editor on a freelancing site like Upwork or Fiverr, or find a critique partner to get another set of eyes on your work. You can find critique partners for free on sites like CritiqueMatch or Critique Partner Matchup.

Create an enticing cover and title

Like any other ebook out there, your poetry collection will need a snazzy cover to catch the eye of your prospective readers. The old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t apply anymore. Your title is also very important, as this also gives your readers a clue as to what your book is about. Or, you’ll catch their eye because it’s so creative and amazing.

But don’t worry, if you don’t have the cash to hire an artist to design your cover, there are lots of free options out there. Here are a few free options (that also offer paid services if you can afford them):

○          Canva

○          Edit.org

○          Graphic Springs

○          DIY Book Design

○          VismeDecide on a self-publishing platform

Now that you have a completed book of poetry at your fingertips, you’re now ready to get your poetry book self-published online. Deciding on what platform is right for you can be a daunting process, so to help you out, we’ve narrowed down the playing field to give you the best places to self-publish your poetry, and you might even earn some royalties to boot! Here are a few places to self-publish your poetry ebook:

·       Fictionate.Me: Free to publish; keep 100% of royalties; ebooks and audiobooks available

·       All Poetry: $40-$860 to publish; can earn royalties

·       Wattpad: Free to publish; can’t earn royalties unless chosen for Paid Stories

·       Booksie: Free to publish; royalties only by donations from readers

·       Smashwords: Free to publish; earn royalties

 

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Created on Oct 18th 2021 18:24. Viewed 371 times.

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