Can You Really Make A Living As A Poet?

Making money writing perry is pretty tough, and if you have been writing poems for some time, you may well know this already!

In fact, having a lucrative career as a poet can be even more difficult than it is for budding story writers. Why? Because there are less people buying poetry books, and less people subscribing to magazines that publish poetry, which makes competition all the more fierce.

Generally speaking, big publishing houses tent not to publish poetry - at least on nowhere near the same level as works of fiction. It is also harder to get a literary agent as a poet, as they need to make money, and taking a percentage from a poet often just isn’t worth their time.

Some poets of course can make money by winning big, celebrated poetry prizes. Some of the more famous awards have large lump sums of cash to be won. However, this is of course, hugely unreliable and not a practical way to try and make a living.

However, if you have a passion for poetry you shouldn’t despair just yet. There are several other options for poets who want to make money from their craft. Here are just a few of them:

Land a job with a greetings card company. Writing cute poems for greetings cards companies might be right up your street. If you love writing poetry then this can be an excellent way of making money and using your creative streak to do so!

While it might be hard to get a regular gig, you can certainly send your poems to greetings card companies in the hope that they will publish them. If you do make sure you follow all their guidelines exactly, just as you would if you were submitting to any other publisher.

Become a teacher

Teaching poetry is another potentially rewarding career for lovers of this art form - if you love people and want to share your passion then this could be the perfect job for you. You could teach in a school or why not set up a poetry teaching workshop that you can advertise, and build up a name for yourself form there?

Write personalised poems -

If you love writing poetry don’t let anything stop you! People love thoughtful, handmade gifts so if you love writing poetry why not set up your own business writing bespoke poetry for your customers? With the right marketing you could do really well here.

Get into songwriting. If your passion for poetry is inspired by a love of rhyme and rhythm then songwriting could be right up your street. Writing lyrics for songs could potentially be very lucrative, and it will be incredibly rewarding if a song you wrote ends up becoming a smash hit!

If you can’t think of anything else you would rather do other than writing and reading poetry, then there are ways to make a living from it. With a bit of hard work and determination, being a poet could be a fantastic choice of career!