“Why did we make a chapbook together?
Well, we had a show together, and we were like, we wanted people to be able to take things home with them.
We basically just collabed, put poems together that were fitting of a theme. So it had poems from both of us.
We put them together into like a word doc or PDF, we went to FedEx/Kinkos and just printed out copies.
One of the first reasons why chapbooks can be really powerful for getting your work out there is that they don’t necessarily have to take much.
So for instance, you can compile your poems, go to a print shop, you can make a chapbook for about three bucks; I’ve seen some for like $2.75 for a good quality book. You get a little bit of a deal the more that you have printed.
The nice thing about doing it on your own is that you get a lot more control over quantity. I think it can also make it less daunting; if you get like 500 chapbooks, but you only sell 10, you’re thinking “I’ve got 490 chatbooks in my basement!”
That said, you probably shouldn’t be thinking, ‘Oh, we’re only going to be using these at one event,’ right?
You go to an open mic, or any poetry event, you can mention, ‘Hey, I have a chatbook,’ and then people can always approach you.
I remember I had released a chapbook for a show one night, and I went to the barber shop before, striking conversations with people there. Like, ‘Yeah, I’m like, you know, I’m getting cleaned up, you know, I got a show later on.’
And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, like, yo, you got a book?’ I sold four books right there at the barber shop. This is just to say keep them on you because you never know!
See the full discussion: https://youtu.be/VHyD7Fs2mPU
Kommentarer