I wanted to publish a poetry book since I was 13 years old which was 1996. It was always in the back of my mind. In more recent years I am criticized often for choosing to self-publish the way that I self-publish as though I am personally responsible for the ills of capitalism and the actions of billionaires.
Perhaps, if I had a time machine, I would tell myself about Submittable and skip a few more meals in college to pay readers fees so I could be traditionally published. My life has not been one of wealth and privilege, so just as I didn’t have tens of thousands of dollars lying around for an MFA to learn to do things the way it’s always been done, I also didn’t have it for investing in book publishing. I had to go work day jobs in order to keep a roof over my head. Poetry was the side hustle if it could be considered a business at all. I see myself more as an unusually successful hobbyist.
Back when I first put out Tea & Sprockets in 2004, I released it through CafePress. I compiled and uploaded it using the free Internet at my university’s library. My motivations were not to become a famous poet, have a writing career, nor go on a book tour. I merely wanted a copy of my poetry in paperback book format.
Back then I had purchased a copy of the Poet’s Market. I was a broke college student often surviving on jars of peanut butter and gas station protein bars. Back then submitting poetry to journals or anthologies often required printing and mailing copies via the USPS. I needed my money for survival, not gambling for publication credits.
I majored in film studies with the intent of working in film and broadcast television not creative writing, so I wasn’t in the right department to ask for tips from professors on how to get published, nor did it ever occur to me to do so, since my professors weren’t publishing poetry collections. When I couldn’t find paying work in my major, I fell back on secretarial work and manual labor.
These earlier editions didn’t have a table of contents nor an ISBN. While the company existed since 2000, I didn’t hear about CreateSpace until the 2010s. I took down the CafePress version and published the first CreateSpace edition on October 31, 2011 which was the first edition with an ISBN. I was unaware it was owned by Amazon at the time. I appreciated that CreateSpace didn’t ask me for thousands up front just so that my garage could be filled up with unsold copies. Print on Demand means less waste.
I was working on my manuscript at public libraries or during my lunch break at work. No one was around to tell me that by self-publishing, I was disqualifying myself from first book contests which is how many chapbooks printed by legitimate publishers are created.
While it existed since 2010, I didn’t find Submittable until 2015. I was in no position to pay for a Duotrope subscription way back in 2005 either. I had submitted to some local poetry anthologies way back in 2007. I even submitted to a few chapbook contests, making sure to submit brand new material never before performed or published, but I was frequently rejected. I largely gave up on the idea of being published by other people until 2020.
I didn’t get my first real publication credit until 2015 nor anthology publication until 2017. By that time I had already self-published nine poetry books, thousands of people around the world had downloaded my e-books, and I was named poet laureate of my city. Had I relied on traditional methods of publication, I might have given up a long time ago fully convinced that I was not good enough to be a poet.
To self-publish my books “the right way” with ISBNs that I purchase and through other distributors would take a lot of time and money that I don’t have. I would want to re-edit my past books to perfection since Ingram charges for revisions unlike KDP. If I were to use Lulu I would be paying $80 just in set up fees to reprint 20 titles.
I would need $600 just for new ISBNs from Bowker in order to reprint my pre-existing books–at which point it would be cheaper to buy 100. This amount is equivalent to an HOA payment for me. The likelihood of my quickly earning it back through book sales is very slim. The yearly income that I do receive from poetry does not justify such an investment.
Even the cost of printing the 20 odd copies of paperback books that I order each year, hoping to sell to audience members at performances, is about $40 more than KDP using Ingram, and $100 more than KDP using Lulu. I would have to raise my prices to compensate for the difference since venues also often want a 50% cut of the retail price.
Yes, Ingram claims to have higher online royalties with about $13 as opposed to $8 from a $17.99 book, but again, the majority of my paperback sales are not online sales. Online most people buy the ebook version if one is available, and I use several different distributors for ebooks. Online I am competing with millions of other products. At a show I am only competing with a handful of other featured poets selling their books.
The local bookstores that currently carry my books are ones that where I have performed and built up a relationship. It’s no hit to my ego to not be on every bookstore shelf across the world. I do not wish to have my books destroyed if they are not sold because it contributes to more waste, nor am I prepared to personally eat the cost of unsold books from other businesses.
Book sales are not my metric of success when I have numerous other evidence that I am a successful poet. I am not really in the bookselling business. I am into personally archiving my poems for posterity. Being published internationally in anthologies, having a poem on the moon, and having recognition by state and local governments are other metrics of validation.
When a legitimate publisher offers me a better deal to reprint my titles, then I’ll take it. But at this point I would need a time machine where no amnesia would occur so that I could tell my past self about the most ethical ways of publishing, or a magical cure for my carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, so that I am physically able to review and reformat 20 paperback books for a new platform, and a lot of disposable start up income to throw towards different way to self-publish.
Even in my efforts to be published traditionally by other publishers, I have found many indie publishers using KDP as well to print their anthologies. I used to opt for ebay to buy items only to have the seller drop ship from Amazon. If one wants to fully boycott large corporations, it’s hard to get away from all the areas of influence.
Perhaps, if I do manage to squeak out my 19th poetry manuscript, I’ll try another platform on for size, and we’ll see how it goes, but for now I am sticking with KDP.