Poetry’s New Frontiers: Finding A New Audience

An existential shakedown is happening amid the purveyors of poetry, world-wide, and in this country. Some see it as a pugilistic free-for-all with multiple genres, platforms and delivery methods duking it out for eyeballs. Others see it as a Darwinian evolution of expression that has extended poetry’s popularity.

Many, like Ian Williams, the award-winning author of six books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, have mixed thoughts, but agree the rise of self-publishing and social-media platforms is driving the change. “The recent poetry landscape is similar to the splintering of the entertainment industry,” Williams says. 

“Publishing houses were like network TV. But now there are so many other places for people to get their content . . . that we now get to hear many more voices and people don’t have to be professional poets to write poetry . . . There’s never been more choice for readers and writers. But as with all decentralization, there’s never been more noise.”

Denis De Klerck, publisher and editor at Mansfield Press, an independent Canadian press with a 22-year history of publishing Canadian poets and developing new talent, is open to the change, which means accepting work published in online journals as more legitimate. However, he believes new poets must show they have a track record. 

“Having publication credits shows the writer has submitted their work for editorial feedback,” he says. “Also, if the writer has no credits and is completely unknown in the literary world it is very hard to sell a first book. I like to see that the writer is trying to build some kind of audience. I don’t want to launch books into the void.”

New poets like Anton Pooles see the changes, especially the rise of online poetry journals, as largely positive. “Poetry, like all things, changes with the times. It takes on new and unfamiliar forms. It’s growth. . .  More doors open, more voices are heard.

Debra Black has just self-published her first poetry collection and thinks the change gives poets more opportunity.

“Publishing houses are becoming more narrow and sharply focused in what they publish, particularly when it comes to poetry,” she says. She also thinks self-publishing bucks the trend to mass marketing for big bucks. “No marketing to the whim or trend of the moment. Just art for art’s sake.” 

So how does the poetry market shake down? The oldest players, the large publishers, firms that, in your grandparents’ day, only printed books and in recent years have been gobbling each other up, keep an eye on their bottom line. Poetry has rarely meant profit, and big publishers have little incentive to foster new talent. In fact, some have stopped publishing poetry entirely. 

Next are mid-sized, specialty or independent publishers, like Mansfield Press, which is dedicated to keeping poetry a large part of its business. Then there are poets who self-publish, using online apps to design and produce their books, who print them themselves or hire online companies to print them and deliver them through the mail or online as E-books.

Hybrid publishers have also sprouted, offering to publish, produce, distribute and market would-be poets for a hefty fee. Reviews of their offerings are mixed. Some deliver, while others produce poor-quality product with spotty follow through. Then there are poets who publish through social media and sell through links to their websites. The variations here include Instagram poets, poets who promote and sell through Meta/Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even dancing and reading on Tik Tok. 

Mix in Patreon, Substack, Medium and LinkTree accounts along with email list servers and the choices for would-be poets are plenty. All these venues have flaws. Nepotism flourishes, especially among academia and publishing circles. 

How so? Higher education institutions and creative writing programs need students to make money. If they can show their students get published, they will, in turn, get more students. So they forge connections with

publishers and promote their best students and faculty into publication. This polishes their alma mater’s reputation. The educational institution or creative writing school can now tout its programs— a high number of published authors, which gets them more students.

These same educational institutions often publish or have strong faculty links to the “established” literary journals that can make a poet’s track record. In the process, they snag a huge chunk of available arts grants. They also influence which poets secure the few actual paying poet gigs, like becoming a poet or writer in residence or a poet laureate. 

The main problem with the indie poetry world, whether self-published or through other platforms, is finding the gems amid the garbage due to the disparate range in quality.

The role of awards and grants is crucial, but often unfair. Our country’s public broadcaster still must meet some of its mandate to educate and enlighten if it wants federal government tax dollars. So, it runs book clubs and contests for poetry and creative writing. Everyone can enter, and many do. 

The trend in recent years for winners to come from diverse backgrounds and have skirted the academia/nepotism trap is positive.  Arts grants are subject to the arbitrary guidelines and trends related to the politics of their funding sources. To many, the way they make their choices is indecipherable.

Add to all this the fact that getting a book of poetry reviewed nowadays is daunting and one might pity the poor poet. Few of the traditional review forums, daily newspapers and magazine have much space to offer for reviews, given their declining revenues. That means poets take on a good chunk of marketing and promoting their book, self-published or not.

Perhaps in past eras, creative types were more pragmatic, as many famous poets and authors routinely paid to get their work published. American poet Walt Whitman self-published Leaves of Grass in 1855— a seminal work that still sells thousands of copies each year. 

Among other famous poets who paid to self-publish their first, and often subsequent books (some with the help of relatives or by selling their homes or possessions) are Alexander Pope, T.S. Eliot, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Carl Sandburg, E. E. Cummings and Oscar Wilde.