publishing a poetry book

Hey all! I wanted to enquire for a friend of mine, who writes a lot of poetry, and has been thinking a long time about publishing a book of his work. The issue is, he has no idea where to start and asked for my advice, and I have to say I know just as little. Does anybody have some pointers? He just wanted some advice on how to publish, what things he should consider, where he should be careful, and so on. It is a very daunting thing to throw yourself into! He just needs some guidance and reassurance I guess. I'd be grateful for any help from people who either have experience publishing, or have somehow been exposed to this experience through others.

Anyone with an idea can publish a book these days. Get an account on Amazon Kindle for digital e-books, then make an account on Create Space to make your books available as hard copies.

I recommend writing your book in html, using Apache Open Office, but there's lots of other ways that you can Google. I just find that way the most simple. The important thing is to have all the paragraphs, and the page breaks, indents etc, just the way Amazon like it. There is an application for writing Kindle e-books which you can download from Amazon, but it's crap in my opinion. All you need is Open Office, and to save in html.

If you want pictures, write your book in .odt format, and save it as a .pdf before you upload it. KDP prefers html, but it will accept a pdf.

Graveyard76 wrote:Anyone with an idea can publish a book these days. Get an account on Amazon Kindle for digital e-books, then make an account on Create Space to make your books available as hard copies.

I recommend writing your book in html, using Apache Open Office, but there's lots of other ways that you can Google. I just find that way the most simple. The important thing is to have all the paragraphs, and the page breaks, indents etc, just the way Amazon like it. There is an application for writing Kindle e-books which you can download from Amazon, but it's crap in my opinion. All you need is Open Office, and to save in html.

If you want pictures, write your book in .odt format, and save it as a .pdf before you upload it. KDP prefers html, but it will accept a pdf.

Thanks a lot for your advice! I will transfer all this information to my friend, he will be really happy I'm sure. I have to say that e-book readers have really opened up new worlds to anyone who wants to write a book. However, since me and my friend had already discussed this, I know he is not too keen on publishing. First of all because he is quite traditional and likes the idea of a paper book, but also because as this would be his first book, he wants someone to "hold his hand" through the process, so a publishing house looks more attractive to him. Do you or anyone else happen to know more about the publishing company route?

No idea. I'm not even sure if such a company would offer such a service to an unknown author.

Good luck to your mate whatever he decides.

I talked once with someone who had worked for an editor.

She said that, if you want to be published, it's very important to choose the good editors. So many people send their things without looking at the tone of the other books.

So first step : choose the good editor to send your writing.

Then... unfortunately, the first step is often made by students. So if your writing isn't chosen, no drama : maybe next time you are more lucky.


I don't know more then that...

Philonoe wrote:I talked once with someone who had worked for an editor.

She said that, if you want to be published, it's very important to choose the good editors. So many people send their things without looking at the tone of the other books.

So first step : choose the good editor to send your writing.

Then... unfortunately, the first step is often made by students. So if your writing isn't chosen, no drama : maybe next time you are more lucky.


I don't know more then that...

Thanks for this! Ok that totally makes sense. Sorry if this is a really silly question, I'm am not at all invovled in the writing business, but is the editor someone who is attached to a publishing house, or is he or she independent?
Because then finding a good editor would equal to finding a good publishing company. But I might have gotten the wrong end of the stick here.
Sorry what do you mean by the first step is done by students? That they will be the first ones reading a new manuscript or that they take more initiative in trying to publish things? The latter would be fine as my friend is also a student. In any case it’s a risky thing... I guess you gotta put yourself out there and really hope for the best and stay positive.

noctiluca wrote:Thanks for this! Ok that totally makes sense. Sorry if this is a really silly question, I'm am not at all invovled in the writing business, but is the editor someone who is attached to a publishing house, or is he or she independent?
Because then finding a good editor would equal to finding a good publishing company. But I might have gotten the wrong end of the stick here.

I said editor for publishing company. Some of them are very very small, though. Might be a person alone. They are often specialised or have specific tone, readers etc. So it's important to know a little more about them before applying for being published.

Sorry what do you mean by the first step is done by students? That they will be the first ones reading a new manuscript or that they take more initiative in trying to publish things? The latter would be fine as my friend is also a student. In any case it’s a risky thing... I guess you gotta put yourself out there and really hope for the best and stay positive.

Well, she told me that, as it takes time to read all manuscripts, the task is often asked to newbies or students.
Now, it's true that students can have good initiatives, too.
Internet changed many things, be about online publishing or even paper publishing, i imagine.

Besides, I think there exists some sort of fairs in some places, where people can visit, meet editors or look at books. It can be interesting, if your friend likes that sort of events.

I see thanks a lot for tall that information!
Ok yes that totally makes sense in a way that students would help out. Not super reassuring, but still understandable.
Do you know of any of those fairs? In the UK preferably?

Well, to find some poetry fair, i just googled : poetry fair london and there seem to be some fair, there.

Then i tried randomly poetry fair Brighton and found some festival there. There seem to be lots of events related to poetry in the UK.

Right - google always helps I didn't think there would actually be poetry fairs weirdly enough, only book fairs with some poetry editors or houses. But now that I think about it it seems logical there would be some. Anyways thanks a lot!!! Swill check those out, London would be quite handy for me.