I have been working on my book and have spoken to a few different people and although I only have about 50 pieces drafted so far (I hope for around 150), I asked if it was necessary to have a theme. If you have checked out my work on IG, all of my pieces are different. Here are my questions:
Is a book theme necessary? I've seen so many books that are "love" poems or focus on one specific topic. My pieces vary from love (happy), love (doomed), grief, and the others are pure randomness. I have a piece in there about the stars falling from the sky and one about missing the sunset at Huntington Beach, and another about cold coffee (so yes, quite random).
Chapters. Again, this would be a tough one for me for some of them.
Poems from IG. I have some pieces I would like to pull from my IG page for the book, but don't know if others have done this. If you have, do you archive the poem?
Any insights will be so helpful to me. I am taking a bit of a break from posting on IG to focus on the book. Thank you so much!
Hey Nav,awesome seeing you back from time to time.
I think in regards to this,depends on what you think is best for poetry book.
If you like cohesion,which is what I decided for my book,least I think its cohesive,go with a theme.
If you like to be different,go with chapters.
Unsure about IG,if you can though,go for it.
Really comes down to what are the experiences you had that can be encapsulated in one book.
A mountain or a river?????
Doesn't matter exactly how you write it,as long as it's your experiences on a page and something poetry community can enjoy and not enjoy,depending on who you ask that is.
Congratulations on this endeavor.
Looking forward to hearing about your poetry book journey.
Hi Nav!
So wonderful to have you back amongst the Cove! Here's my opinion on things:
Collections sell better when they have one overall theme. This is purely down to SEO and accessibility. People are looking for love poems, so they will buy a book that is purely love poems. Sad poems, etc etc. However I don't buy them an awful lot unless for research! I much prefer to read a collection that is a whole variety of things.
I also PERSONALLY don't enjoy chapters in poetry books, where again... sad poems are in one section, historical in another. Just my personal taste. I enjoy the unpredictability in poetry books. Never knowing what emotion is going to come at you from poem to poem. I would suggest however having two poems that are to do with one theme together, then change it up with two on happiness, then come back to more poems on the original theme... if that makes sense? Much like Suchita said about pacing. Think of it as an emotional rollercoaster
Finally, if you're self publishing I think you may be overthinking the ig thing. Publishers don't like putting poems that have been on the internet before... but if you're self publishing it really doesn't matter either way :)
Hope this helps in some way,
Adam
First of, congratulations on the 50 pieces you have drafted!! And all the very best with writing your book 😊. Regarding your questions, this is what I think.
As a reader, I wouldn't mind the book not adhering to one particular theme (happy, grief etc) all throughout. It would be great if you could pace it in such a way that it all flows together.
I don't think I've read any poetry books with chapters in them so I would be interested to see how that would be! I'm mostly accustomed to sections I think but I'd be willing to see chapters in a poetry book because it's something I haven't heard of yet!
If you're planning to self-publish I don't think there will be much of an issue in including your IG poems. Publishing houses may not agree to publish previously posted pieces as far as I know. If you think it's too early in the drafting stage to think about publishing then I'd consider having them all written and then maybe taking them off if necessary 🙂
This is just how I'm looking at it. You should totally do what you think is best for your writing 😊.
Again, all the very best for weaving this book together Didi! 😊