As a poet, gaining exposure for your work can be one of the most important things to do in your career. More exposure can allow you to share your work more often with the world, whether it be through paid gigs or opportunities to market yourself further.
As a poet, gaining exposure is a crucial part of your career. There are several ways you can creatively get exposure as a poet. Read on to find out how!
Attend Local Poetry Readings in Your Community
If you’re looking to gain exposure as a poet, attending local poetry readings in your community is an excellent way to do so. All you have to do is attend local poet events or small readings in poetry communities or venues. You can have an opportunity to market yourself to get a future gig at the venue or even hand out flyers with information about your:
- Website
- Blog
- Social media accounts, etc., and offer them something free if they sign up (such as an eBook).
People might come up and ask about the poems you read or how they can contact you if they’d like to hire you to perform at other venues or inquire about any products you have for sale.
Some particular ways to promote in your community include :
- Attending writing festivals, poetry slams, and storytelling events.
- Take part in storytelling events.
- Create business cards to market yourself with
- Do a public reading of your work
Promoting yourself as a poet may allow you to surpass the tedious process of looking for a literary agent.
Reach Out to Publications Looking for Submissions
Reach out to the literary magazine scene and show interest in having your work featured. Sites like Reedsy offer places to submit your work for publication. You can even suggest an idea for a new column that you think would be interesting! The editors may have print deadlines coming up soon, so it’s best to reach out as soon as possible before the deadlines approach; the sooner, the better!
Some publications will announce when they are accepting submissions for new works. Many of these publications will be poet-specific, but some may also accept general fiction or nonfiction submissions.
When you reach out to a publication, ask how they would like their submission sent:
- An online form
- Email attachment with the file name “name_of_piece,” etc.)
Use Digital Assets to Promote Your Writing Skills
Social media is another great way for poets to gain exposure in the writing community. Many poets are successful in marketing themselves by reaching out directly through platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Use hashtags like #poetrycommunity and #writersnetwork when sharing your writing! You can also connect with poet communities on social media who will help share your work.
Don’t forget to keep an eye out for opportunities that you may not be aware of through the magic of Google (and Pinterest) use search terms like “Publishing Opportunities for Poets” or “Writing Contests for Emerging Writers.” Doing so may provide you with opportunities to get your work published, that you previously may not have found.
Sites like Vocal.Media allow you access to a community of writers that will allow you to post and share as well as critique other poetry works.
Marketing Yourself as an Artist or Business
One tool for poets to get exposure is to promote themselves as an artist or business owner; it helps build awareness of your brand across various online communities. It also allows you to promote your latest projects to spread the word about them among potential readers who might be interested in what you do (and vice versa).
Marketing yourself as a business owner allows you to share your poetical works through a website or blog that is dedicated to things related to what you write about.
You can also use social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram to promote yourself, both under the guise of an individual poet and as a business owner promoting their latest projects.
Self-promotion is one of the best ways to get exposure for your poetical works, especially in today’s day and age where almost everyone has a social media account. You can use tools such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to promote yourself by sharing links about what you are doing with other poets worldwide.
This allows them to read your work while simultaneously giving people who have never heard of you before a chance at discovering something new that they might enjoy reading.
Search for a Literary Agent
Literary Agents are a great way for poets to gain exposure through their work. Literary Agents represent poets and help them find publishers to get the poet’s works out into society where they can be admired by readers everywhere.
There are multiple sites on the internet that list literary agents who look for different writing styles, so you should search around until you find one with interests similar to your own.
However, keep in mind that most literary agencies do not accept direct submissions from poets but rather have an application process that includes submission packets such as query letters or full manuscripts.
You must follow this process precisely if you want any chance of being considered by these agency owners! If accepted, there is no guarantee that your poems will be published though it is an exciting and potentially rewarding process.
Self-Publish a Book of Poetry
Another way poets can gain exposure is by self-publishing a book of poems. This option may seem expensive, but there are ways around high costs if you search carefully enough.
The first place that poets should look into printing their self-published works would be POD (Print On Demand) sites like Lulu or Createspace. If eBooks are your preference, especially considering their low cost, Amazon has a self-publishing program to help lower any upfront costs that printing may have.
Create a Youtube Channel for Poetry Readings
Poetry readings are a great way to get started with poetry. It can be intimidating at first, but it doesn’t have to stay that way! To start on YouTube,
First, create a YouTube channel. Then add your username to the end of any video you upload, so people know who uploaded it. Don’t forget that subscribers are very important! You can get them by uploading interesting content and being active in the comments section.
After posting a few videos, market your YouTube channel just as you would your work or business. YouTube can be one of the quickest ways to promote your poetry work and achieve your goals as a poet.
Conclusion
For poets, some of the most popular ways to get work out there involve:
Creating social media accounts that revolve around these elements will help promote your work as well. It is important to remember that you don’t need to be published for your poetry to have value!
Find creative ways that best suit your needs and preferences, then go all-in with passion. You never know what might happen if you put yourself out there!
Sources
https://blog.reedsy.com/poetry-submissions/
https://www.writersdigest.com/poetry/self-promotion-for-poets
https://www.tckpublishing.com/poetry-literary-agents/