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 found.
A writer long, inclined to stories long
And intricate, my poetry is not
Of brief and shining moments, gilded-gold;
But narrative, where stanzas many throng.
Though novels I did once compose, no more.
And even then, I timidly did not
Successful win that phantom, promised gold -
A book deal, and great fame forevermore.
An ugly begger, heiress lost and found -
Or else a tragedy of ages lost
Where myth and superstition mix. All told,
So many thousand words each poem crowds.
Pray, reader, can you tell me where to look?
What market is there? Fantasy but not
in prose - my hope of publishing grown cold.
Say, where to peddle such a verse-filled book?
Answer
Whenever I go to a bookstore, they either do not have any poetry books at all, or only a very small selection of classics shelved alongside Homer and Shakespeare.
When you search "market for poetry" in your favourite search engine, you'll find a couple of webpages that list venues that pay for short poems, mostly periodicals such as Christian Science Monitor or Slice. You'll have to research them.
But none of these publish epic poetry. Your best approach would be a two-step strategy:
Find the publishers that publish contemporary poetry (your format) or fantasy (your content) and submit. Maybe one of them will be interested.
If none of them want your work, self-publish. Be prepared for a tremendous marketing effort or be conent with a handful of readers.
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