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Poetry Doesn't Sell
Poetry Doesn’t Sell
Clark Steven Lupton
March 5, 2005
Sometimes I think about
And I often dwell
On why I continue to write poems
When book publishers say, “Poetry doesn’t sell.”
I send my samples to some book publishers
And they say that they are good
But unfortunately they can’t print them in a book
And they hope someone else would
Poetry books don’t sell well
And the publishers know it
The only kind of person who buys poetry books
Is another poet
Poetry appeals to emotions
It almost has no other use
There are few successful poets
As commercial as Dr Suess
To fill a good book with poems
Takes a lot of time and is hard
It’s much easier to read and would be cheaper if
You buy a greeting card
The styles of poems are limited
They’re something a poet has to work around
He expresses his ideas with fewer words
And often combines a rhyming sound
With this different style
It is not the same to read
As the best selling books
Whose authors that we feed
We use poetic license
When we don’t follow the rules in writing
And the techniques we use to phrase things
Just tricks you into thinking it’s enlightening
And what happens to be ironic,
I know that I’m not wrong
When you add music to a poem
It sells well, as a song
And what I find even more curious
Is the best selling songs are rap
Which are basically rhymes with loud beats,
Which I consider to be crap
But books that sell are novels
And those that help the self
Poems give temporary amusement,
Which can be read once at the poetry shelf
They may not be the kind of books
That an average buyer picks
But at least I can claim that the number of times
I’ve been published in the papers have been six
I’d like to compile enough poems for a book
To show that I can make a rhyme
For people to buy, borrow or steal
(I may overlook that it’s a crime)
So why doesn’t poetry sell?
Is it something people can’t afford?
I think the answer is implied –
It’s because reading it makes them bored
So what’s a budding poet to do,
To feed himself and buy his gas?
He can apply at Hallmark cards
Or teach a summer poetry class
My suggestion is if you can afford it self publish. I plan to do that down the road myself. Poetry doesn't sell well because like you say it's usually other poets that buy it. The problem is poetry and literature in schools today do not have enough time spent on them to show the various formats open or how it's changed through the years though the emotions are the same in every generation even if circumstances change.The other thing too is so many today have limited vocabulary and are too dam lazy to pick up a dictionary much less use something like dictionary dot com even on line and keep it in their favorites. Myself,I have dictionarys from 1930-to current,I have copies of the the original Roget first three editions as well as a current one, I have a rhyming dictionary as well. I also have a secretaril speller book from 1920 that was used in a secretarial school in N.Y. it's amazing because you get to see what's added and how much is dropped as new ones come out. A lot of old phrases you will not find in the newer books. I also collect the great authors and have quite a collection. My town library has books fairs in Sept and they have a free table at the back of the builiding so I've found many originals like an 1894 Dickens for example. I have Poe,Emerson,Whittier,Lord Byron,Tenyson,Longfellow which by the way did you know that Longfellows Tales Of A Wayside in was written in 3 installments before it was published originally in BOston. Todays lesson hahahalol. Keep in touch..
I like your piece and agree with you,but I think the reason it doesn't sell is people like to read these ridiculous and mindless romance novels, womens braindead magazines,sports up the wazoo wishing it were them playing, and don't want to make time to read poetry for the human factor demonstrated in it