: A Market For Long Narrative Poetry? In spirit I have struggled long to find A manner fit to hold my roiling thoughts; A way to slowly pour them to a mold - And happily that manner has been

I know this is somewhat late but I thought I might share my experience with you.

I have just had a long, narrative poem accepted for publication in Piker Press. It is just under 4,000 words and 30 (A5) pages long. It is written in quatrain form. It is the shortest of my long, narrative poems - the others are up to 40,000 words. I am afraid that poetry rarely sells (according to what I have been told and read) and hardly ever makes a profit, which may explain why publishers shy away from it and seem to consider only established poets if an at all.

My view is that if a good, long narrative poem that relates an engaging tale, could be published, with appropriate artwork, it would probably sell better than some novellas or novels.

Until then, keep trying.

Good luck.

HMcG

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Go to Duotrope, put your criteria in the search, and see what you find. Duotrope has a pretty good sized database for markets and you can search on a number of criteria. Hopefully, you will find something useful.

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A most unwelcome answer

'Tis too late, said one.
Not here, said another.
Then silence, or rather
Mystery not yet undone.

There is an unspoken thought,
an obvious sky-ridden star:
absolute, earnest by far.
'Tis the answer you sought:

of words twisted and obscure,
many of which but manure,
the world is full in surplus.

If you write for pleasure,
Then yours is the treasure:
enjoy, and don't bother us.

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A common market for shorter pieces is anthologies.

You didn't give a length but "long poetry" is probably still not novel length.

Anthologies tend to have themes based on the subject of the work or the communities the author belongs to, or both. For example:

Science fiction stories by Iraqis
Steampunk by Southeast Asian writers
Science Fiction stories by people of color, with disabilities, etc

These are simply examples of anthologies I've read and liked. There are countless more. While science fiction and fantasy anthologies are common, there are plenty that don't have that theme. Most do not have requirements that the author belong to a particular community either. Though if you do belong to a particular community of any kind, do some searches. This includes living in a particular city.

Look at theme broadly. For example, if Goblin Market was just written and the author was trying to publish it, it could belong with stories of fantasy, fairy tale, horror, family ties, women, sisterly love, etc.

Consider graphic novel format.

Many anthologies are for graphic novel/comic book creators. You might consider partnering with an artist and submitting to anthologies using a creative illustrative style that doesn't have to look anything like most graphic novels.

If your poem is long enough (or if you have more than one that would work together), an illustrated book that is all your own might catch the eye of publishers more than a book of an epic poem.

I can imagine, for example, pages with long but narrow text down the middle and pictures and patterns in the very large margins.

Or pictures breaking up each stanza (or set of stanzas).

Or each page of text side by side with a full page illustration.

If you go this route, take your time finding the right artist and only get one, maybe two, sample pages to show publishers. Art is expensive!

Be creative!

Epic poetry isn't a big seller unless it's older works for school children, and even then... So the more you can position your work as part of other markets, the more successful you'll be. Good luck!

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