Publishing Poetry

Lesson 4: Promoting Your Work

Writing good poetry is only the beginning. Whether you decide to self-publish or find an existing publisher for your poems, you will need to actively promote your work.

Writing a News Release

A news release is a great way to get free publicity. A well-written news release of only a few sentences will be more useful than a large advertisement. People pay more attention to news than to ads. A news release can be especially helpful if you are trying to get a book published or if you need to promote a self-published book.

A news release is a brief article reporting some item of news. An effective news release is usually only a couple of paragraphs. This is not supposed to be a particularly interesting article. It is simply meant to be informative. News releases are written in the concise style of a newspaper.

A news release might look something like this:

Local Poet Publishes First Book

Stories from the Greening, the first book by local poet Kelly Morris, is scheduled to be released next month. While this is her first book of poetry, her work has previously been featured in a number of literary journals, including American Poet and Midwest Review. A native of north-central Ohio, a number of Ms. Morris’s poems describe the landscape and the people of this region.

Stories from the Greening will be available next month at local book sellers or can be purchased on-line at PoetryPublications.com.

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A copy of a poem from the book could accompany the news release, along with a letter granting the editor of the paper permission to publish the poem along with the news release.

On another occasion, a news release might look like this:

Local Poet Gives Talk at Public Library

Local poet Kelly Morris, whose work has been published in a number of literary journals including American Poetry Review and Ohio Arts and Letters, will be giving a two-hour free seminar called "How to Get Your Poetry Published." The seminar will be held at the Richland Public Library on Monday, May 9, at 7:00 pm. Beginning and experienced poets are all invited to attend.

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There are numerous occasions for sending out news releases. Consider writing a news release every time you publish a poem in a literary journal or magazine of note, publish a book (whether it is self-published or published by well-known publisher), or are scheduled to give a poetry reading or a talk about poetry. Look for other occasions as well.

Send news releases to your local newspapers, but consider sending them to other relevant publishers as well. If the subject of your news release is a poem about your life at college, send the news release to the campus paper wherever you went to school. If you are promoting a book of religious poetry and you are a Methodist, send the release to some Methodist newsletters or other publications.

If you have a website, and you should (you’ll learn more about that later), be sure to include the address with any news release. If you have published a book, always include information about where copies can be purchased.

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