15 poem collection....

JosShavaughn · Sep 21, 2018

Is that TOO small, especially when the poems vary in length, some are quite short, some are longer, I have 2 villanelle's I want to include. As far as once I have all the poems ready, I was thinking about wanting them to basically be published in like a paper bound like traveler's style notebook, so it's almost portable and just very simple. Especially since I've never really tried to have anything like this published.

Just kinda wanted some feedback on the idea itself and if 15 is like an obscenely too small number for a first collection.

Ambrosia · Sep 21, 2018

Are you planning on printing these out yourself and binding them yourself? Are you planning on selling the booklet? Giving it away? What are your plans for this collection? I would say it is an exceptionally small collection.

If you are planning on self-publishing on Amazon, these are the minimum requirements:

The minimum page count is 24 pages. At least 100 pages are required for text to fit on the spine.

You can do a search for chapbooks on Amazon to get an idea of the size of the books depending on the number of poems in the books.

You could get a decent printer and print these off at home and bind them yourself. Or have the pages printed at an office supply store. You could get an idea how much such things would cost by checking it out online. It really depends what your purpose is in printing the collection.

If you are thinking of selling the collection, however, I would ask you if you think 15 poems is a good value for how much you plan on charging for the collection. If you are thinking of selling, would you be satisfied with such a small collection if you were buying someone else's poem collection?

Good luck. And welcome to AW.

ETA: I am in no way an expert on this topic so hopefully someone who have more expertise in it will weigh in.

TexasPoet · Sep 22, 2018

Thanks, Patty.

I also found: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015LHO8B8/?tag=absowrit-20

tp

insolentlad · Sep 22, 2018

That length is certainly in line with a traditional chapbook, which was often intended to be cheap to produce, and sometimes DIY. In this day, printing costs are not that much higher for a longer collection (and, of course, no higher at all for an ebook). I see nothing wrong with publishing a book that length if the potential buyer knows what he or she is getting, but pricing it competitively might be difficult. As mentioned above, some POD printers will require at least 24 pages and some a minimum of 32, depending on the book's format.

JosShavaughn · Oct 1, 2018

Okay, thanks for everyone's response, Ambrosia, you definitely gave me some good things to think about. This is definitely some good advice and insights to keep in mind going forwards, I am not quite ready for any publishing just yet, but I wanted to go ahead and ask in case 15 was obscenely too small and not worth anyone's time. But it sounds like it's reasonable depending on what I charge and how I create the collection. So again thanks for giving me some great things to consider.

15 poem collection....

JosShavaughn

Ambrosia

Grand Duchess

TexasPoet

When Is It Dark Enough?

insolentlad

JosShavaughn