Publish Your Own Poetry Chapbook
What you'll learn
- Select the right poems for your collection.
- Create front and back matter.
- Budget your time and money.
- Avoid costly mistakes.
- Understand publication options.
- Choose distribution channels.
- Invest in your own artistic currency!
Requirements
- Required software and materials are based solely on decisions the student makes about the poetry chapbook he or she is creating.
Description
If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? It's an age-old question. Now, think of your favorite poet or writer as a tree, and think of your favorite story or poem as a sound. Aren't you glad you were around to "hear it fall?"
If you're a poet who's ready to share his or her work with the world, do you know how to make sure there's someone around to read it?
I've learned a lot about the process of creating poetry chapbooks by trial and error over the past twelve years. I've created this course to share what works and what doesn't work, hopefully helping other poets avoid my most costly mistakes.
In this workshop course, I introduce and demonstrate the steps to creating a poetry chapbook in a three part timeline: preproduction, production, and postproduction. I break each of those three major parts of the chapbook project timeline into discussions and demonstrations of both administrative and creative tasks. I use videos, slides, and supplemental examples to guide students through the workshop. Students work a their own pace and set their own schedule for completion.
I work from the standpoint that chapbooks can't be defined by any one physical characteristic, and electronic chapbooks have just as big a place in my lessons as physical chapbooks. The secret is in the purpose and in the artistic currency. Want to know more? Sign up today!
Who this course is for:
- Poets, beginners or experienced, will benefit by understanding the self publishing process from start to finish.
- Burgeoning indie publishers will find these hints and tips can save time and money.
Instructor
Amy Lynn Hess is an Atlanta area poet, painter, potter, publisher, professor, and dramaturg. She holds a B.S. in Theatre and Interpretation from Central Michigan University, an M.A. in Theatre History and Criticism from Ohio University, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. She has published three chapbooks of poetry and a textbook about sentence diagramming, and she is the editor-in-chief for her small poetry publishing company, Gypsy Daughter. She has been an English and General Education Professor since March of 2008, having previously held jobs as an administrative assistant, bookkeeper, sales clerk and product expert at an art supply store, librarian, high school teacher, tutor, properties manager, costumer, make-up artist, and managing director at a non-profit playhouse.
You can read more of Amy Lynn's work on her blog, Gypsy Daughter Essays.