I like writing poetry but when I think of being a poet I'm not sure how I could become a poet. What's the process and all? I want to earn money from my talent, but I am really worried about it!

Question

I like writing poetry but when I think of being a poet I'm not sure how I could become a poet. What's the process and all? I want to earn money from my talent, but I am really worried about it!

3 Answers

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Answer 1

You can try and get published in a poetry anthology, and after a while maybe you could try and get a collection of your poems published as a book and maybe add some of your favourite poems by other authors as well. It's a difficult way to earn money unless you become really well-known, but if that's what you want to do, go for it! Good luck :)

Answer 2

As Taylor mentioned, earning money as a poet is not that easy. There are options though!

If you've got the skills and passion, then self-publishing could be a very good path to go down.

The key to making money as a poet is making a name for yourself, and getting enough people to read your poetry. So anything you can do to draw attention and readership to your poetry is a good idea. You could:

Start a poetry blog
Enter lots of poetry competitions.
Socialize with authors and publishers, online and offline.
Attend poetry events.
Send your work to literary magazines, publishers.

Once you've built a reputation for yourself as a talented poet, you'll probably find that making money out of your talent becomes easier.

But, just to be practical, I would recommend having a plan B incase it doesn't work out.

Answer 3

Technically you could earn money as a poet. But it won't be easy. And you wouldn't make much. Like others have mentioned you would have to get published in a poetry book. So don't bank on this being your job. But do it on the side. Also poetry isn't an actual profession. Its an art form.

The same with writing some authors are successful and make good money. Others never see that or worse they don't even get published. A good thing to do is post your poems online. Publishers will only know about you if you let them. Sites like deviantart and wattpad are good. Essentially your putting them out there for free. But if your a good poet you should be able to write a fairly steady stream of poems. Good luck to you!