Stop creating non-spined 30-40 page or less chapbooks and charging over 10 dollars. You are screwing the authors, you are screwing the precious few supporters of poetry, and you are screwing yourselves in the long-term. I'm asking you please, stop. Please. Just stop.
2 comments:
Amen, Chad.
I really have to think the poet is a genius to happily shell out $10 for a staple bound chapbook.
For $10, I expect not just some poetry, but a physical object that is pleasant to hold and look at: Perfect binding if one is being traditional, or some sort of really clever design work if one is going for 30-40 pages-- oh yes: and some nice paper. A photocopy job is only acceptable if you are deliberately going for a cheap, punk-rock aesthetic (in which case you sure as hell shouldn't be charging $10.)
And as someone who used to review small press poetry, I have to say that some of these publishers (not naming names, in part because I've forgotten them) have a terrible design sense that often makes for an unpleasant reading experience.
Show me that you love these poems enough to really showcase them.
My own chapbook, due to the postage system, costs $10 to for the press to ship out, and I feel awful about that. I take great solace that the book looks good thanks to cover artist James Conant and is of good quality thanks to Gloria Mindock and her husband.
As of right now, it's $7 to buy it from me, and I can't afford to charge less for it due to what I have to pay for the copies.
At least I've made sure that the majority of the poems have been kept offline so I'm not just selling them 7-10 worth of internet bookmarks. I used to call that good business sense, but I even think you can simplify that further and call it good manners.
Poets need to care more about how their work is presented and how they present themselves. I actually like the idea of poetry reaching more people, and the more poets and their presses appear not to care about whether their work is read, the quicker everyone else will stop caring. Our work won't survive if we just rely on friends and young people who are forced to read poems and buy books in college.
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