I learned early on that if I wanted to make money—make a living—being a writer, I needed to write fiction and nonfiction: novels, short stories, craft essays, how-to articles, etc. There was some money in teaching, too, which was great because I had always wanted to be an instructor, so that was a nice way to supplement my income, but the problem was that I’ve always just been drawn to poetry, which, historically, makes no money.
So why write it?
I’ve written many articles and personal essays on how poetry has saved my life, some of which you can read here and here. Still, I want to talk to you folks here today from a business perspective because I think there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about poetry out there, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to put together my book, Writing Poetry in the Dark. With that said, there are a lot of ways that poetry can strengthen not only your writing career and brand but also your bank account.
My first acceptance ever was a poem: “The Necklace.” I remember getting my contributor copy in the mail as a sophomore at Seton Hill University and running up to my dorm room feeling like I was actually a “real writer.” I don’t think I was actually paid for that poem, mind you, but it did give me the confidence I needed to keep submitting and working on what would be my first collection, Hysteria: A Collection of Madness.