How To Market Your Chapbook or Book: Subterranean Blue Poetry

BOOK REVIEWS: have your friends or other Poets/Authors write Book Reviews about your book and post at Amazon Stations and at social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Author sites, Google, LinkedIn, GoodReads +). Subterranean Blue Poetry is a marketing platform for Books of Poetry and I write authoritative Book Reviews ($50.00 Cnd) and feature in the latest issue of Subterranean Blue Poetry with a Subterranea . . . ad and postings at The Book Reviewer, Amazon Stations, GoodReads and a one-time social media campaign.

LAUNCH PRESS RELEASES TO TRADITIONAL MEDIA: Have a Press Release written and send it to traditional newspaper publishers and magazines. Subterranean Blue Poetry will write a Press Release for $26.50 Cnd. You can send the Press Release by email to the Poetry Editors (Globe and Mail, Voir, The Toronto Star, NOW magazine, Montreal Gazette +) and enquire if they will write a Book Review of your Book of Poetry for their publication. You can send a paperback book or a .pdf/.docx if they answer your query.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS: launch a picture of your Book and some ad copy at social media sites regularly. Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Author sites, LinkedIn, Google, Instagram +. There are services advertised that will do this for you. (Subterranean Blue Poetry will do a monthly campaign for $26.50 Cnd). You can do a paid advertising campaign with Twitter, they will repeat a tweet for one month for $100 USD (but this is only offered in the United States, U.K., and Japan). There are also paying ad campaigns with Facebook and Amazon. For Amazon the minimum cost of a revolving campaign is $100.

CREATE A WEBSITE: You can have a one-page ($26.50 Cnd) professional html WebSite created by Subterranean Blue Poetry (each additional page is + $10). You will need to purchase a Domain Name (about $20 per year) and some Web Hosting ($6 to $23 per month). If you place an email collector on the WebSite you can collect email addresses and create an EBook giveaway. Then when you launch another book you send everyone on your email list an email telling them it is available at Amazon Stations and other online purveyors. This strategy has been known to garner sales.

You can also launch a one page Facebook WebSite for free. These are easy to do and you can title the page with the name of your book. (you can have a maximum of 3 Facebook WebSites).

ENTER YOUR BOOK FOR PRIZES: Often a book of poetry that makes a shortlist for prizes will go on people's reading lists and increase sales for the Poet. There are usually entry fees, the entry usually needs to be made in the year of publication and rules, usually the Poet cannot be self-published and often the entry needs to be made by your Publisher. Subterranean Blue Poetry is willing to enter your Subterranean Blue Poetry Chapbook or Imprint in Poetry Book Contests. There is a $26.50 Cnd. fee to fill out and send in the forms plus the Poet needs to pay the entry fee and supply the number of copies of books required. The following is a list of major Poetry Book Contests:

Canada

The Griffin Poetry Prize: generous cash award for one Canadian and one international Poet. www.griffinpoetryprize.com.

The Gerald Lampert Award: for a Poet's first book of poetry. The League of Canadian Poets.

The Pat Lowther Award: for a book of poetry by a woman. The League of Canadian Poets.

The Raymond Souster Award: for a book of poetry by a League of Canadian Poets member. The League of Canadian Poets.

The Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award: for excellence in spoken word poetry. The League of Canadian Poets.

The Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Prize: for a book of Poetry by a Canadian youth. The League of Canadian Poets.

United States

The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: for exellence in original verse by an American Poet.

www.pulitzer.org.

Various Awards given by The Academy of American Poets.

www.poets.org.

Various Awards given by The Poetry Society of America.

www.poetrysociety.org.

Various Awards given by The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

www.artsandletters.org.

And there are a myriad of smaller awards both in Canada and the United States and internationally, for a full list of International Poetry Book Contests: International List of Poetry Awards.

LAUNCH BOOK SIGNING AND READING EVENTS: Order some Author copies of your books from Amazon Stations and take them to your favourite local Book Store to see if they will carry them. Organize a book signing, organize a party. Appear at Poetry Reading Events and perform spoken word. Take some of your Author copies and offer discounted sales of your books. Head down into the local Metro underground and perform spoken word offering up your Author copies at discounted prices or leaving copies of your book for subway train riders.