Almost everyone I know writes poetry. Not always for publication, but poetry does seem to be the way almost all of us can express our most powerful feelings. But when I ask my poetry writing friends if they ever buy books of poetry, they almost all admit that very few, if any, poetry chapbooks grace their library shelves. That, in a nutshell, is the primary reason even excellent poets have a difficult time finding someone to publish their works.

Author Thomas A. Williams, in his new book Poet Power! The Practical Poet's Complete Guide to Getting Published, tackles this problem head-on. He pulls no punches when he describes the economics of poetry publishing. Books of verse do not sell well, he says, so publishers will only order a small print run. Because the print run is small, the cost per copy is high. And because the price of the book has to be set low, (poetry buyers won't pay more than $10.00 for a book of poems) the publisher almost always ends up losing rather than making money on poetry.

But after laying out the facts, Williams points out that there are publishers that do publish poetry. University presses, non-profit publishers or publishers receiving grant money to finance poetry projects are all potential markets for poets. The competition is fierce, but Poet Power! covers a variety of things a poet can do to greatly increase his or her chances of seeing their verse in print.

What struck me most while reading this book was the poet's role as a salesperson and marketer. Williams asserts that a publisher can't sell poetry. Only the poet can do that. The poet, then, cannot be an introvert. Readings, signings, workshops and so much more all become tools to help the poet sell. Even the unpublished poet must seek public visibility to increase his or her chances of getting published.

Williams covers all the bases for poets in this book, from getting poetry published in magazines, finding a book publisher or checking out subsidy publishing arrangements, to starting up your own poetry publishing company.

The Bottom Line:

While Poet Power!, in my opinion, has over-emphasized the self-publishing option, this book is still incredibly valuable to aspiring poets and will undoubtedly become the bible for anyone who wishes to see their verse in print. No other book on the market today covers the topic as clearly and completely.

—Publishing Central

This is subtitled The Complete Guide To Getting Your Poetry Published. The book is full of excellent advice. It emphasises the need for poets who seek publication to find their marketing niche, to be known as a reader as well as a writer and to build up a track record.

He warns poets about the beginner's mistakes that they should avoid such as

"Do not include a note telling how much your family and friends think of your talent and how they encouraged you to send these poems in."

How many times have I read such a note and been dismayed by the quality of the work they accompanied?

Williams goes a step beyond just advising the poet. Chapter 8 is HOW TO START AND PUBLISH YOUR OWN POETRY SERIES.

"Once you've brought out your own book and learned the basics of publishing and selling poetry, you can easily extend your activities to include publishing the work of other good poets."

Oh yes it is easy to get bitten by the publishing bug. Williams has a lot of sound advice including how to avoid some of the pitfalls. Whilst I wouldn't agree totally with all his marketing suggestions, the general tenure of his thrust is absolutely sound. Writer and publisher need to support each other. Most sales of poetry come not from bookshops but from personal appearances. The writer who performs is the one in the best position to make sales.

Speaking about the internet, Williams writes

"Serious writers use the internet as a more and more indispensable medium for the exchange of information and ideas, but not for publication of their work. When such writers do post their work it is usually as a participant in a critique group or workshop."

I'd largely agree, but he draws a distinction between webzines and ezines which seems to me to be either erroneous or outdated. True it is that there some very dire websites, but there are some dire print zines too. There are actually some really fine web periodicals and they shouldn't be totally dismissed. I was recently asked why we didn't review ezines and the answer is not that we don't think there are any worth reviewing, but that we've got enough on doing what we are doing.

The book includes a very useful glossary of printing and publishing terms.

I'd recommend this book to all beginning poets as a solid and comprehensive account of the needs of publishers that poets ignore at their peril. It is also useful as a guide to the most effective ways of selling poetry.

—Gerald England, New Hope International Review

Fledgling poets hoping to break into the tough world of publishing will appreciate the sound advice offered…in this new manual. Founder of a successful small publishing house, Williams provides tips for selling poems to magazines as well as finding a publisher for a book of poems. He covers publicity and the marketing of books at poetry readings and retail outlets. For those wishing to try their hand at self-publishing, Williams describes how to design and print a book of poems…A wise purchase.

—Library Journal

Thomas Williams' Poet Power: The Practical Poet's Complete Guide To Getting Published covers every aspect and facet of the process of submitting poetry for publication. Williams explains how the business of publishing works and provides a crash course in the economics of publishing and what it means to the aspiring poet seeking publication. Poet Power goes on to explain what editors want and the “7 secrets” of publishable poetry; how to get published in magazines; how to have a volume of poetry published; designing and publishing one's own books of poetry; becoming the editor of one's own chapbook series; selling poetry in bookstores, retail outlets, and catalogs; gaining personal visibility in order to succeed as a published poet; and how to enhance one's reputation as a published poet in order to achieve worthwhile goals and becoming a spokesperson for poetry in the community. “Must” reading for all aspiring poets yearning to break into print, and for published poets seeking to expand their literary audiences, Poet Power is reader friendly, authoritative and accurate, comprehensive and practical.

—Midwest Book Review

If you are hording your masterpieces in a desk draw, hoping, like Emily Dickenson, to be discovered after your death, you may be doing the world a disservice. If you think that getting your poetry published is an impossible task, you haven't read Williams' book.

Are you a closet poet? Or perhaps you have been writing and occasionally publishing your work, but want to take your poetry "career" to the next level, to make something more of your work. Thomas A. Williams, in his new book Poet Power The Practical Poet's Complete Guide to Getting Published, says that poets have a duty, not only to "give voice to their insights" but also to publish their work. If you are hording your masterpieces in a desk draw, hoping, like Emily Dickenson, to be discovered after your death, you may be doing the world a disservice. If you think that getting your poetry published is an impossible task, you haven't read Williams' book. This simple, easily read guide will not tell you how to write good poetry - that part is up to you, although there is a section devoted to knowing hat kind of poetry is most likely to get published. What Poet Power will do, is to provide you with some terrific and surprisingly straightforward ways to get your work "out there."

There are chapters on why you simply must publish your work, and the economics of poetry publishing, and Williams, who runs his own press and has published both his own and others poetry understands this quite well. The nine secrets of publishable poetry is a particularly valuable overview, not of how to write good poetry, but how to "stake your claim to the limited space that is available for poetry at any given time." Some of these suggestions may well provide ideas for new work or work cycles on a theme.

There are also chapters covering how to get your work published in magazines, including an insight into the editor's mind when your poem arrives, putting together "power packs" and a schedule for regular organised submissions. From there on, the book focuses on publishing a book of poetry, either through a commercial press, or through self-publication. The publishing of your own book, chapbook of poetry or even a poetry series is covered in quite a lot of detail, with personal anecdotes, sample designs and models, information on design and printing and even a guide to effective proofreading. There is also information on obtaining grant money, or getting someone else to assist with financing.

The book provides detailed information on the necessity of promoting yourself, along with guides on producing media kits and news releases, having an autograph party (primarily to sell books), conducting effective poetry readings (a must if you want to sell books) and how to sell your books through bookstores and other outlets, with some surprisingly good suggestions on places other than bookstores that might sell your work.

The final chapter looks at how a poet might use the Internet, and if you are reading this review, the chances are that you will know most of what Williams' writes in this chapter, although there are some useful tips and resources which you may not have come across elsewhere. In one of the many gray "information" boxes which appear throughout the book Williams says: "Serious writers use the internet as a more and more indispensable medium for the exchange of information and ideas, but not for publication of their work." This is the one and only area in the book where I disagree with Williams, as I have personally come across some excellent sites displaying very high quality poetry (many of which pay poets handsomely), and the same arguments he makes about creating a profile and name for your work apply on-line, but this is a minor point. Overall Poet Power is an excellent resource for anyone who writes poetry. Its simple. jargon-free prose will stimulate you to do more with your poetry, to write specifically towards publication, to give readings and talks, to promote your work, and essentially to turn your vocation into a career.

—Magdalena Ball for The Compulsive Reader

Almost everyone I know writes poetry. Not always for publication, but poetry does seem to be the way almost all of us can express our most powerful feelings. But when I ask my poetry writing friends if they ever buy books of poetry, they almost all admit that very few, if any, poetry chapbooks grace their library shelves. That, in a nutshell, is the primary reason even excellent poets have a difficult time finding someone to publish their works.

Author Thomas A. Williams, in his new book Poet Power! The Practical Poet's Complete Guide to Getting Published, tackles this problem head-on. He pulls no punches when he describes the economics of poetry publishing. Books of verse do not sell well, he says, so publishers will only order a small print run. Because the print run is small, the cost per copy is high. And because the price of the book has to be set low, (poetry buyers won't pay more than $10.00 for a book of poems) the publisher almost always ends up losing rather than making money on poetry.

But after laying out the facts, Williams points out that there are publishers that do publish poetry. University presses, non-profit publishers or publishers receiving grant money to finance poetry projects are all potential markets for poets. The competition is fierce, but Poet Power! covers a variety of things a poet can do to greatly increase his or her chances of seeing their verse in print.

What struck me most while reading this book was the poet's role as a salesperson and marketer. Williams asserts that a publisher can't sell poetry. Only the poet can do that. The poet, then, cannot be an introvert. Readings, signings, workshops and so much more all become tools to help the poet sell. Even the unpublished poet must seek public visibility to increase his or her chances of getting published.

Williams covers all the bases for poets in this book, from getting poetry published in magazines, finding a book publisher or checking out subsidy publishing arrangements, to starting up your own poetry publishing company.

While Poet Power!, in my opinion, has over-emphasized the self-publishing option, this book is still incredibly valuable to aspiring poets and will undoubtedly become the bible for anyone who wishes to see their verse in print. No other book on the market today covers the topic as clearly and completely.

—About.com

“If there's no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.” -- Robert Graves, "Mammon," Mammon and the Black Goddess (1965).

In his book Poet Power: The Complete Guide To Getting Your Poetry Published, Thomas A. Williams tells his readers that poets whose words remain private are “incomplete and inert”. He believes that “Power is generated only when the work is published – proclaimed to the public”.

Tom Williams, author of several self-help manuals, founder of Venture Press and “student of hard knocks” (according to his bio), is keen to persuade his readers that “the act of publishing is as important to our poetic enterprise as the act of writing”. He believes that many writers are “modest souls” who “suffer from a self-effacement syndrome so serious as to rob themselves of all believability”. And in the best tradition of American free enterprise, he explains why the “market-sensitive poet” should “strive to create personal, public visibility”.

To be completely fair to the author, should his typical reader’s greatest desire be to recite his or her work to an appreciative audience at a live poetry festival or to publish their composition in a small press publication for little or no financial reward, then this no-nonsense, unpretentious book may well prove to be their ‘bible’. Williams supplies an abundance of valuable information for the would-be professional writer struggling to make a mark on the diverse but elite world of poetry. From professional submissions and poetry readings to preparation of media kits and self-publication, Williams has it covered. If, however, among the potentially pushy poets reading this book there are individuals with expectations of clinching life-changing publishing deals, they are almost certain to be disappointed. Williams freely acknowledges “of all writers, poets have the most difficulty getting their words into print” and “blockbuster commercial success” is almost certainly “out of their reach”.

In reality, poets rarely write for money and some even object to prostituting their art by polluting their work with commercialism. It is true that poets like Hart Crane and James Dickey were prepared to write advertisements for a living, but their jobs and their poetry writing were, for the most part, two separate entities. According to Britain’s current poet laureate, Andrew Motion, the greatest benefit of being a poet is his ability to help people "enjoy and endure their existence". Most successful poets aim to sell only 500 to 1,500 copies of a single collection; a lucky few dare hope for 3,000 and any poet who sells 30,000 copies has experienced a miracle - a poetry bestseller!

Sadly, the days of the pin-up poet passed with Lord Byron. These days, many excellent poets, such as Simon Armitage, Lavinia Greenlaw and Gerard Woodward have turned to writing novels as a sideline, presumably in the hope of reaching a wider readership. A talented versifier may reasonably strive to earn the respect of fellow poets, a handful of academics and sections of the poetically inclined intelligentsia (who appear to be declining with each passing generation), but, in the main, they will probably become far more familiar with writer's block, poverty and loneliness than with wealth and celebrity. A pessimistic notion you may think? American writer, Don Marquis, doubtless said it all when he declared that "publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo".

In his excellent book Against Oblivion, published shortly before his death in December 2001, the poetry critic and biographer, Ian Hamilton compared Samuel Johnson’s eighteenth-century poets (listed in Lives of the Poets) with his own selection of fifty poets from the twentieth century. He concluded that: “One of the essential tenets of so-called poetic ‘modernism’ was that the serious artist had been banished to the sidelines of a society whose imagination was deadened”. He further propounded that of the poets included in his “end-of-century appraisal” (not Hardy, Yeats, Eliot and Auden because “oblivion presents no threat” to them), it was likely that one hundred years on “…about half will have become lost to the general view”. A depressing summation when one considers that Hamilton’s list included Rudyard Kipling, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, D.H. Lawrence, Ezra Pound, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Philip Larkin, Allen Ginsberg and Ted Hughes.

While poetry is certainly a minority interest, people are impelled to write it and, as Andrew Motion says, the work of poets "stretches humanity - not just in the sense that it tells truth to power and deepens our knowledge of the human condition, but in the sense that it can actually have a liberating effect on our natures". On the other hand, due in no small part to globalisation, economic greed and a general dumbing-down of the English speaking peoples, modern culture has grown to be intensely prosaic and few westerners possess the patience to read poetry seriously. Readers of poetry require a level of sensitivity and intelligence rarely encouraged in the written world these days and it would be wrong to give fledgling poets the impression that becoming “a mover and a shaker” in their “corner of the literary world” is in any way likely to turn them into a household name.

It is my guess that Poet Power will appeal mainly to those unable to get their work in to print – and there are swarms of such writers - some of whom deem it unnecessary to read the works of either classic or contemporary poets before setting out on their chosen careers. As Billy Collins so succinctly put it, “eighty-three percent of poetry is not worth reading, but the other 17% I couldn't do without.”

Poets should not write with “marketable topics” and a view to publication foremost in their minds, quite simply because mass popularity and commercialism so often signal the destruction of truth and originality. Unlike virtually every other major art form, poetry can still claim to be faithful to itself in so very many ways. Poets who write for pure pleasure or (spiritual) necessity should continue to versify in public and in private, with or without the guerrilla marketing techniques outlined in this book.

Williams’s book offers a great deal of sensible advice and would make a wonderful gift for a promising or talented poet who has spent time reading the works of established writers and perfecting their own skills. If and when they feel ready to share their work with those of us who still appreciate the art, Poet Power will provide a first-rate aid to self-promotion.

—Paula Bardell for All-Info About