I have been writing poetry for as long as I can remember. Ever since our first grade poetry unit where we made haiku butterflies, I have been dabbling with poetry. Between various websites I post to and the notebooks I have filled up with words, I have written many thousands of poems and my words have touched millions.
Poets often ask me, ?How did you build an audience for your poetry?? and ?Where do you post your poetry?? These two answers are closely related and I aim to answer these questions in this post.
I?m going to dissect each publishing platform I?ve shared to (many of which I still share to today) and share the pros and cons of each.
My advice for most writers trying to build an online audience is as follows:
1. Post to as many websites as you have time for and test the waters. Be open to new sites, formats, and ideas
2. If you don?t have time to make some friends on the platform, then don?t post to it. You need to read other people?s works and comment nice things on them in order to get readers
3. Post regularly
This method has helped me accumulate followers and readers quickly on every platform.
Without further ado, here is my list of favorite places to post (ordered by my posting frequency)
1. Commaful
This site is quite different than most poetry sites on this list. All the poems on the site are accompanied with images and you can do really unique tricks with the structure and visuals in this format.
The community is the nicest I?ve come across and has been very supportive of other poets on the site.
What I Like:
I?ve never seen anything like it before. The format is very fresh
Very nice community and active readers
Gaining followers and readers was really easy and natural: they have this trending feed and I hit it a few times gaining a lot of readers. Growing incredibly quickly
They published a poetry book that my friends got featured in!
What I Dislike:
The format is great at times, but isn?t great for everything. Some of my old poems don?t work with their format as well.
While easier to gain followers, the maximum reach is smaller. It definitely doesn?t have the same maximum reach as something like Instagram
2. Instagram
Have you heard the term ?Instagram poet? before? These poets are writers that share poetry through images on Instagram and the most popular ones have millions of followers. Instagram is huge so the potential reach is huge as well.
Most of the popular poetry here are a few lines at maximum and feature relatable emotions. I put this high on the list because of its massive potential reach and the popularity of Instagram poets on the Instagram site.
What I Like:
Massive potential reach. You can reach many millions of people if you become successful as an Instagram poet
Instagram poets often get cool opportunities and get approached by illustrators and others for small partnerships
What I Dislike:
You have to make your poem on another platform and then transfer it to Instagram after. Kind of tedious
Instagram isn?t built for poetry, so you have to compete with memes, beautiful photos, and selfies for attention
You don?t get real feedback in the comments. Just people tagging each other and ?So true?.
3. HelloPoetry
I like the overall feel of the site. It feels more modern than most sites that are dedicated specifically to poetry and has a decent sized. The keep the community invite only, although it?s pretty easy to secure an invite if you are writing actual poems and not promoting spam.
It?s a pretty big in terms of traffic numbers but the internal community felt small, which is why I don?t post here as often these days.
What I Like:
The community is very specific to poetry which allows feedback to be a lot more specific
Tightly knit community because it?s invite only to post
Other poetry specific sites I came across were fairly old school in design. This one has a nice new feel to it
What I Dislike:
Might just be me, but the community felt small for the size of the site
Very hit or miss when it comes to exposure. Less predictable than a few of the sites above where I know I can get views
4. Tumblr
Tumblr has a lot of flexibility when it comes to the types of poetry you can share. Some quotes and poems can really take off when they get momentum! The reach isn?t as big as Instagram, but it?s still pretty good. The community is generally supportive. I find that what becomes popular and doesn?t is fairly random. I?ve posted a lot of great quotes, but some just randomly take off.
Over the years, I?ve built myself a nice little following using tags and interacting with others. Even today though, I have no clue will take off and what won?t.
What I Like:
Friendly community with strong overall reach
Everything is categorized by tags and there are a number of popular tags (like #poetry and #poetsoftumblr) that help you get more exposure
What I Don?t Like:
Not dedicated for writing. Memes and photos are far more popular on Tumblr than writing.
My reach has seemingly started going down slowly despite getting more followers. Tumblr seems to be slowing down?
5. AllPoetry
They claim that this is the largest poetry community and I?m inclined to believe that. I found the style and feeling a bit old. For me, how I feel when I post is very important. The overall site just feels clunky and old. They have contests and writing groups as well as some nice profiles, which are a plus.
What I Like:
Dedicated community for poets
Nice bells and whistle features like profiles and tools
Feedback is pretty on point
What I Don?t Like
Not a fan of the design or the feel when using the site. May be my personal preference, but things just don?t feel right to me when I?m writing or navigating through the site.
Using similar strategies, I?ve gotten a lot more reach for my work on other sites, though not as good feedback in most cases
6. Medium
The site you?re on right now to read this post. It?s a nice writing platform and has a very clean experience. I really like their elegant design and creation tools. I wish there were more poets here. I?ve seen a few publications around poetry, but none that provide really meaningful exposure.
What I Like:
Very clean design and easy to use writing tool
Publications are nice and Medium publications can provide a bit of additional exposure
What I Don?t Like:
Not as much love for poets on this site. I rarely see it. The publications that do post poetry are relatively small and don?t huge reach
7. Twitter
You might be surprised to see this on the list as Twitter isn?t known for poetry. But you?d be surprised! There?s a small but very active community of ?micropoets? that tweet under a variety of hashtags. The most popular I?ve participated in is the ?#micropoetry? hashtag. There are many more though. Just dig through! There are also short stories (#vss)
What I Like:
Twitter is a nice organized timeline and very easy to see all the posts in one go.
Twitter has massive reach potential and a positive environment for poets
Poems in photos (kind of like on Instagram) seem to do particularly well
What I Dislike:
The tweet poems don?t go very viral from what I?ve seen. Even the popular ones don?t get as much reach as Instagram poets. Most people just aren?t there for poetry.
Limited character count at 240 characters.
8. Wattpad
I have had way more success with fiction on Wattpad than I have had with poetry. While it is possible to build an audience here, they don?t show poems as much in the recommendations. Overall it is a nice site to post writing so it?s worth a shot. I just personally haven?t had as much success with it for poetry.
Lately the site has been very buggy for me too, though this wasn?t always the case so I wouldn?t count them out just because of that.
What I Like:
Wattpad is a really big writing website. One of the largest. So the reach can be good if you are able to get visibility
Easy to use app
What I Dislike:
Personally had a harder time getting poetry seen over the fiction stories that are on Wattpad
Strategy For Success On Poetry Websites
As a reminder from earlier in this article, here are the principles you should be following:
1. Post to as many websites as you have time for and test the waters. Be open to new sites, formats, and ideas
2. If you don?t have time to make some friends on the platform, then don?t post to it. You need to read other people?s works and comment nice things on them in order to get readers
3. Post regularly
As of late, I?ve had the most success with these strategies on Commaful and Instagram, but these strategies do work everywhere so use them on every site you decide fits you.
My mentees most commonly struggle with part 2 of my strategy: reaching out to people and making friends. The idea is fairly simple. Think about the nicest thing anybody has ever said to you about your poetry. If you haven?t shared your poetry with anyone yet, think about what would make you excited as a poet. Positive comments and interactions make our day as writers and that is true for everyone.
Read other people?s poetry. Share genuine compliments and feedback. Very quickly, you?ll find that many will want to return the favor. Don?t do it just so that people can return the favor, but by being kind and engaged with others, you?ll find that people will naturally start checking out your work too.
If you write well, then the success will build on itself. The more people that see your writing, the more that will follow you. The more that your poetry reaches, the more opportunities that will come your way.
At the end of the day, it?s about trying things out! I started out being very shy about sharing my writing, but as I practiced more and shared more, I became more confident and even improved my skills as a writer. I hope this advice was helpful in helping you find a place to post.
I plan to share more advice from my poetry journal. Comment below and let me know what you?d like me to write about next!
