Economics

Poetry economics 101

There’s a rule, never pay to submit, never pay to be published. Of course, people do and magazines prop themselves up on those gamblers. People make lush, lavish, rich colour and paper stock, die cut artist books out of pocket for the pleasure.

Young poets say, I’ll be supported by my writing. No one has that enough sustained hustle. Okay, maybe Danielle Steele does. But it’s rare. And constrained for style and content. And she’s not a poet. Rumi is the best selling poet and he’s been dead 800 years. Course, he’s really Robert Bly and Coleman Barks. Cohen is dead too. Did death boost sales?

Some writers try to do pyramid schemes where they get a cut of who they register onto their cruise or resort but who does that support in terms of class and age and expendable income? And with the prestige and CV checkmarks, there’s less time for actually creating. What about people who haven’t established their writing for fifty years or so? Instagram of course, but that’s past peak.

The whole economical model is wonky. Volunteer writers, volunteer readers, volunteer editors, volunteer publishers. Canada Post makes more than the printers. (That’s not hyperbole, that’s the financial statement from Gusts Magazine.) And printers make exponentially more than the publishers who exchange net material and time loss for adding to cultural gain.

Writing is a necessary madness but is participating in publishing and paid memberships? Some people opt out or self-publish, which misses the benefits of mentorship and editing sometimes.

You may as well own the means of production and enjoy the process instead of feeding yourselves to the cogs of commerce. You don’t get your money back commensurate for time in writing a poem or a book anyway, rates for publication having been stagnant since about 1930.

Doesn’t it add insult to pay to be considered? Write a poem for a month, get paid $50 if lucky, but probably paid in copies. Write a book for a few years, and get $500 advance against copies. You may never work off your advance with sales. I’m nearly earned out with one book after over a decade. I soon might be given $50.

Being a part time continuing ed. teacher without contract for decades, that seems like a lot of income. I haven’t worked regular hours in the cash economy since 2001. I do contracts here and there, editing or data entry. I have the luxury of a partner who has marketable skills.

Income from writing compared to say, $160 an hour, even if listening in on a conference call, in high tech, it’s sad.

I am enthusiastic about memberships until tax time. I was a member of everything: Haiku Canada ($40), League of Canadian Poets ($185), Quebec Writers Federation ($60), The Writers Union of Canada ($205), Haiku Society of America ($37), Tanka Canada ($23), The 100-Mile Network, and the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association ($10). So, if I sold a book a year, that would almost cover costs of my writer’s groups.

But there’s also magazine subscriptions, buying new work to keep in the loop ($400-$600 a year), editing services, and, y’know, hydro, food, internet, life costs.

Actually in a good year I might also sell $500-$700 of books, but I bought them at cost and the cost can vary. The take home over material costs is more like $200-$300. Public Lending Rights gives a boost.

I get about 2 months of life costs from you good people at substack and at Patreon, which is very exciting. And it makes me so comforted to be valued economically.

Some years, I run classes and that securely could bring my income into the 4 digits. To get above the poverty line and into the 5 digits of income I might get a grant or two. But those aren’t sure or every year. There are prizes but there are tens of thousands of writers and how many prizes in terms of years income?

the creative sector in this country, which is the third-largest employer in our nation and yet one whose creators comprise the largest percentage of workers living below the poverty line," Bovey said on CTV.

Do we need 100 more Scott Griffins? Torque the wealth disparity…find more public patrons, apart from parents and partners and employers.

Poetry.com, the richest poetry org in the world, with more money than I’m ever likely to have pass through my hands in my life, requests donations. (Seriously?)

Most organizations want to do more and want donations to top up memberships. Understandable.

I’m reminded of how insulted and incensed mom used to be when she gave to $10 charity and they gave a receipt and asked for $25 so she gives $25 to their pleas of how much need there is, then they up-sell her to $50 and then they ask for $100 a month when $25 once was a stretch. It’s just a machine and software trying to work the system. What’s the accountability of charities to what your money is for?

What sort of madness is this “poetry market” anyway? It makes lottery tickets, that tax on bad math skills, look smart. Everyone: “Of course we don’t do it for the money.” But things cost money. Things like chocolate. And cat food. And cereal. And paper to print out tax forms.

I recall one (infamous to me) reading years ago where I was invited to come and travelled by train and got a b&b and there were 5 people in the room including the occasional waiter and the host said, um, we lost funding but we’ll pass the hat. The host emptied their own pockets gave me spare change after. Somewhere under $10. It cost me $400 and many writing days of expense and energy for small indifferent audience, no sales, and no payment. And maximum suckage of demoralization.

Some readings have been great. Most even. There’s a buzz of energy that cycles through the room when people are engaged. There’s a flow state of being able to adapt to audience energy. There’s sometimes payment which is cool.

I was invited out of the blue to pre-record 15 minutes and get paid $300 last year. Any reading that is funded by the Canada Council, like the A B Series was that gave full $500 rate for an evening. Travel can be exhausting and disorienting for me who can get lost within blocks of home and in familiar urban spaces. But sometimes there’s a person there who lights up to see me and tells me they’ve been reading my book, or using my exercises, or wants all of my books or shares some story my poems allowed them to access that is phenomenal connection.

That said. Universal Basic Income would be good. Now that the federal government is finally going to pay for dentists, that’s a promising step.

Some organizations do pay for zoom readings, but everything is run by people who volunteer. Volunteer effort is a wondrous essential thing, That’s the bottom line, but without a dollar.

Volunteers are great but they are not supported economically. Scattershot at email and publicity. It’s all very frustrating as system, as a structure, not as individuals caught in the resin.

Can you imagine if Doctors without Borders as volunteers were the only medical option? Or if lawyers were pro-bono only on the side of their real job at a bowling alley? Or if chefs had as their true passionate calling, working at unloading shipping containers for Amazon and worked their food skill for free?

How do we fix this system where so much is by barter and trade economy so that the average wage is also part of the picture?