An Open Letter to Poets

Poetry is not dead

Medium is a place like no other. You write and you get paid. Simple as that. But like many other places, it’s ruled by the market. Let’s use the tv as an example: you can watch something that is going to teach you things and make you a better person, and then you can watch something that simply entertains you before going to sleep.

We all know what kind of tv shows make the most money but we can’t say one deserves more than the other because that is how the market works. Now, let’s come back to Medium. This platform, like many others, is used mostly by people who want to read something on their computers or phones, while working or commuting.

The average user is the one who is at work and is trying to find ways to be more productive while actually procrastinating instead of working. Another kind of user is the one who wants to learn something such as new coding stuff or the designing trends or what’s happening with politics. It is not that normal that people want to sit on their desk at work to read poetry. It’s not usual, either, that a person gets to its house at night after a long day of work and turn the computer on to read a short story. Sure, you may say you’re one of them, but you’re the exception of the rule.

In the Internet world of writing and reading, the kind of stories people consume works the other way round than tv and movies. While most people go to the movies to see a blockbuster hit to forget about the world for two hours, on the internet, the vast majority likes to enlighten their minds (unlike they’re actually spending time on meme sites) and that is something that most of us poets don’t quite understand.

We want to be paid the same as people that have thousands of readers every day on his self-help articles just because we put the same effort into a poem. Yes, the same effort. Because it’s also complicated for self-help, economics or politics writers to come up with new stuff.

So, the new rule is “same effort = same pay” or something like that? I don’t think so. The rule is: “more readers = more pay.”

Now, is poetry dead?

Absolutely not. Nothing, ever, is going to kill poetry. The thing is, we’re showcasing it in the wrong place. As I said before, Medium is a place like no other, but now I’d like to add: Medium is not the best place for poetry or any type of art in the form of a final product. Why? Because Medium is not a social media place where your product can be shared or bought according to the value it really has.

Let me explain this with some examples. Imagine that JK Rowling is starting her career and she stumbles upon Medium and decides to publish each chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as single stories. What would have happened? We can’t tell for sure but my guess is that she wouldn’t have had as much as success as she did by selling her story through the right channel (an editorial that distributed it widely.)

Another example: Twitter poets. You log in to Twitter, write a line or two and hit share. Your followers read what you wrote, they like it, they retweet. Then, their followers see what you wrote, the like it, they retweet and they share. And so on. In a couple of hours, you have reached a very wide audience and some of them decided to follow you. Then, you tweet something about your poetry book and people who like your stuff buy it. See? Poetry is not dead.

Something like what you get on Twitter is something very difficult to obtain from Medium. Here, you can’t share someone’s work. Here, you can’t access to the consumers of your product because most of your audience is other writers trying to do the same thing. The majority of poetry readers, the ones who read books and buy them and share things on social media are out there doing other things than using Medium to find poetry. They are in bookstores or book clubs or attending live lectures.

We have to remember that we poets are sellers. We sell stories. We sell books. Painters sell paintings. Photographers sell photos. You get the idea. People don’t want to see a picture of Picasso’s paintings on the internet. They want to see them in a museum or buy them for exorbitant prices to have them in their house. The same goes for poetry. A poem, just like a painting, is a finished product. The consumer doesn’t want to just read it, they want to have it. That’s why they buy books.

The poetry writers that are making the most money right now are getting rich by selling books and offering paid live lectures. No one gets rich by just getting reads online. As I was telling Jenny Justice the other day, we must find a way that our work becomes something more profitable. Writing on Medium is not going to work out if we just keep on writing poetry the way we do.

The difference between an article/personal essay and a poem is that an article is not a final product. An article is an opinion, some news, something educational, something that might change the world for good. It can be something amazing, yes, but it’s not something that some guy is going to buy. It’s not like you go to the store and say “hey, a copy of the article on global warning please, I want to put it on my shelves” right? That’s crazy. But you do go to the store and ask for a copy of a poetry book, don’t you?

Articles are so bad at selling themselves that they must sell among a lot of other articles in newspapers or magazines, and still, what people are buying is the brand, not the article. Sure, if the latest number of some magazine has an article by my favorite artist, I will buy it, but you get the idea, right? That is what Medium is. A site for articles where you pay to read, and what gets the more reads is going to get the most money. That how it works here and in the rest of the world.

How to live from poetry

If you are a poet and you want to live from poetry, you must have something to sell. It can be a book, it can be a show, a podcast, a paid subscription to a poetry newsletter, etc. What you sell is up to you, but you can’t expect that a 5 dollars subscription from users of a platform pays for your bills.

There’s a lot of things we can do that relates to the poetry world. If we keep doing as we do, sharing poems, we won’t make it. I strongly recommend that you write a book. Pitch it to editorials or self publish it. Learn about marketing. Own your audience. Go wide. I did that and I have it on Amazon, and selling one single copy of it pays me more than writing three or four poems here.

But the journey doesn’t end with writing a book or having your own newsletter. You still have to find readers, and of course, buyers. And how do you that? Well, you have to get people to know you.

You must introduce yourself to the world, because most of the time when a buyer gets a copy of a book, they do it because of who the author is.

And how do I get people to know me?

Let’s talk about how you can do that. For this, I’ll start by mentioning the Medium Partner Program new system, again. Do you know what I like the most about it? It is not what you’re thinking.

What I like the most is that I’m seeing a lot of poets speak up for what they think is right. They are writing articles. They are complaining. They are trying to find ways to rescue poetry on Medium. And that it’s awesome. Why? Because we poets are rebels, are revolutionaries, are the ones that never stay quiet and that no matter what happens, we’re going to raise our voices until we find justice.

I’ve read dozens of stories about poets asking for the Medium community to read our work or to still clap for what we write. Actually, this letter was inspired by one piece from Cheridan Smith where she expresses how sorry she is for us being paid so little. It’s all like a snowball. Once one speaks, the other one will too.

BY SPEAKING UP AND USING YOUR VOICE IS HOW YOU GET PEOPLE TO KNOW YOU AND READ YOUR WORK.

What I want now is that we all keep talking but not only in poetry form but with our voices. I still want to read poetry, of course, but I want to see the real persons behind the poems. I want to know your stories. Because you all have some deep stories to tell.

In one of my poems, one that I haven’t posted yet here on Medium, I say that “I learned to read people’s hand because reading poetry was getting me depressed, but I got even sadder since people’s lives are the deepest poems I’ve ever read.”

And that’s what I want. I want to know about you, about what happened in your childhood, about what was the thing that made you become a writer. I want to know what haunts you at night that makes you want to grab a pen to let it all out. I want to see inside of your head as if I were watching a movie.

I want to feel what you feel, but not only in a poem. No, poems can wait for a while, poems can wait until I’m on my bed, getting ready to sleep, and I grab your book. What I want now, at this very moment while I’m on my computer, or on my phone trying to distract myself for a while, is that you tell me what is going on with your mind.

I want you to tell me how you are able to get out of your bed and write because sometimes I feel that I can’t. I want to connect with you and learn from you. I already know that you’re a great writer, now I want you to tell me how to be like you. I already know about your writing skills, now I want you to teach me how to write like you. I know that you suffer every day, now I want to know how you’re still breathing because there are times that I don’t know how to breath myself.

And you know what? That’s why personal essays and how-to articles are the best paid here on Medium. Because people want to know things. And want to know something more? You, poet, are going to kick ass to those successful writers because what makes you write poetry that good is more than enough for people to read whatever you want to.

Tell your story to connect with people

I can’t speak for you, but I lost my mother when I was one year old, my father abandoned me for a while, then he married my stepmother and then divorced her, so I became a three times orphan. My dad was shot by the cartels in Mexico, I was kidnapped once and I scaped, my brother was kidnapped twice and they cut one of his fingers. I was sexually abused by some guy when I was a kid and the day I found out he was killed by gangsters, I felt somehow happy and that’s something that makes me think I’m a bad person. I’ve traveled the world studying and doing volunteer work and I’ve heard and seen some of the most tragic stories ever. I’ve suffered so many abandonments that I can’t even count them and every day I struggle with anxiety and depression.

And the worst thing about my story is that is not only my story. A lot of people out there are suffering from the same stuff, or even worse. But they can’t talk about it, they can’t write about it. But I do. And so do you, poet. We are the voice of so many out there.

That’s why I write. What do you write for?

I’m not saying that every story is tragic. What I’m saying is that we are not unique and that is actually a good thing. We know how to write and we can connect with people. We are lifesavers, we are the ones that people read and they feel like they’re not alone. Because they are not. We are all in the same boat. And if we don’t do something with the ability we have to tell stories and to engage with people, we are literally letting someone hanging, someone that needs our help and we might be the only ones that can help them.

This is how deep our responsibility is. Remember the Spider-Man movie when uncle Ben tells Peter that “with great power comes great responsibility?” Well, we have the superpower of writing and we must save other people. People are waiting for our stories for much more than we think. For much more than just reading a poem. That’s why we must do something more. Again, I’m not talking about the tragic stuff. Whatever it is that you know how to do, show us. Whatever is that you can say, tell us. We will listen.

Ok, but, what if I don’t want to share my story?

There’s a lot of stuff you still can do as a poet without telling your story and still connect with people. Here are some ideas that I’ve been working on. All poetry related. I’m going to share them with you guys, and if something works out for you, then I urge you to write about them:

What is poetry? An Approximation to the History of Poetry / Common Kinds of Poetry / How Poetry Saved my Life / How to Tell the Difference Between Prose and Poetry / What is Iambic Pentameter and How to Count Syllables / How to Analyze Poetry / Elements of Poetry: Metric, Cadence, Rhythm and Rhyme

These are the educational poetry related articles that poetry writers will like, but here are some more that not only poetry writers, but poetry readers, will enjoy:

Interviews with writers / Reviews of other writers’ work / Compilations of the best poems you’ve ever read (as long as copyright allows you) / The story behind your poems

Last but not least, here are some ideas that you can write about for the audience that wants to dedicate themselves to write poetry.

Studies of how successful poets are making it so we can do the same / Marketing for writers / Guides on how to pitch stories to editorials, find an agent / Guide to self-publish

Find your own voice

You don’t have to do exactly what I’m telling you. You can have a deep conversation with yourself to try to find what moves you and how you can deliver to live up to the industry’s changes.

Let’s do something. I urge every poet here on Medium to ask yourselves why are you writing. If the answer is that you write only because you feel good and you don’t care about being read, then you can write in your diary and you’ll still feel good about it.

If you want to write to change the world, to help people, to be read, to do amazing things for unknown people and get a feeling that you’re doing something productive with your life, then you should do something else that only posting your poetry.

There’s a lot of talent here and a lot of writers are doing some fantastic work; they all can serve as inspiration for us. I can talk about a few of them.

Have you ever read Tre L. Loadholt? I mean, she’s so good I can’t even define her. I want to cry and smile at the same time every time I read her pieces. She also writes other tan poems and when I read what she has to say I’m transported to whatever place she is taking me.

The same goes for Jenny Justice with her poems about everyday life. She is an amazing poet and if she decides to tell her story in another way than poems I’d still read her. Also, she’s an amazing leader and the voice to so many of us. She says what we want to say and is the perfect example of how a poet can do more than just writing poetry. She even asked Medium for an in-house poetry pub. Wouldn’t that be awesome? I don’t know if they will make one for us, but if they don’t, why don’t we create one Poetry exclusive pub and develop it in such a great way that Medium wants to partner with us?

Also, I want to talk about Guérin Asante, I don’t know how he does it but he has a magical way of playing with words and its like you’re singing and feeling things, and I’m striving for him to tell us all how to use alliterations the way he does.

My friend Thomas Gaudex runs Scribe and every week he showcases a different writer on its homepage and that is something that gives us the approval that we writers sometimes need to feel our work is worth all the effort. This great writer and editor works every day to spread the written word of poetry and to help us, writers, to reach wider audiences. Why can’t we all do things like what he does?

I personally love Austin Kleon, he is not exactly a poet but he has a book of blackout poetry, and he didn’t stop there, he wrote books (I have them all) of how to make it. He took what he wrote on blog articles and put it all together in books and now he’s a successful bestseller and speaker. His books shaped the way I create and I’m sure that you, in some way, have something to say, too, that is going to shape other people’s lives.

Do you know Sam Kimberle? Every Thursday she live-streams what she’s thankful about and mentions what she likes to read, too. She says she doesn’t like self-promotion but self-promotion is not always like “me, me, me.” Without noticing, she’s creating a community there that over time will be willing to read her work.

Speaking of communities, it's remarkable the way people like Greg Prince, Edie Tuck, and Christina Ward are bringing us together with their groups outside of Medium. Most of us would still be unknown if it weren’t for their effort to give us visibility. You can either join their communities or create one of your own.

Obviously, I can’t say community without saying P.S. I Love You and the space they give us every Sunday. Creating such space for us is something that we all can do in our own way. Let’s say Monday’s love poems or Friday’s slam poetry. I don’t know. I leave it to you.

Stephen M. Tomic also does something great for poetry. He runs The Junction and I think he does an amazing job by giving space and encouraging poets to write. You guys can support poetry too by reading pubs or writing for them, but most importantly, by encouraging writers to opening spaces to other writers. It’s not a race against each other. This is something we do together.

If you want to go wider and share on other platforms, do as Shain E. Thomas, M.Sc. and Adam, Diabetic Cyborg, two fellas that are constantly sharing our content into Twitter, increasing our readability and allowing us to be known to more people.

Another thing I noticed is that Anna Rozwadowska does collaborations with other writers on her posts and she even compiled some of the pieces from her pub to write a book. What a great way to elevate poetry and to something more than the usual. Partner up with some friend and write something together. Talk to your favorite poets here and publish a book with them. The possibilities are endless.

Of course, I have to mention Anna Breslin. She’s a rockstar and one of Medium’s best poets. There’s a link to her webpage on her profile and it’s like seeing a pub on its own. You can have that, too. Open up a webpage and put your stuff there for people to read your work. I don’t know if Anna does this, but over time you can even monetize your webpage, and even if you don’t do it, you still have a webpage to show readers your work instead of giving them your Medium profile.

It doesn’t matter what topic you want to cover or what you do to stand out because you never know who is going to read you. I mean, I like to read Emma Austin and she writes on a topic that is completely not related to poetry. Just saying.

Also, if you feel more comfortable writing in another language, there’s space for you, too. I personally like to read what Klau Gtz has to say in Spanish, and when I started here on Medium I wrote only in Spanish, particularly in the pubs from Antonio Molleda and Mariano Morales Ramírez. Whatever your language is, there’s space for you. Actually, if you don’t know other languages, get the online translator to do the work for you, and you’ll be amazed by what you can read.

Those are only some examples of the people I’ve seen doing great things to stand out. Do what you feel is best for you and I’m sure that you all are going to be even more successful than you already are.

With love, Ansel