Six Legs

Spoiler alert: If you’re squeamish about bugs, you might want to skip this item. But if you’ve ever been curious about busy bees, flighty butterflies, or even industrious ants, Sally Zakariya’s new book Insectomania might be just what you’re looking for. Her wry yet sensitive poems are enhanced with notable quotes and illustrations, most of them 19th-century naturalists’ engravings. Who wouldn’t want to find such a book in a Christmas stocking? Just click on the cover image to read more about Insectomania and see sample pages.

....................................................................................................................................

Advertisements for Yourself

Poets tend to be modest souls, so marketing your work can seem an onerous task. Not so with our fellow blogger Kevin Taylor, who’s come up with a really clever way to let people know who he is and what he does—and to make his marketing plan pay for itself.

Here’s how Kevin describes his scheme:

I tell almost everyone that I am a poet because I want them to think "poet" when they see or think of me. Or "Kevin" when they think of poetry. That takes a lot of promotion, and I got to thinking about getting the prospective audience member to pay for the promo. Here is what I came up with.

Step 1 was to get plain black and white business cards made up with “Kevin J. Taylor, Poet” on one side and contact info on the other, followed by a line that says "I can help," or "Readings—Coaching—Inquiries." Everyone gets that card. Everyone.

Next I chose about a dozen haiku (it could be anything) and made a small booklet at Staples with one haiku on each page. The cover is yellow card stock with my name on the front and the info from my business card on the back. Plus a price: $1. The inside front cover has a line or two promoting my books and where you can find them. I bind the booklet with a piece of red embroidery thread tied in the middle page and trimmed. I cut a tiny slit in the top and bottom of the center fold so that the thread is secure and won't slip off. The whole thing looks neat and tidy and is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket or a purse.

When I meet somebody, I say, “Hi!” and hand them a card. They look at it and see my name plus the word “poet.”

Next I pull a couple of booklets out of my pocket and say, "I am getting my name out there, and I made these little booklets with some haiku I wrote, like this one, "The hungry poet / greets each silence—Waiting / for his supper—Ha!.”

Then I close the booklet and hand it over, saying, "They're hand made for a dollar or whatever you can afford. The person is flabbergasted and hands me a dollar—really, it’s true. Then I give the person two booklets and say, "One for you and one for you to give to someone you think will like it."

When I follow this routine with people, they are happy. I am happy. I get paid for poetry, and the people who have my booklets will promote me to someone else with the second copy. Very cool. They will contribute to my success and have someone else to talk to about my poetry.

When I do a reading I also read from the little booklet briefly and tell them it’s a buck or whatever they'd like to pay, and then I give them two. I calculate my out-of-pocket expenses at about thirty cents for each booklet.

Believe me, if you do this, or something like it, people will love it and you will become their poet. They will never forget you.