Tips on Publishing Poetry or Story Chapbooks

At the advent of chapbooks, pedlers sold them to folks who did not have formal libraries. They were an inexpensive form of entertainment for the masses, and an inexpensive form of delivery of words for the literary artists. These days, there are all sorts of publishing schemes available to writers. Some of them are pricey, and others are relatively inexpensive. Determining your need to publishing a chapbook requires three aspects to ponder:

Publication objective
Size of audience
Size of publication

Publication Objective

If your goal is to become a best seller of your writings, perhaps a chapbook is not the way to go, but if what you're aiming to sell is fairly small, conventional book publishers will not usually be interested. You might consider trying to sell your works to several literary magazines and such. On the flip side, if you are a prolific writer and have some novels in the works or have larger compilations ready for publication, you could try publishing a chapbook to get the word out about your craft.

Size of Audience

Now, if you are aiming to achieve national recognition, you will most definately want to submit your works, query letter and all, to conventional publishers. Chapbooks will help you, though, if you are trying to reach a local audience. This is not to say that a chapbook cannot garner wider attention, especially with the the Internet; however, if you just want to get in touch with the people in your area, a chapbook will definately be sufficient.

Size of Publication

Chapbooks are relatively small. Usually, they are less than 50 pages in length, though a few of them are a bit longer, and many of them are shorter. If you have a 30,000 word manuscript, your best bet is to market it as a novella. Poetry and short stories are usually what chapbooks are best suited for.

Ways to Publish

1. Self-publish at home. Chapbooks don't have to be complicated publications with a pretty glossy cover. Some card stock, printing paper, software, the right stapler and a good printer can get you started.