How To Publish Your Christian Poetry

By Rev. John marinelli, Founder, Fellowship of Christian Poets
www.christianpoets.com

Over the past five years, I have done an extensive search in an effort to learn more about publishing Christian Poetry. I wanted to find a market for my new book, The Art of Writing Christian Poetry and to locate a source for publishing poems in the future. This has been a journey for me in seeking a way to get published. I hope my experience will help you in your search to be a published author.

First, let’s look at being a published author. There is no real prestige in the idea, unless a publisher that pays you to publish your book has picked you up. That is, to actually be given a check, an advance against royalties, before you are even published. Then to have your book placed in bookstores everywhere. That will most likely never happen for most of us, including me. So don’t get upset or discouraged by it. Just go on with what you are doing and get published another way.

Second, let’s consider some other ways to publish our Christian Poetry. Here’s a list of other ways that I personally investigated over the last 15 years.

v There are many companies that do self-publishing. The Internet is buzzing with them. One of them did my 1st book, Rhyme Time, also in the list of book offers at www.christianpoets.com. They did a great job, leaving me with 1,000 books, most still in boxes in my garage, at a cost of over $2,000. This was 10 years ago. The cost today would be over $5,000 for the same book. I received no marketing or anything except a thank you and 1,000 books. To me, this was not the ideal experience, but I could say I was a published author with an ISBN number and that offered me a great notoriety among the boxes in my garage.

v You can go the route of soliciting a literary agent. I also did that, sending in my book for review to a company in Texas that said it only send inquiries to publishers that pay me for publishing my book. After a few weeks, I received a letter and a contract to represent me. The only hitch was the $300 up front fee that would be paid back to me from their 10% commission, if the book was sold. I don’t think so.

v Another on this list and one that is popular among our poets is the Publish on Demand method. In most cases, I have found that they do what they say, little or nothing. It cost you money. You still do the marketing and they get the lion’s share of the profit. However, I did find one Christian company that is better than most. This is the one I am using, Lifevest Publishing. They have several options to select from in publishing your own book. They will ask you for a list of friends and family to market the book to. They include your book in a spring and fall catalog and give you a home page on their website to display and promote your work. It’s the best deal I have found and the per book cost to you is better than any other company on the market. If you are interested, call Ric Simmons at 877-843-1007. He is in Colorado so watch the time zones and don’t call too early.

v The final way is to do-it-yourself by setting the margins of your word document so you end up with the right size book, type your manuscript, do a cover design and all the rest. Then take the printed version to Office Depot or another copy center and have them copy and spiral bind it into a book. I have also done this method and sold a few books on a publish-on-demand basis. Larger books get really expensive in the per copy cost but for 10 to 15 page booklets, it ok.

A third possibility in getting published is to purchase the Christian Writer’s Market Guide. It cost around $28 and can be found in most well known bookstores. It’s a thick book full of where to send poems, if they pay for them, and so on. List upon lists.

Getting published is easy if you have the money. The hard part is marketing your book. You need to determine the best target audience, design a mailer, rent or develop a list and mail it…all hoping to make a sale. Is it all worth it? I’d say yes, because if you don’t believe in your gifting enough to invest in it, why should anyone else. Another good source is 1001 Ways To Market Your Books by John Kermer, available from Lifevest Publishing.

How do you know if a thousand Christian bookstores will buy your book and sell it to others over and over again? How do you know that God wants to bless you financially through your gift? You don’t until you take that leap of faith and step into the waters of marketing and ministry all wrapped into one big effort.

When all is said and done, getting published is an adventure that takes lots of time, effort and some hard earned cash. It’s worth the trip and can be a great project for the upcoming year.

Until next time
Rev John Marinelli, Co-Founder
Fellowship of Christian Poets
for Lifevest Publishing, Inc. ~~~~ _/) ~~~~
http://lifevestpublishing.com
and Home of http://AuthorsToBelieveIn.com