Publish and Promote with Poetry Folds

A few years ago, I was invited to a reading series as one of the featured poets.  In the past when I featured I just went to read my poetry and build my brand as a regional poet without any wares to sell. But this particular reading stressed to bring your books to sell at a vendor table.  It had been years since I had self-published any of my copy-store poetry chapbooks.  I didn’t have the design files for them, I had procrastinated to the point where I didn’t have time to redesign them for a copy-store production, let alone POD printing, and I didn’t really have a lot of money to invest, but I didn’t want to show up empty-handed. I decided that the best thing to do was to create a new, inexpensive literary product I called poetry folds. 

What is a poetry fold?

Basically, I invested five dollars on a ream of cardstock and did some home printing.  A poetry fold is simply a folded sheet of paper printed as a booklet (I prefer cardstock for the weight and durability).  I used the front “page” as the cover, and put poems on the inside and the back.  This serves as a sampling of your work that your audience can pick up, either at a charge or for free as a promotional item.

How do I use a poetry fold?

At their inception, I did not sell the poetry folds, per se.  I created three different folds with three different themes, laid them out on the vendor table, and let the audience know that they were available to take, though donations were encouraged.  Of course, I could have charged a dollar or two per fold, but I wanted to encourage the audience to read some of my work, to build my name and have them take my name with them as they left.  Some just picked one up, or one of each, some gave me a dollar or two, and a few gave me five dollars or more.  It averaged out well.  Of the thirty I printed, twenty eight were taken and I made just shy of fifty dollars.  This was not a bad return on investment. 

Of course, you don’t need to charge if you want to use them for promotion.  If you don’t need to make back the money spent on ink and paper you can give them away to build your name recognition if you haven’t published an actual poetry book.  If you have or are preparing to publish, they are a great way to promote your upcoming or previously published book with some samples and release information.  Give them away at readings, leave them behind in a coffee shop, or stick them on a free rack at a local bookstore that will carry your book.

But how do I make a poetry fold?

This really depends on the program you are using, but most word processor and publishing programs have a “booklet” setting that you can create the pages in order.  You are basically making a document with four 5.5” X 8.5” pages, printing two per page on each sheet side of the 11” X 8.5” paper (landscape).  If your program does not automatically have a “booklet” option in the page setup or the printing dialog, you will need to design it so that the last page is first, the first second, second third, and third fourth.

Please let me know in the comments any questions you have or how poetry folds have worked for you.