Poetry contests and the reality behind them

Ever wonder why there are so many poetry contests offered in the ads in writers' magazines? I'll let you in on some of the economics and less-than-scrupulous practices...

Now, it needs to be noted that many poetry contests are legit. But some are thinly disguised make-work and make-money projects for printing companies masquerading as publishers.

Think about these economic factors when deciding about entering poetry contests:

• cost of advertising a poetry contest might run up to $5,000 in the top circulation writers' magazine
• if 300 poets enter the poetry contest, and send in a $25 entrance fee, the printing company receives $7500 right off the bat
• every poetry contest entrant is "selected" (it is too expensive to hire someone to actually read and judge the poems), and the company sends out 300 letters (cost of $500) telling the "winners" of the poetry contest how they can purchase copies of the anthology for only $25.00 a copy. Better buy copies for your relatives as this special hardcover edition has a limited run
• In comes 1,000 orders (everyone orders three or four copies) with prepayment of $25,000
• the cost to typeset the poems is about $2,000
• the cost to print and bind and mail out 1,000 books is about $6,000
• the company has netted a profit of $19,000 for running the poetry contest.

What's the alternative to poetry contests?

Perhaps it is time to consider the farm league approach being recommended by many literary agents and publishing companies. "Selling" a conventional publishing company on a manuscript means convincing them that your book is a viable business proposition. What better way than to SHOW a refined product that has been undergone real-life literary criticism and proven its sale-ability in a test marketplace? Self publishing can be considered a form of test marketing: a "farm league" approach. The costs for realistic test marketing used to be prohibitively high -- but no longer because now Trafford's service reduces the cost by 90% (!) and drastically boosts efficiency. Trafford's unique on-demand publishing service is a practical combination of conventional publishing tasks, print-on-demand manufacturing and Internet marketing and retailing.

The author writes a news release that is emailed to over 7,000 media contacts. The author also sends review copies (9 copies are provided for this purpose in the Best Seller package) to selected book reviewers to solicit literary criticism.

Now you can quickly test market your book, collect some frank literary criticism, present the results to literary agents, and see about "jumping the queue" into the biggest publishers' offices. Test marketing isn't free, but it sure beats poetry contests as a way to realistically promote your poems.

Sound great? After investigating the alternatives, you'll be even more impressed with how affordable, convenient and comprehensive Trafford on-demand publishing service^TM really is for self publishing authors.

--- thanks for your interest in Trafford,

Bruce Batchelor, publisher and CEO